nectarine – hmcfarms

HMC News – May 2023

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Liz Piña

The wait is over. Harvest has begun for tree fruit in peaches, white peaches, nectarines, white nectarines, and organic peaches this month. The fruit looks good and is brixing well with great color and flavor for the first of the season. This will only continue to improve with time. With temperatures in the 90’s, the fruit will continue to mature in a timely fashion. Peak season fruit in both flavor and volume is right around the corner. By the week of June 5th, we will have promotable volumes available on all commodities except plums and plumcots. We are also training the juvenile trees and will complete trellis installation soon.

Shoot thinning in the table grapes is complete and grape bloom is finished. It was one of the most accelerated blooms in recent memory. We are currently waiting for bunches to fully shatter out, which will give us a better idea of the shape of the bunch in the fall. The berries on the lead bunches have already begun to size up. Leafing is wrapping up this month, and we have begun hanging bunches. This is the process of untangling bunches from canes, leaves, or other bunches to ensure they are hanging freely and that the berries have adequate room to grow.

Today HMC Farms is welcoming back Tevel. This will be the second consecutive year in our orchards for the Israeli ag tech company. While here, Tevel will continue to fine tune their flying autonomous robots for mechanical harvesting. Being immersed in harvest and our fields throughout the summer is a key component to fine tuning the software for farm and commodity specific tasks such as detaching the fruit correctly from the limb, variety by variety variations in color and density, specific release protocols, and more. These robots will eventually allow us to optimize our harvest by giving us the ability to pick fruit on afternoons with high heat, at night, or other windows of time that are currently unavailable. Our high-density planting system makes HMC Farms an ideal partner in this endeavor.

HMC News – May 2022

Posted on June 1, 2022June 1, 2022 by Liz Piña

Harvest season is finally here! Peach and nectarine harvest is underway as stone fruit continues to mature and grow in our orchards. Pictured below is our Sangria plum, which will begin harvest at the end of May. Thinning has now wrapped up in our stone fruit orchards. The warm and sunny spring we’re having is perfect for growing great tasting fruit with high sugar content. We have seen excellent eating quality right out of the gate.

So far fruit looks and tastes as good or better than last year’s vintage crop, and we hope that will continue for the whole season. HMC is expecting similar total volume as last year, with a bit more acreage making up for yields that are expected to be slightly less than last summer. We also expect the industry’s total volume to be down about 10% or so, due to acreage reduction, hail, and frost. Overall sizing seems to be running a bit smaller than last year, and 30 degree swings in this month’s weather created a bit of harvest inconsistency. The eating experience remains excellent with brix higher than the previous season’s average.

We are installing trellis structures in the new planting blocks, and beginning to train juvenile trees into the 2D wall structure. Grape bloom is done in our vineyards, and bunches are shattering out and entering the “berry set” stage. During shattering, unwanted berries fall off the bunch. The remaining berries are then set, and will begin the maturation process as we inch toward the 2022 grape harvest.

Take a look at the before and after of a grape cluster going through bloom shatter. During bloom, excessive flowers fall off of the stem, leaving more space for the berries to grow and develop. During this stage and up to berry softening, the berries are more susceptible to sunburn. With some hotter temperatures in the weeks ahead, we will continue to monitor the crop.

HMC News – October 2021

Posted on October 27, 2021 by chelsea

We are pushing out trees and prepping blocks for new planting in some of our orchards. Once the trees are removed and the compacted ground is broken up and prepped, we will be ready to plant new trees in about three to four months. The varieties we’ve chosen for new planting are the result of a good amount of research and planning, and we are confident that they will make a great addition to our stone fruit lineup.

Late season table grape harvest is thriving with the current weather conditions on our farms. The cool overnight low temperatures are ideal for berry color and maturation, as well as pleasant harvest weather for our employees, helping move us toward the end of the harvest season. The quality, timing, and flavor of grapes coming out of our vineyards are all holding strong.

Students from Reedley College recently visited our farms as part of a two semester course titled Fundamentals of Fresh Fruit. This class was privately funded by HMC Farms and other local stone fruit growers, and we’ve taken the lead on the course design. This semester, the focus is exposing students to all areas of our industry. Drew and other members of our farm management team gave students an introductory crash course on trees and vines. We covered everything from prepping fields to selecting varieties, and the concept behind our high density orchards. The goal of this course is to educate local students on everything ag has to offer in order to help attract and cultivate future generations of ag professionals in the Central Valley.

Last week, a group of HMC Farms employees volunteered at the Central California Food Bank. It was our first in-person group service event since the pandemic paused our extracurricular activities. We got to work on the food bank’s pack line, testing our quality control and packing skills on a new commodity; our team packed over 2,600 lbs of peppers! We greatly appreciate the work that food banks do to ensure people don’t go hungry, and are always thankful for any opportunity we have to support their efforts beyond our regular fruit and monetary donations.

Peach Crisp Recipe – gluten and dairy free!

Posted on September 1, 2021September 10, 2021 by Liz Piña

Something you may not know about HMC Farms is that one of our family members has severe food allergies. Because of this, we are constantly inspecting ingredients on packaging, adjusting recipes, and toting allergy-friendly food along to events. We recently had a visitor who was gluten intolerant and allergic to dairy, so we quickly got to work in our farm kitchen to ensure that the guest would have a dessert just as good as the pies we ordered from a local baker. What we came up with was a tasty peach crisp, which happens to be vegan and gluten free. Most importantly, it doesn’t taste vegan and gluten free. This recipe can also be adjusted to be free of added sugar by swapping the sugar in our recipe for monkfruit or stevia.

The peaches coming out of our orchards are delicious right now, so we may start eating this peach crisp for breakfast every day until the end of the season. For a fun twist, try using nectarines or plums in place of the peaches, or mix them all together! If you’ve tried this recipe, let us know what you think and if you made any adjustments.

What you’ll need to serve 6-8 people:

6 HMC Farms peaches (if you use plums, bump this up to 7-8 pieces) Tip: it’s better to use fruit that’s slightly soft, so you may want to leave it out on the counter for a day or two before baking.

1 Tbsp sugar (raw, granulated, or coconut palm would all work here or sub for monkfruit or stevia to remove the added sugar)

1 Tbsp cornstarch (add a pinch more if you like a thicker base)

1 ½ tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup rolled gluten free oats

¾ cup almond flour

½ cup brown sugar (sub coconut palm if desired, or swap for monkfruit/stevia to remove added sugar)

1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

2/3 tsp cinnamon

1/3 tsp salt (we like to use sea salt)

1/3 cup solid coconut oil, plus 1 tbsp for the pan (if your coconut oil has liquified and turned clear, try putting it in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes to solidify)

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees F. Grease the inside of your pan or oven-safe skillet with 1 Tbsp of coconut oil.

Slice the peaches – for clingstone varieties, place the fruit with the stem down and the seam facing you. Slice carefully straight down on wither side of the pit, and then rotate and repeat. You can then slice these chunks into smaller pieces.

Mix the peach slices, lemon juice, vanilla extract, cornstarch and sugar (or sugar replacement) in a large bowl until ingredients are combined. Set to the side for at least 10 minutes.

In another bowl, mix almond flour, oats, cinnamon, nuts, brown sugar, and salt. Once ingredients are mixed well, work in the remaining coconut oil. Work together with a spoon or your hands until evenly coated.

Pour the peach mixture into the bottom of your pan, then top with the oat mixture.

Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, depending on your oven and how browned you like the topping.

Let sit for 10 minutes before serving – use caution when tasting