Good morning!
Here at the Valencia orchard, we've started the day with our eyes on today's orders. The week is beginning, and we're super busy.
Cold shipments are innovative, but like anything new, they keep us very busy. You already know how my family and the rest of our colleagues across Spain work: we harvest to order every morning and head to the fields with the list in hand.
And to this, we've added refrigeration so that everything arrives in perfect condition, with the flavor and benefits intact.
But I'm stopping for a moment in the middle of my work to tell you something that seems like a contradiction and yet is pure common sense from the field.
In some crops, less is more.
But to illustrate it better, I'll take you to the mountains of Alicante, where Alexander and Sujan tend to their cherry trees as if they were fine-tuning a violin.
There, they perform aggressive thinning on cherry trees. It sounds harsh, but it's nothing more than removing some of the cherries when they are still small so that those that remain can grow large and taste better.
Think of the tree as a kitchen with a cake to share. If there are too many mouths at the table, each gets a bite from a child's menu. If we leave fewer diners, each cherry gets a double portion.
The result: stronger, crunchier, and sweeter cherries. And they also mature more uniformly, which is very important for timely harvesting.
It makes me smile because every year a neighbor tells me we're crazy for throwing fruit on the ground. I tell them that what seems like a waste in June, in a July box, is pure enjoyment 🍒
In practice, Alexander and Sujan take a good walk from tree to tree and hand-select. They leave a few per cluster, well-spaced, with light and room to grow fat without rubbing against each other.
They do this when the fruit has already set but is still small, so the tree hasn't spent half the summer on something that won't be shipped later.
The trick is in the when and how much, and you don't learn that from a paper; years and hands teach you.
This way of working clashes with the volume model, which measures the season by tons. I understand the temptation to leave everything on the tree in case of a bad year. But squeezing a plant as if it were a machine comes with a cost.
The fruit comes out smaller and less flavorful, the tree gets exhausted, and the following year it takes a nap. With thinning, you regulate the load, protect the branches from the weight, and help ensure more stable harvests.
And if you sell like us, directly to people who notice the difference, quality pays off and compensates for the pounds you leave behind. Ultimately, at home, we prefer a box that makes you say, "Wow, these cherries!" over a box that passes without fanfare.
It's not just about cherries. In my fields' persimmons, for example, thinning is almost mandatory. If you let the tree get too excited, the branches bend, and the fruit becomes small and bland. When you adjust, the persimmons look perfect, fleshy and very sweet, and the tree thanks you the following year.
It's the same idea in different outfits: fewer pieces and more flavor.
All this fits with what we do at Campos del Abuelo. We don't work to fill an anonymous shelf; we work with you in mind, so that when you open the box, it smells like the field, and the first bite makes you raise an eyebrow.
That's why we only harvest what you've ordered that morning, why we insist on traditional techniques that our elders already used, and why we make decisions that sometimes seem counterintuitive, like aggressive thinning.
It gives me peace of mind to know that I treat the tree well. It returns fruit that is worth the journey.
I'm left with a thought we often repeat under the sun: We prefer fewer high-quality fruits to many low-quality ones, which is what usually happens when you grow for the volume market and not for conscious consumers.
It may not be the easiest path, but it's the one that most resembles our understanding of the orchard.
And when a cherry crunches in your mouth and juice stains your fingers, it all makes sense.
A big hug and have a wonderful week,
