Archives

1. Hand selected by the picker – Our field crews come back year after year and all of them know our philosophy, we ripen fruit the old fashioned way, we leave it on the tree. Several picks, and hourly instead of piece work wages is just the beginning of how we work towards the perfect …

Stone fruit season is right around the corner, and things have been heating up in the Valley.  It doesn’t appear things will stay hot for long, but if they do the season could be coming even sooner then anticipated.  What does this mean for the fruit if things continue this direction?  A large increase of …

Early season varieties like Spring Flame 20 & 21 & Zee fire only yield around 600 -750 boxes an acre. Varieties that are harvested in July, like July Flame, Summer Fire and Summer Flame 26, yield around 1,200 boxes an acre. Regardless of variety or timing of harvest, cultural costs are the same. The same …

Is your fruit hydrocooled? If you like ripe fruit, it should be. Hydrocooling is the process of taking the field heat out of the fruit after harvest before packing. It allows pickers to harvest fruit at a riper stage than fruit that is packed without hydrocooling. Our summer temperatures can hover around 100 degrees, so …

Cold weather has put a hold on everything here in the valley. Historically our first peaches were picked the first week of May. This year, we are two weeks in and still no peaches. This weekend the weather is set to shift from 65 to 85 degrees, which means that Monday should be a decent …

The way we see it, the industry volume should be similar to last year. The overall plum crop is hit and miss with light volume on some varieties and full volume on others. Around mid May we should start our tree ripened varieties that are similar in taste to our mid season peaches and nectarines. …

Tree Fruit Record setting heat is finally behind us as we cool off into the 90’s towards the end of this week.  The heat wave has slowed production a little, but the harvest that is coming off is still strong. Varieties Available Peach – Kaweah, Henry II & Summer Lady Nectarine – HMC Nectarine & …

Peaches Available Varieties Earli Rich Country Sweet Brittney Lane Future Varieties Vista Rich Lady *Variety Pictured – Earli Rich* Nectarines Available Varieties Rose Bright Diamond Bright June Bright Future Varieties Honey Blaze Spring Bright *Variety Pictured – June Bright* White Peaches Available Varieties Ivory Princess Ivory Queen Future Varieties Snow Jewel Snow Princess *Variety Pictured …

Tree Fruit Update HMC is looking to start picking SuperRich peaches on Monday May 10th, which is about 4 days later then last year.  Peaches began coloring up on Monday which historically means we are about 2 weeks away from the first pick of the season. Table Grape Update Grape crop looks healthy and is …

Tree Fruit Update Early varieties have been thinned and will be ready to pick in about a months time.  Late varieties, on the other hand, are just beginning to be thinned and will finish up the end of next week. Table Grape Update Shoot thinning is a process in which one shoot per bud is …