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Every December the same conversation happens on the edge of a field in Qalyubia. The fruit is red, the buyer is waiting, and somebody asks why we are not picking yet. The answer sits in a shirt pocket: a small brass refractometer, and a number written on the crate tag — 7.

Colour lies. Sugar does not.

Strawberries colour up before they finish making sugar. A berry can look perfect on Monday and taste like water. Brix — the percentage of dissolved sugar in the juice — is the only field measurement that tracks what your customer will taste after thawing. Below 6.5 the fruit is sour and the aroma is thin; above 8.5 it is soft and bruises in the crate. We pick between 7 and 8.

So each morning, before the pickers arrive, a field supervisor walks the rows with the refractometer, squeezes one berry every twenty metres and writes the reading on the tag. Rows that pass are picked that day. Rows that do not are left for 24 to 48 hours, whatever the calendar says.

The calendar tells you when the fruit was planted. The refractometer tells you when it is finished.

Why this matters more for frozen fruit

Fresh strawberries are eaten within days and forgiven a lot. Frozen strawberries are eaten months later, often in a product where the fruit is the whole point — a yoghurt, a purée, a jam. Freezing locks the fruit exactly where it was. There is no ripening in the cold store. Whatever the Brix was at 7 a.m. is the Brix your customer gets in October.

• Picking happens between 6 and 10 a.m., before field heat climbs above 22 °C.
• Crates are shallow — two layers of fruit, never more — so the bottom berry is not crushed.
• Fruit is in the plant within four hours and in the tunnel within eight.

What the buyer sees

On our specification sheet the Brix line says “≥ 7 (typical 7.5–8)”. It is not a marketing number; it is the crate tag, averaged across the lot. If you ever want to check, ask for the field log of any lot number. We keep them for three years.