Harvest Report | Fruit from Our Orchards

Feature Fruit: Cara Cara

On the outside, Cara Cara oranges look like any standard navel orange you might find in a grocery store. But, upon slicing through the zesty peel, you’re greeted with a stunning pinkish-red flesh that is exceptionally sweet and juicy. Cousin to both blood oranges and standard navels, Cara Cara oranges are seedless and less acidic than other varieties of oranges. Our Cara Cara oranges are sun ripened, handpicked, and carefully packed to ensure they arrive on your doorstep in perfect condition. Enjoy this uplifting fruit as a snack, use it as a salad topper, or pair it with cheese and crackers for a delicious appetizer.

NOW HAPPENING IN THE ORCHARDS

While our trees have not budded yet, the days are getting warmer and our orchardists are seeing signs that the trees are coming out of winter dormancy. Final preparations are underway to ensure the orchard teams are ready for blossom, when they will need to be on high alert for frost conditions and bring in hives of bees for pollination.

Harvest Information

PEARS

While our Royal Riviera^® Pears are gone until fall, the month of March brings other tasty pear varieties to get excited about. All month long we’ll be shipping Bartlett and Comice pears from Chile and D’Anjou pears from Washington.

CITRUS

Spring is right around the corner, and citrus is now at its peak season. This month we’re shipping citrus grown in California’s Central Valley. Selections will include the last of the HoneyBells for the year and Cara Cara oranges. If harvest conditions are just right, we may be lucky enough to get Sumo Citrus® mandarins and Gold Nugget mandarins grown by Suntreat, one of California’s premier citrus growers.

APPLES

This March we are shipping crisp and juicy Smitten apples grown in Washington and Empire apples grown in New York.

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.