The fruit decides the harvest date, not the calendar

A pomegranate does not keep ripening once it is picked. Unlike a banana or an avocado, it arrives at the table exactly as sweet as it was on the branch. That makes the harvest date a one-shot decision that sets the taste of the product.

What we look at

The calendar guides but does not decide. In the orchard we watch three things:

• The sugar-to-acid balance. As harvest approaches we take samples regularly and measure. Sugar alone is not enough; the acidity has to have come down to the right level, or the taste stays flat.
• The shape of the skin. As the seeds swell they push the skin outward and the fruit becomes angular. That is the first sign visible to the eye.
• Seed colour. We open a few fruits and look inside. Skin colour varies by variety, so on its own it is not reliable.

Why we pick by hand

Machine harvesting bruises the skin. Bruised fruit spoils faster, loses shelf life, and if it goes to pressing it carries bitterness into the taste. When picking by hand we do not pull the fruit off; we cut the stem with shears, because pulling injures both the fruit and the branch.

An orchard is not cleared in one pass. The sun-facing side of the same tree ripens earlier, so we go through the same block several times.

After picking

Deterioration begins the moment the fruit leaves the branch. What is picked in the morning reaches the facility the same day: part of it is graded by calibre into crates for fresh sale, part goes straight to the press line. The only reason we can keep that gap short is that the orchard and the facility sit on the same land.

In a bad harvest year we sell less. We do not close the gap by buying fruit from other orchards.