Follow
At Frog Hollow Farm, we pride ourselves in our delicious, tree ripened fruit. Farmer Al is very passionate about bringing the tastiest, juiciest, and sweetest fruit to his customers. Because of this, he allows our fruit to ripen on the tree much longer than any fruit you could ever find in a grocery store. Determining the precise harvesting date is key to the tastiness of our fruit.
Many factors are considered in determining when to harvest our fruit. At Frog Hollow, we determine fruit maturity by implementing a number of tests that give insight into the ripeness of each variety. The first test is a simple pressure test. This test considers the softness of the fruit to the touch, which differs for every variety. The next test is the color test where Farmer Al carefully analyzes the color characteristics of each variety. He searches for different characteristics in every variety!
After analyzing the softness and color composition of the fruit, Farmer Al picks a piece of fruit, takes it back to his office, and uses a refractometer to measure the sugar content of the fruit. This test is known as the Brix’s Test. To determine the sugar content, you cut a piece of the fruit, drip its juice onto the refractometer, and reflect light through the drop of juice. The reflectometer then measures the soluble solids in the juice or the sugar. Each fruit has its own Brix Scale. For example, a cherry is not ripe until it is a 20, or has a 20 percent sugar content, on the Brix scale while a 16 on the scale is considered very sweet for a peach.
After Farmer Al measures the sugar content, he uses maybe the most important test – his very own taste test! Farmer Al believes in allowing our fruit stay on the tree until we are satisfied with every test. All tests must be in line with the standards that we have for each particular kind of fruit. Once the fruit has passed these tests, Farmer Al gives a green light to the tree team to harvest. Fruit ripens on the tree gradually overtime and the top of a tree ripens first as it receives the most light. Our teams take this into consideration and often you will see a tree where fruit has been harvested at the top, but fruit is still ripening on the rest of the tree.
Farmer Al cannot be in all places at once and fruit ripening depends on numerous factors, so many harvesting decisions come from our compilation of 20 years of harvest records. Referencing last year’s harvest dates usually gives us an accurate harvesting window of 3-4 days. This allows us to plan and give customers an idea of when things will be ready to ship, which is imperative to our business.
Lastly, there are numerous unpredictable factors that determine when we harvest. Weather is one of the most unpredictable factors – if we have a heat wave, it may stress the trees or there might be a huge wind storm that could cause fruit to drop. Weather factors may cause us to pick the fruit a day or two earlier, but we would rather have a less ripe fruit than not have fruit at all! Plans are constantly changing, even in the middle of the day. We must also consider crew availability or if we have orders we need to fulfill for a certain variety. The harvesting game is a tricky game, but a very important one. If it was not for the care and thought that goes into harvesting, we would not have the delicious Frog Hollow Fruit we all know and love!
