Peak flavor

If you have not tried navels this year or you are waiting for them to ripen, now is the time to buy.  The navels are at their peak flavor and will be through spring time.  There is a bumper crop and the the price is right to make navels part of all your family's meals.  Navels are an easy side dish for all meals and one of the easiest ways to serve them is to just peel and slice into cubes.  They are sweet and juicy and do not have seeds.  Kids love them and you can feel good about providing a healthy alternative.

Cara Caras are also at their peak.  Cara caras are pink flesh navels and have less acid than a navel.  A fun recipe is to mix the pink colored fruit with the orange navel for a great looking dish the tastes great.

 

To learn more about both these varieties, please go to the Company info section and look up varieties.

Not so perfect weather

We should never complain about rain, but we are about to start.  Due to the recent rains we have not been able to get into the fields since last Thursday.  We have received over 4 inches from this current series of storms and they are not finished.  Hopefully we will get a break and be able to resume harvest in the next few days.  Stay tuned....

Perfect Weather

This year’s crop is high in sugar but has lagged behind on color and the recent cool nights can only help.

We have been fortunate with our cool late November weather.  Although some forecasters showed projections in the mid 20’s, Mother nature cooperated and gave us nice temperatures in the low 30’s to a few high 20 degree nights.  This is perfect weather to harden off the trees and fruit and to help bring on color. 

We have two main tools to fight off cold weather: water and wind machines.  Wind machines are 32 foot towers with 17 to 19 foot propellers that are driven by large engines or have 75 to 100 hp electric motors.  These machines stir up the warmer air and blow it down through the orchards to help raise the temperature.  Depending on that night’s inversion layer, we can increase the temperature up by 2 to 4 degrees.  There is typically one machine for every 10 acres. On a typical freeze night, wind machines will be started when the temperature drops below 30 degrees (sooner for mandarins and lemons) and the machines will be shut off in the morning as the temperature rises back to safe levels.  Most machines are started by hand however many of the newer machines start automatically by thermostat.

 Water is also a very good tool to help avert cold temperatures.  The water is pumped from the wells and comes out of the ground from 50 to 60 degrees.  The water heats the air as it freezes and helps hold the heat in the ground longer. The wells must be started before the temperature dips below freezing, as the hoses that carry the water to the trees will freeze and not allow the water to make it across the orchard. 

Let us hope for a cool but not cold winter and a successful season.

Start of the 2010-11 Navel Season

The 2010-11 navel season has begun.  Picking started the end of October on fukomoto varieties in Kern County with the Washington varieties starting this week.  The fruit shows excellent sugar - acid ratios with color lagging slightly behind.  Current fruit size is smaller than last year with the fruit peaking on 113-88 and 138 sizes.  Quality is excellent and flavor seems to be excellent again this year.  The current rain storms and a lack of labor have caused some delays in harvest but this has allowed the fruit to color up and make for better utilization.

2010 - 2011 Navel Orange Forecast

The California Agricultural Statistic Service (CASS) has released the 2010-2011 navel orange forecast.  The initial estimate is 93 million 40 pound carton equivalents, with 90 million cartons forecast in District 1 (the central valley).  Weather conditions and survey results indicate a greater fruit set than past years but with significant smaller sizes.  The fruit set for District 1 is 40% more than last year but the cartons per acre are only up 10%, which indicates many pieces of fruit per carton, i.e..small sizes. 

For the complete report please visit

http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California/Publications/Fruits_and_Nuts/201009navom.pdf

This crop will be less than the 2005/06 District 1 crop of 92 million and slightly more than the 2007/08 District 1 crop of 88 million. This past 2009/10 season produced 80 million District 1 cartons.

Another interesting note is these numbers also include cara caras. blood oranges and other which have unofficially been estimated at 3 million cartons.