This is one job that that you need to take your time with. You walk around the tree soaking it up, deciding what to leave and what to cut. Some decisions are easy, such as trimming broken or diseased branches, but others much more subjective. To produce great fruit organically we need good air movement, light and space for the fruit to mature. We also need to stimulate enough growth to give strong fruiting bud for the following year’s crop. This is a difficult task to master, let alone teach anybody else. Normally the task falls to José, Roberto and Ramon on winter Saturdays when they can take their time with nobody else on the farm. The past few years have been a challenge with the spring rains wiping out most of the fruit. The trees are not in balance. As a result, this year the real work will be thinning the crop and the spring growth shoots on the trees. This is time-consuming and expensive. With everything I am now asking the crew to do on the farm, it’s quite a tall order. I for one am very ready to enjoy the farm fruit again. It has been too long. For that we need a warm, dry February and March. Then, the bees will do their job pollinating the flowers and setting the fruit.