Spring

 

 

 

Spring comes early in central California; trees start blooming around the middle of February. The bloom period for each variety lasts about 2 weeks. Peach, nectarine, apricot and cherry trees have flowers in various shades of pink. Plums and plumcots have white flowers. Once the tiny fruits are about the size of a golf ball, most of them are manually removed from the tree in a process called thinning. This allows the remaining fruit to grow larger and sweeter.

 

 

 

 

Summer

 

 

 

Summer is all about the harvest. Each variety of fruit harvests during a specific time frame of about two to four weeks. We grow over 150 different varieties of fruit on our farms. The ripest fruit is picked by hand and placed into plastic totes for transport to the packing facility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall & Winter

 

 

 

Pruning is the primary activity during the trees’ dormant period. Fruit trees are pruned from an early age so that as much sunlight as possible will reach each piece of fruit. Fruit develops on one-year old branches so twigs older than that are pruned away. Cold temperatures are welcomed during the winter. The trees require a certain number of “chill hours” in order to emerge strong and healthy in the spring.