HMC News – October 2025
Even with the rain, it is still a bumper year for grapes. The season has remained ahead of previous years with earlier harvest dates and full crop loads. Normally grapes can hang on the vine for an extended period of time, but this year each variety needed to be harvested once it hit full maturity. This year the grapes gained full color before they reached their full brix. In almost every year before we reached peak sugar levels before the fruit had fully colored. This may be contributing to the need to harvest grapes as soon as they hit full maturity.
Halloween is this month, and fresh grapes are the perfect addition to all of your sweet celebrations. Whether people are handing out snacks, hosting a spooky party, or packing lunchbox surprises, grapes bring the perfect mix of fun and flavor. Their juicy pop and natural sweetness make them a refreshing twist on the usual candy overload, and they’re easy to dress up as “witches’ eyes” or “ghostly grapes” for festive fun. Plus, they’re healthy, mess free, and loved by kids and grown-ups alike.
This month Reedley College hosted an Agriculture conference at the McClarty Center for Fine and Performing Arts. It was a great opportunity for farmers, service providers, academia, and government officials to come together and exchange ideas and perspectives. California agriculture is an industry that remains strong, innovative, and sustainable; and it was encouraging to see such a wide range of individuals united by the desire to see the Central Valley’s landscape continue to thrive for years to come. A large part of the conference consisted of different panels expressing their unique viewpoints on topics like the state of agriculture today, ag education and innovation, and food safety.
California grape season is still going strong. We are harvesting both red and green seedless and will continue to pick throughout November. This month we have seen good color movement on red grapes. We are continuing to monitor our fields, but so far everything seems to be doing really well after the rain. We have completely backed off of irrigation since the rain this month and will continue to monitor moisture levels using soil probes and other tools.
