Our 5 Main Procedures
We work year-round to maintain our crops, so we can bring you the largest and most diverse selection of conventional and organic stone fruit in North America.
Here’s a brief description:
Our Seasonal Practices
Setting The Industry Standard
World-Class Orchard & Post-Harvest Teams
Our two families have been living and breathing stone fruits for more than 150 years, so it’s safe to say we have fruit juice coursing through our veins. We’re the home to world-class orchard and post-harvest teams that bring you peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots with unmatchable flavor grown with the highest quality standards in the business. Our teams work year-round to maintain our crops, so we can bring you the largest and most diversified selection of conventional and organic fruits.
Seasonal Harvest
Early Season Through Late Season Picking
We consider harvesting an art form. It can take anywhere from a few days to more than six weeks, depending on the fruit variety. We ensure all our fruit is harvested at peak ripeness. You can trust our experience and expertise to know we’ll pick our fruit at exactly the right time.
Picked To Perfection
Our harvest crews are trained to recognize optimal size, color, and firmness.
Handled With Care
Our fruits are hand-picked and placed in totes or buckets to help minimize bruising and blemishes.
Always Hand-Packed
We hand-pack our fruits with a keen attention to detail.
Ready To Enjoy
All our fruits are picked at peak ripeness so they’re ready to eat.
Pre-Harvest Color Pruning
We remove non-fruiting wood and other long shoots prior to harvest to prevent trees from producing too much shade. Sunlight helps the fruit reach its optimal color and maturity. Leaf pulling on hard-to-color varieties also helps ensure an even complexion.
Post-Harvest Summer Pruning
We remove non-fruiting wood and excess vegetation during late summer and early fall. This is done late enough in the year that the trees won’t experience vegetation re-growth but early enough so ample sunlight will land on and affect the new growth.
Spring Fruit Thinning
Preparing Our Trees
Every spring, we prepare our fruit through the fruit thinning process—the process of removing excess fruit from the tree. This process helps trees channel their energy into fully hardening and growing delicious fruits.
Thinning takes place while the fruit is still small, but big enough to differentiate. We remove the smaller fruit and any malformed pieces while leaving just the right amount of space around the remaining fruit, so they have ample room to grow.
Measuring Fruit Count
Our desired range for total fruit count per tree is based on age, variety, historical knowledge, and soil type.
Good To The Core
Fruit thinning helps trees channel their energy into fully hardening the pit and growing delicious stone fruits.
All Hands On Deck
Fruit thinning is our most tedious task and requires many skilled hands working precisely and rapidly.
Room To Grow
By leaving uniform spaces between the fruit, they have ample space to grow and develop.
Winter Dormant Tree Pruning
Once the leaves have fallen and a tree’s structure is fully visible, we begin our dormant pruning process. This involves removing all non-fruiting wood and removing fruiting wood based on size, appearance, health, position on the tree, and desired quantity to prepare for the next crop.