Hand-picked, days off the tree

At Hale Indian River Groves, we won't pick your fruit until we receive your order. There's no warehouse and no cold storage. You'll experience fruit that's just been picked, days off the tree. It's what has kept our customers loyal for decades. They know the difference fresh fruit tastes like, juice filled and flavorful.

Here's how it works. Our grove manager is constantly in the groves. He’s busy inspecting the crop, watching the weather and how the fruit is developing, and of course, sampling.

There’s a few tools in his bag of tricks to know when the best time to pick is. Shown here is a refractometer, it tells us when the sugar level is at its best so you get the sweetest fruit. And a pressure tester informs us of the best time of day to pick the fruit so it doesn’t get damaged. We know the science to get you the best tasting gifts.

Hale’s fruit is always hand picked and graded a minimum of six times for quality. The first grading is done by the picker. Any fruit that doesn’t meet our stringent standards is not selected.

Citrus is then immediately is sent close by to our gift packing facility. There it goes through more grading processes. It’s inspected when it arrives. Then washed and graded again. Then graded for size. Some gifts, like Hale’s Mini Honeybells and the Orange Extravaganza take a smaller snack size piece of fruit, Hale's standard gifts use the larger premium sizes.

After the sizing grade, it goes for another inspection for appearance. Now our tropical fruit isn’t perfect on the outside, but we’ll grade out any that the inspector doesn’t feel is gift quality (unlike commercial quality in your local store). Very small or very, very large fruit is graded out. There is a final inspection by the team member who packs your gift, if they feel it isn’t right, it doesn’t get into your gifts.

You'll quickly discover tree fresh is better. Citrus like you've never tasted before. Guaranteed!