Fruit

Fruit from the Ribera del Xúquer, picked to order

This is all the fruit we grow and pick in the Ribera del Xúquer, in Valencia: oranges, mandarins, lemons and Persimon persimmons. It isn’t a fixed catalogue, and that’s the difference from almost any other fruit shop online. What you see available is what’s in the fields this week; what isn’t there is either not in season yet or already finished.

What you’ll find, and when

Oranges run from November to June, with one variety handing over to the next. Mandarins are the first to come back after the summer, in October, and stay until February. Persimon persimmons have the shortest season of all: October, November and December. Lemons are the exception, because they crop all twelve months of the year.

On the front page you’ll find the full harvest calendar, month by month, with the orange and mandarin varieties we grow. It’s the quickest way to know what’s being picked today without having to ask.

Why we pick to order

Citrus keeps far better on the tree than in a cold store. While it’s hanging it’s still alive: it holds its water, its sugar and its aroma. The moment it’s cut it starts losing all of that, however well it’s kept. That’s why we don’t fill a warehouse in December to sell from until March; we cut when the order comes in.

That has a consequence worth knowing before you buy: we can’t deliver same day. Between picking, packing the box and the courier leaving, 24 to 48 hours go by. In exchange, the fruit you open at home has been off the tree for two days, not two months.

No wax, no post-harvest treatments

Fruit that reaches a supermarket is usually waxed so it shines and lasts for weeks. We apply nothing at all after picking. The peel may have the odd mark, the colour isn’t uniform from one piece to the next and sometimes a leaf arrives in the box: those are the signs it comes straight from the field, not defects.

It also means it keeps less well at home than treated fruit. Count on a few days rather than weeks, and store it somewhere cool, dry and airy, ideally out of the fridge and not piled up.

What you won’t find here

We don’t sell fruit out of season, or uniform display-case sizes. Within the same box there are bigger and smaller pieces, because the tree doesn’t produce them all alike. If you’re after oranges in August or mandarins in May, we don’t have them: in those months they don’t exist in the Valencian countryside, and whoever is selling them has either kept them in storage or brought them from very far away.

Formats and delivery

Fruit comes in 15 kg boxes, except mandarins, which come in a 5 kg box. Everything is picked the day we prepare your order and leaves our warehouse in Albalat de la Ribera straight for your door, with no warehouses or distribution centres in between. Delivery takes 24-48 hours in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands; for now we don’t reach the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla.

If you want several things in one delivery, order them together and tell us in the order notes how much of each you’d like. And if anything arrives in poor condition, write to us and we’ll sort it out: we work with fresh produce and the journey sometimes takes its toll.