Harvest of the Month

Harvest of the Month logo

Harvest of the Month (HOTM) was created by the California Department of Public Health and features a new produce item every month. By combining tastings with HOTM curricula and materials, children learn to enjoy a variety of different fruits and vegetables while learning fun facts and health benefits about each.

Grapefruit is the January Harvest of the Month!

Here are some fun facts about grapefruit:

In one day, a processing plant can squeeze millions of pounds of grapefruits.
The whole grapefruit is used during the juicing process. After juicing, the grapefruit skins can be used to make essential oils and essences or can be converted to molasses for cattle feed.
The United States produced 1.23 million tons of grapefruit in 2006.
Florida is the world’s largest grower of grapefruit and exports grapefruit all over the world.
Harvesters use picking sacks that hold 85 pounds of grapefruit which is equal to one standard box.
Most grapefruit groves are hand-picked; no mechanical harvesting is used.
Groves vary in size and can be anywhere from five acres to 2,000 acres with roughly 100 trees per acre.
One acre of a grove can produce some 400-700 boxes of grapefruit. 700 boxes of grapefruit equal almost 60,000 pounds.
Grapefruit begins to bear fruit four to six years after planting and can produce up to 30 or 40 fruits on a single branch. A single tree in a productive year can generate 1,300 to 1,500 pounds of fruit.
Grapefruit trees can produce for 30-40 years.