HMC News – October 2022

California table grapes are still in full swing, but the import season is swiftly approaching. Shipping flow and port delays have been issues in the past. While we don’t anticipate large volumes of Peruvian grapes to arrive until mid to late December, more Peruvian grapes are headed to the US this year. Some companies have already begun shipments, which is historically earlier than normal. In regards to grape volume, this is the first year Peru is set to eclipse Chile in total table grape production. For California, the California Table Grape Commission has dropped their estimate from 97 million total boxes to 92.5 million. Even though the overall volume has dropped, the remaining volume is higher than previous years. This means we should see no shortage of availability through most of December the same as in previous years.

We are officially into our late season varieties on grapes, Allison and Autumn King. The fruit is looking great and we are continuing to harvest a bit ahead of schedule. Planning is already well underway for next year’s planting. Varieties have been selected, plants have been ordered, the new irrigation systems are being designed, and trellis install is in process.

With the tree fruit season winding to a close, now is the time we focus on replenishing the soil for the season to come. Earlier this year, when flowers and leaves were present, tissue and soil samples were taken from the orchards and vineyards. This gave us a snapshot of the plant nutrients status. Samples were studied so that each block could receive a custom blend of fertilizer to keep it healthy and performing at its peak. Now that harvest is almost complete, we continue to replenish the soil with compost. Compost enriches the soil with carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, while also improving soil pH and the biological properties.

HMC hosted our annual blood drive. Blood donations are in short supply. We found by providing an opportunity to donate on site, many who would not have the time are able to contribute to the ever-present need for donations. It is always exciting to see people come together from every part of the operation and support such a great cause.

HMC Farms recently had the opportunity to attend the IFG Field Day. IFG is one of the prominent table grape breeders based out of California. The field days are designed to provide growers and retailers the opportunity to view and sample new grape varieties. The feedback and dialogue will help shape the future of the grape breeding program. The most exciting part of the Field Day included touring the new Fruitworks facility, their new research and breeding center. The planted experimental vines are grafted on to several different rootstocks which allows us to analyze each vine’s characteristics and help us decide which variety and rootstocks combination will work best in our soils.

HMC News – August 2022

A summer storm made its way to the Central Valley this month. An estimated 1/4″ of rain touched down on our farms, which is unprecedented at this time of year. Some stone showed hardly any impact, while other blocks were more significantly impacted. It appears that the rain impacted all commodities to some degree and the varieties that were just ready to be harvested and in the middle of harvest were most severely affected.

Road and telephone pole in front of an orchard of trees, lightning bold in the background

Table grape harvest remains ongoing. We’re seeing an impressive crop of green seedless varietals coming out of our vineyards this year. All commodities appear to be ahead of schedule compared to last year’s harvest, ranging from a few days to a couple of weeks.

Green grape bunches hanging on a vine with dark green leaves

HMC recently attended the Global Grape Summit with attendees and speakers from six continents (unfortunately no penguins or Antarctic researchers could attend) to discuss viewpoints on the evolution and future of the grape industry. One point of discussion was the impact of the explosion of new varieties, with many different opinions from growers, retailers, and the four major international grape breeders. Harold, as a scheduled speaker, explained that to stone fruit growers, a multitude of varietal options is nothing new. He further explained that many new varieties come with characteristics beneficial to the grower which also provide a better consumer experience. As a business, we not only compete with other grape and stone fruit growers, but also other fruit commodities vying for the shoppers’ dollar. Improved eating characteristics provided by some of the new varieties help inspire consumers to add our products to their shopping baskets.

Two men sitting on stage with a sign in the background that says global grape summit

HMC News – June 2022

We are tipping and thinning clusters in our table grape vineyards. During this process, each grape cluster is inspected and clipped to reduce the density of berries and obtain a manageable overall bunch size.

Two images of green grapes on the vine

At this point, we are getting into a nice harvest groove. Peach, plum, and nectarine harvest is moving right along in our orchards, with flavor continuing to impress across our early season varieties. 

Plumsicle™ harvest has begun! As expected, the crop is sweet and flavorful. Plumsicle is available only in limited supplies this year, but we continue to add more acreage to our Plumsicle orchards each year. For more information on Plumsicle, visit our new dedicated website hmcplumsicle.com.

three plums on a tree with leaves. The word Plumsicle and tagline "oh so sweet" in the top left corner.

Last week, some heavy winds and precipitation made their way to our farms. This actually kept us out of the fields for a day, which never happens in the summer. The wind blew quite a bit of fruit off of our trees, and some trees even blew over. After a week of days peaking at over 100°F, the forecast finally shows a little relief as we are expected to drop back into the 90s, and potentially a hair below that for the holiday on Monday. In our table grape vineyards, we’ve seen a little bit of burn on the varieties that haven’t entered veraison yet, but nothing compared to last year. Thankfully, this year’s heat wave came a little later, which meant that there was more canopy coverage in the vineyards to offer shade and protection to berries susceptible to sunburn. Our Sweet Bond and Flame red seedless varieties are gaining color, and Ivory green seedless is in veraison. Berries are still sizing up across our vineyards.

dirt road with row of fruit trees and dust in the background. Fruit lying on the ground beside the trees.

HMC News – April 2022

April’s weather has been a rollercoaster, bouncing around 20 degrees up and down over a few days more than once. Thankfully, the forecast ahead shows weather conducive to stone fruit growth.

We are thinning stone fruit in our stone fruit orchards. Thinning removes excess, under-sized, or damaged juvenile fruit from our trees. This ensures that nutrients are directed to fewer pieces of fruit, resulting in better size and flavor. It also protects the tree from damage due to too much weight on the limbs. Hail damage is prevalent across the industry in scattered pockets. We’ve discovered hail damaged stone fruit on a couple of our ranches, as well as some damage to the vines in one location where the hail was most prevalent. We’ve been able to remove some of the damaged fruit in the thinning process, but there is a limit to how much that can help.

Grape vineyard - large leaves with a cluster of juvenile grapes in the center, mulch on the ground and vines showing in background

In our table grape vineyards, the crop looks very healthy. The vines are all pushing strongly and evenly, and we seem to be running a little earlier than last year at this point. Shoots continue to develop, and clusters are forming on the early season varietals in our table grape vineyards. Soon, the clusters will begin to bloom and then set fruit. 

Tree branch with leaves and small peaches

Early season varieties are beginning to show some blush. Pictured above is our Krista yellow peach variety, which is now larger than a golf ball. Thinning continues in our mid and late-season varieties, and we’ve begun training young plum trees.

Tree with green leaves and small nectarines, sunshine and blue sky at top

Stone fruit continues to develop in our orchards as we approach harvest. Pictured above is our Zee Fire yellow nectarine variety, which is about a week behind the Krista yellow peach. After weathering last week’s storm, we are eager for the stone fruit season to begin.

HMC News – February 2022

Pink blossoms on a tree in an orchard

After a winter with sufficient chill hours, some of our earliest stone fruit varieties have started to wake up from their winter hibernation as they push the first blooms of the 2022 season. These first flowers bring anticipation for the upcoming season along with the anxiety of knowing that unfavorable weather conditions can now have deleterious effects on the 2022 crop. Blossoms become commonplace around the valley as hundreds of different stone fruit varieties will be in different stages of bloom in late February and early March.

Dirt field with stick. Man wearing jeans, boots, and gloves wrapping white tape around stick.

We are in the process of grafting trees in some of our stone fruit orchards. Grafting is a process in which scion wood (a piece of wood from the desired varietal) is bonded to existing rootstock. This allows the new variety to reach harvest more quickly than planting entirely new trees. Different root stocks are beneficial for different reasons, such as drought resistance, increased vigor, or successful growth in a particular soil type.

Bundles of baby trees in two white bins

We’re planting new trees on the blocks of land we’ve spent the last few months preparing for this very thing. Selecting new varieties is a process which requires a lot of research to ensure that only the best tasting varieties make it to our farms, but we also take other factors, such as harvest timing, into consideration to ensure a consistent flow of delicious fruit is available throughout the harvest season.

Unlike peaches and nectarines, most of our plum varieties are not self-fertile and require pollination from another variety to set a crop. Many blocks of plums are comprised of two or more varieties for cross-pollination. Every year we place beehives in our plum orchards to promote the cross-pollination process. Often, we include “bouquets” of a third plum variety in bins near the orchard as a supplemental pollen source.

HMC News – December 2021

We’re almost completely done pruning in our plum orchards, and we are busy pruning in our peach and nectarine orchards. Pruning is an important process of the annual stone fruit cycle as we prepare the trees for winter. By removing the older wood from the trees, we not only make way for new fruiting wood for the 2022 harvest season, but we also keep the trees shaped properly.

In our high density stone fruit orchards, crews are using electric pruning shears in order to reach the upper parts of trees without ladders. These electric shears improve efficiency while still allowing our employees to make precise cuts. Eliminating the use of ladders for pruning makes the process safer and reduces the physical burden on our employees.

 

HMC News – November 2021

In the beginning of this month we continued to prepare for new planting in our orchards. Once the old trees are pushed out, they go into an industrial wood chipper. The ground wood is then incorporated back into the soil on our farms. Through this process, we are doing our part to capture carbon in the atmosphere and fix it in the soil. Chipping the wood also eliminates the need to burn old trees, which can have a negative impact on the air quality in the Central Valley. The next step will be to go in and break up the compacted soil (a process we call ripping) and level out the ground.

We are slowly coming to end of table grape harvest with less than 10% of our grapes left to harvest. We are clipping and cleaning bunches during packing more than we had expected in order to remove sunburned berries from the summer heat waves and grapes impacted by October rain. The finished quality of grapes in the box still looks excellent, but additional effort is required to get it that way. Our final production numbers are expected to be a bit less than our pre-harvest estimates as we slowly wrap up.

At the end of this month we found ourselves almost fully prepped to plant new trees in our stone fruit orchards. The next steps toward planting are marking the planting rows and installing the underground irrigation system. After those final tasks are complete, we just need to wait for the nursery to deliver our trees, and we can begin planting in January.

Noticias del HMC - Agosto 2021

Mientras que estamos en el último tercio de la temporada de melocotones y nectarinas, acabamos de llegar a la segunda base de la temporada de ciruelas. Estamos esperando algunas de las variedades con más azúcar del año, como Black Majesty, Red Yummy y, por supuesto, nuestra exclusiva ciruela Holiday de HMC. Las ciruelas rojas Holiday comenzarán a cosecharse a principios de septiembre, y se envasarán y enviarán en octubre.

Los carros autodirigidos Burro están funcionando actualmente en nuestros viñedos de uva de mesa. Después de experimentar con los Burros durante los últimos dos años, esta es la primera vez que los utilizamos para una temporada de cosecha completa. Los burros reducen el estrés físico de nuestros esforzados empleados y hacen que el proceso de vendimia sea hasta un 40% más eficiente, ya que permiten que nuestros equipos se centren en la vendimia en lugar de empujar carros por las hileras de viñedos. Haga clic para ver a un burro trabajando en un viñedo justo fuera de nuestra oficina.

La cosecha de uvas está en marcha en nuestros viñedos en el Valle de San Joaquín de California justo a tiempo para el inicio del año escolar 2021-2022. HMC Farms tiene soluciones de valor añadido que hacen posible proporcionar a los estudiantes las uvas frescas que les gustan. Los niños eligen las uvas con más frecuencia que otros artículos de fruta fresca, lo que significa menos desperdicio en el plato y una mayor tasa de aceptación cuando las uvas están en el menú. Los paquetes de uvas con valor añadido de HMC Farms facilitan el control de la producción y las porciones, ofrecen un importante ahorro de mano de obra y son perfectos para prácticamente cualquier aplicación de servicio.

El desarrollo del color va bien en nuestros viñedos de uva de mesa. Estamos cosechando a toda máquina las variedades rojas y verdes sin semillas de mitad de temporada. Últimamente hemos experimentado temperaturas moderadas en nuestras fincas, lo que es perfecto para el desarrollo de la uva y la cosecha.

Noticias del HMC - Julio 2021

Todas nuestras variedades de uva de mesa se encuentran ahora en algún punto del envero, que es la etapa en la que las uvas rojas ganan color y las uvas verdes pasan de un color verde hierba a un color verde cremoso mientras las bayas comienzan a ablandarse y madurar. La cosecha tiene buen aspecto y estamos a punto de iniciar la temporada de cosecha con las uvas rojas sin pepitas Flame. Este mes hemos estado atentos a las bajas nocturnas - los días calurosos y las noches frescas ayudan al proceso de maduración, pero con las bajas nocturnas a mediados de los 70, las vides a veces se retrasan en la maduración.

En el mes de julio, nos enfrentamos a picos de calor casi récord y a períodos prolongados de temperaturas anormalmente altas. Tomamos precauciones para para mantener a nuestros empleados seguros, enseñándoles sobre el estrés por calor y la hidratación adecuada. El calor ha limitado las horas en las que podemos trabajar con seguridad en el exterior, lo que aumenta la importancia de planificar adecuadamente la cosecha. Los cultivadores y transportistas que no han terminado el aclareo se han retrasado, y aún no se conocen los efectos. No hemos visto daños excesivos por el calor, pero hay problemas que nuestro equipo de calidad está observando, como las manchas, que pueden ser causadas en parte por el alto calor. Esperamos que los daños en nuestras uvas sean mínimos, ya que muchas de ellas han pasado por el envero, lo que las hace menos vulnerables a los daños del calor. Ahora tenemos una cubierta protectora del viñedo más completa que hace unas semanas, cuando algunas uvas expuestas se quemaron.

La temporada de fruta de hueso se ha completado en un 60% desde el punto de vista temporal, aunque ya se ha cosechado aproximadamente la mitad del volumen de la industria para la temporada. Esta temporada ha tenido muchos problemas, como la escasez de mano de obra y de material, y un tiempo muy caluroso. Por suerte, nada de esto se ha traducido en una mala calidad del producto en la caja. Ha sido una temporada casi vintage en cuanto a calidad y sabor, con buenas características visuales. Aparte de algunos problemas con la fruta más pequeña al principio de la temporada, el producto final ha dejado poco que desear.

Ya nos ha oído hablar del aclareo, pero el viejo dicho es cierto: una imagen vale más que mil palabras. Por eso raleamos nuestra fruta de hueso. La fruta que no se aclara (en la foto de la derecha) sigue siendo pequeña y no alcanza su máximo potencial de tamaño y sabor. Los racimos de fruta amontonados diluyen los nutrientes recibidos del árbol, y también bloquean la luz solar y el flujo de aire adecuados. El aclareo da lugar a una fruta de mejor tamaño y sabor (imagen de la izquierda), y también protege al árbol de daños como la rotura de las ramas debido al exceso de peso que cuelga en un solo lugar.

Noticias del HMC - Junio 2021

HMC Farms fue el destinatario del premio a la empresa agrícola del año 2021 de la Cámara de Comercio de Kingsburg. Las razones notables para la selección incluyen: una fuerte relación con el banco de alimentos, el apoyo del centro local de ancianos, ajustándose a las necesidades de nutrición de la escuela durante la pandemia, y proporcionar clínicas de vacunación a los trabajadores agrícolas. Significa mucho que hayamos sido seleccionados con tantos negocios agrícolas diferentes para elegir en nuestra área.

Estamos en medio de la parte más intensiva en mano de obra del cultivo de la uva de mesa: el trabajo manual previo a la cosecha. Este trabajo consiste en deshojar, colgar y dejar caer los racimos, ralear y volcar. Todos estos trabajos se realizan a mano en nuestros viñedos para facilitar el crecimiento y el desarrollo de uvas de mesa de gran calidad de HMC Farms. Nuestro vídeo Farm Friday profundiza en este tema, explicando qué implica cada trabajo y por qué es importante. Véalo aquí en nuestro canal de YouTube si te lo has perdido, y síguenos en Instagram para ver la serie semanal de Farm Friday en nuestras historias.

A mediados de junio sufrimos una ola de calor de una semana de duración, con un pico de 112°F un día. Nuestra principal prioridad con temperaturas extremas como estas es la salud y la seguridad de nuestros empleados. Trabajamos en jornadas más cortas, terminamos la cosecha al mediodía o antes, y aplicamos procedimientos especiales para garantizar que los empleados reciban mucha agua, sombra y descanso para evitar cualquier problema de salud relacionado con el calor.

Buscamos constantemente formas de hacer más eficientes nuestros procesos utilizando la tecnología agrícola. Una de las herramientas que utilizamos a diario es Pago, una plataforma integradora en la que HMC Farms invirtió y ayudó a desarrollar. Pago es una plataforma que nos permite programar las cuadrillas, calcular los pagos, mantener el cumplimiento de las leyes laborales agrícolas vigentes y supervisar la actividad en tiempo real. Se acabaron los días en los que había que traer hojas de tiempo escritas a mano desde el campo para hacer un seguimiento de la actividad y calcular la paga. Con un escaneo de la tarjeta Pago mediante una aplicación móvil, cada miembro de la cuadrilla puede fichar a la entrada y a la salida, y los datos se acumulan en la nube para nuestro personal de oficina.

Estamos a un tercio de la temporada de fruta de hueso. Este año ha sido más que difícil: la sequía, el calor extremo y la escasez de mano de obra han hecho mella en un producto ya de por sí difícil. Nos estamos adaptando para hacer frente a los problemas, como siempre hacemos. El lado positivo es que la fruta es tan buena como cualquier otra que hayamos producido. El azúcar, el tamaño y el estado del producto son excelentes, pero nos espera un largo verano. Las uvas comenzarán a cosecharse en un par de semanas. En este momento, la cosecha tiene un aspecto excelente y ha superado las olas de calor con mínimas quemaduras de sol.