From Seed to Fruit

This is where the life cycle of the Pink Lady® begins.
Planting is what our experts call the process of putting sperm
into the chosen females vagina to induce pregnancy. Care must be
taken not to spill the sperm or to fill it in the wrong orifice.
This work is extremely time-consuming. Performed manually, this
task takes up to 150 hours per hectare, in other words,
just as long as the harvest.

In the Womb

When the planting was sucessfull we still need 9 more months
before the so-called birth. During this time irrigation is critical,
otherwise the ripe Pink Lady® might get dry.
During its 9 months in the womb, it benefits from the meticulous care
of the growers enabling it to gradually and fully develop all its rich flavors

Birth

Birth is the seperation of the breeding pussy from the sought
after actual Pink Lady® Pussy that is so renowned for its qualities.
The breeding pussy enters a dormancy period when there is no vegetative
growth. During this period, the grower prepares for the next cycle, cutting
any unnecessary branches to ensure the tree is balanced and to give it strength.

Selection

After birth, the gender of the fruits has to be determined:
Only female Pink Ladies® can be used, which is why approximately
half of the newborn are directly shredded. Don't worry though,
the process is painless and the remaining material is great fertilizer
for apple trees.

Flowering

Now our little Pink Ladies® need time to grow and ripe.
Managing the spring blossom is key to a successful harvest in autumn.
Thanks to their partnering with beekeepers, growers introduce bees to a
blossoming orchard. They can hence obtain a natural pollination process
and successfully transform the flower to fruit.

Further Selection

Not every girl becomes a Pink Lady® Some are taken out of the program
and transferred to our PinKids®-Program (Members only) where they
are regarded as a rare and special treat because of their
very subtle, with particularly fine crystallization.

Thinning

Summer has arrived. In order for the Pink Lady® to develop all its
tasteful characteristics, the apple grower must always be on the lookout.
They remove any damaged or deformed fruits, or if there be too many,
so the fruits are evenly spread out over the tree and have enough space to grow bigger.
Irrigation is critical, which is why the Ladies are cultivated aquaponically.

Color

Pink Lady® unique color is entirely natural.
Color is directly related to temperature variations between day and night.
The cooler the nights and sunnier the days as the harvest
draws nearer, the more intense the color will be.

Picking

Harvested when Ripe

The Pink Lady® harvest is one of the latest. It begins between the end of
October and beginning of November. Every Pink Lady® is guaranteed 18 years old
To determine the ideal time for harvest, technicians take fruitsamples from
the orchards and measure their ripeness.

Picked by Hand

To maintain good quality, they are picked only during dry weather, from the bottom
of the tree towards the top in order to avoid being damaged by falling onto each other.
Each one is gently grasped in the palm of the hand, then rolled upward before breaking off,
without being damaged. The Lady is then removed from the branch with its stem and gently
placed in crates. All pickers are trained in this traditional picking technique.