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 piece of fruit
2. Bin Check–Bins are constantly monitored and sorted through as fruit is picked to work out any sort of defect that the person picking may not have been able to catch.
3. Quality Control Evaluation–Once the fruit is brought into the packing house each lot is tested for sugars and pressures. This ensures any internal damage is found prior to packing. With the majority of our orchards less than 5 miles away we are able to make changes in harvest practices based upon these results.
4. Presorting–before the fruit is sized or stickered it is presorted for any sort of defects that may have been missed out in the field.
5. Packaging–before the fruit is placed in the box it is looked at one last time. Pieces that are not quite up to our premium standards are placed in a utility box again just to ensure that only the best goes in our HMC Farms box.
6. Before shipment, a final inspection is completed to ensure sugars, pressure and exterior quality.