As This Grapefruit Season Ends, Our Work Begins
As springtime hits its peak, this past grapefruit season is drawing to a close. While our delicious Texas red
grapefruit may be out of season now, however, that doesn’t mean we’re done working! In fact, a large portion of the work that goes into bringing perfectly ripened grapefruit to your table actually happens during the offseason.
Even during these uncertain times, the Winter Sweetz family will still be hard at work, growing and then delivering the sweetest, juiciest grapefruit while doing our part to slow the spread of this virus. Check out our off-season plans below!
When Is Grapefruit Season?
Our growing season begins in May and lasts until September. By growing our sweet red grapefruit during the harsh and windy Texas summer months, we guarantee that they will reach the ideal level of sweetness that you’ve become familiar with during the wintertime; hence the name, Winter Sweetz!
While grapefruits are technically available all year long, those delivered to grocery stores in the summer tend to be more bitter. This bitterness comes down to how dry the area is where the grapefruit are grown, which is usually from California where the climate and weather conditions are drier.
What’s Winter Sweetz Up to in the Meantime?
Just because our grapefruit isn’t flying off of the shelves at this time, it doesn’t mean we’re not working! From the end of spring and well into the summer and beyond, there are all sorts of tasks that need to be done to prepare for our next season:
- Caring for Our Trees — A sweet grapefruit starts with a well-kept tree, and ours are some of the best looked after in the country! We monitor the health and growth of our trees and watch for vine overgrowth that needs to be cut by hand. We work tirelessly to make sure our trees are in tip-top shape to grow the most delicious fruit.
- Nursing Our Sweet Red Grapefruit As They Grow — In April, you can find grapefruit the size of a pea growing on our trees, and by the end of June, they’ll be the size of a golfball! Once they reach the size of a large softball, they’ll be ready for picking.
- Scheduling the Perfect Plan — At the beginning of the off-season, we set down a schedule prioritizing tasks that need to be completed in a specific order. We plan when to irrigate our trees and when to spray for pests — without overlapping the two!
- Board Meetings and Executive Greetings — When August and September roll around, that’s when we kick it into high gear. The Winter Sweetz team hits the road to negotiate our grapefruit shipments to retailers like Costco, Kroger, Walmart, and Sam’s. We’re committed to bringing the juicy taste of our beautiful Texas red grapefruits to every corner of the country!
- Gaining and Maintaining — Every business has to set aside time to make repairs and touch-ups. For us, that time comes in the off-season. Our mechanics and engineers work hard to repair and maintain our harvest equipment to ensure they’re in perfect working order by the time the season comes back around.
While we kiss another Winter Sweetz Texas red grapefruit season goodbye, our appreciation for our customers is as strong as ever. The team at Winter Sweetz would like to give a heartfelt thanks for your continued support, and we hope that you and yours stay happy and healthy during this uncertain time.