This past week, pickers arrived at our grove to harvest our Valencia oranges. Before it was over, they had picked 37 bins, which amounted to 900 pounds of oranges per bin. That totals 33,300 pounds altogether at 17 cents a pound. The good news is this is triple what we have gotten in the past. Our Orange Growers Association would no longer allow us to participate unless we met all the requirements that the larger growers are required to adhere to. These are cost prohibitive for a small grower like us since we usually lose money on our orange crop after factoring in the cost to keep the trees healthy and properly watered. So, this year, an independent picker approached us and we were happy to oblige. We were very nervous that we wouldn’t be able to find any pickers at all this year, and our oranges would fall from the trees. That is no longer a fear. Our beautiful and tasty oranges are on their way to market as we speak. We also retained around 3000 pounds of oranges for our personal use and for others, so we’ll be having fresh orange juice through early winter.

We are very happy. Our new crop is already on the trees and will be ready next July.

Here’s a photo of the bins in the grove as the pickers were filling them.