Harvest Report | Fruit from Our Orchards

FEATURED FRUIT: HoneyBells

Add a touch of brightness to cold, dreary winter months with refreshing HoneyBells. This delicious bell-shaped citrus is a special cross between a tangerine and grapefruit and is known for its exceptional juiciness and sweetness. HoneyBells are grown in sunny Florida and are bursting with sun-kissed, straight-from-the-grove flavor. HoneyBells are only available for a few short weeks during winter in North America, so make sure you order a box while you still can!

NOW HAPPENING IN THE ORCHARDS

With the cooler days of winter upon us, our pear and peach trees have gone dormant for the season. However, there is still much work to be done by our dedicated orchard teams. The crews are hard at work pruning trees to guarantee top-tier fruit for us all next year.

Harvest Information

PEARS

Throughout February, we will ship D’Anjou pears from California, Oregon, and Washington. It is also the last month to get Royal Riviera^® Pears from our own Southern Oregon orchards. These sweet and juicy Royal Riviera^® Pears won’t be available again until fall.

CITRUS

February is an abundant month for North American citrus. All month long we are shipping HoneyBells from California and Arizona as well as Cara Cara and Navel oranges from California. We are also offering Indian River Grapefruits and SolZest^® mandarins that are shipped directly from the growers in Florida.

APPLES

February is a bountiful month for apples, and this month we are shipping crisp and juicy Smitten apples grown in Washington and Empire apples grown in New York.

SPECIALTY FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

February is an exciting time for specialty fruits and vegetables with many vibrant colors and tasty options. We will have lemon plums and red plums from Chile available to ship in February as well as Argentina-grown Plump-Sweet Cherries. Make sure you order your cherries early though, as they’re only available for the first or second week of the month! We will also ship delicious avocados from the warmer climate of Mexico and California-grown Chinese eggplants.

Orchard Facts

How do your orchardists ensure your pears are all ripe when they arrive, even when the weather is different from year to year?

Because pears require cold weather to become sweet, our orchardists pick each pear the moment it ripens, after which we place them in cold storage for up to 30 days. This ensures that every pear in your box will arrive within a day or two of being ready to eat.
How do you get great pears all year round?

We work with growers in multiple parts of the world to ensure that we have access to the right climate to grow top-quality Comice pears all year. Our orchardists fly out to Chile and New Zealand to inspect the pears we select, and we fly orchardists from those countries here to train them so they can provide pears that meet our standards.
When does your pear crop ripen?

Depending on the year, our pears can ripen anywhere from the second week of August to mid-September. The cooler the growing season is, the faster our pears ripen.
When does your peach crop ripen?

Our peaches ripen from the beginning of July into August while the weather’s warm. Unlike pears, peaches ripen faster in warm weather. If we get a cooler fall season, this means the peach crop and pear harvest will sometimes run together.
How do you make sure the best fruit gets into your gifts?

Every peach and pear (the two fruits we grow in our own orchards) is picked by hand sorted in the field. We then use a machine to take 17 pictures and sort them again to weed out imperfections, and finally, before packing, each piece of fruit is looked at one more time, by hand, to ensure only the highest-quality fruit is shipped.
How much fruit do you grow each year?

We grow about 400 tons of Oregold® Peaches, 15,500 tons of Royal Riviera® Pears, and 800 tons of Bosc pears. The total harvest varies based on weather conditions throughout the year.
Where do you grow your apples?

The majority of the apples we sell come from quality growers in Washington, since Washington apples are high quality and can be shipped everywhere in the U.S. From March to July, when apples aren’t in season there, we send our orchardists and merchants to New Zealand, which shares similar climate characteristics to the U.S. Pacific Northwest in many areas.
What’s a fun fact about a fruit that most people don’t know?

In order to turn orange, citrus fruit needs the cold. When temperatures are too warm at night, oranges, HoneyBells, and other fruit will stay green—even though they’re perfectly sweet and delicious. They just don’t take on that beautiful orange hue.