Showing posts with label knowacafarmer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knowacafarmer. Show all posts

Almond Harvesting in Ripon

September 24, 2012 almonds , farm 0 Comments

I'm looking at almonds strewn all over the ground and look up to see none in the trees. I wonder why they are there but know that I'm sure to get the answer shortly. I've pulled off the highway for a minute to get water from the trunk of my car and the sight has me curious. I continue just a few more miles to Ripon and pull into the shelling facility of Boersma Brothers, Inc. 

Almonds almost ready for harvest
Brent Boersma walks up to greet me. We've only really known each other via Twitter and through Know a California Farmer. Brent is a third generation almond farmer and has invited me down to see the harvest of this year's almond crop. As we climb into his pickup I am impressed that it's tricked out with a mounted iPad. Brent explained that now that cell service has improved in his area, it has really helped him to keep connected with the office and the goings-on in the fields.

The Boersma Brothers have almond trees on 17 ranches/fields in the Ripon/Modesto area. Most are owned by them, but a few are leased. Brent explains that there are 30 varieties of almonds, but they deal in the 10 major ones with such names as Carmel, Butte, Aldrich, and the most common, Nonpareil. The Nonpareil are the ones that most people are used to eating straight out of a can/jar of nuts as they are the most consistent in size, shape, taste. 

Brent Boersma
Each field will have a minimum of two varieties but more often three or four for the purposes of cross pollination. Most of the fields will have half Nonpareil and the rest will be other varieties. You might have a row of Nonpareil, then Butte, Nonpareil, Carmel, Nonpareil, repeat. Having a mixture of trees in each field means a lot of work as each variety will mature at different rates and each must be harvested separately. They might come through and do all the Nonpareils over a course of a few weeks, then come back another few weeks to do the Carmels and repeat again for the Buttes as they must keep the varieties separate. Only a few varieties are allowed to be mixed together. So a field can have as many as four different harvesting passes, which in itself takes a lot of time. More on that shortly.

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Naturipe and the Future of Strawberries

September 20, 2011 farm , field workers 0 Comments

I grew up overseas. It was a big deal to come back to the U.S. on vacation and land on American soil. Usually the first thing we'd do was head to McDonalds. But that was in the 70s when I was a child.

We always loved coming back through California. It usually meant we were going to Disneyland, etc. I remember Anaheim of the 70s - Disneyland and strawberry fields. My father and I loved strawberries and so we would get a flat and it would be gone in a day. Are there any fields even left in Anaheim now?

Those are my first memories of California strawberries. Even today you can still find so many fields throughout the state and pick up fresh berries. Nothing compares to picked-that-morning fresh berries and we are blessed to live amongst them.

Will it surprise you to hear that in as soon as 10-15 years the fields as we know them might all be gone?

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Tanimura & Antle Part 2: Workers & Safety

September 16, 2011 farm , field workers 4 Comments
Sadly I seem to have lost the photos to this post!!!

 Field Workers

In Part 1 of my visit to Tanimura & Antle I described the family history and how the business has spanned over three generations. But it's much more than those two families. They consider their entire workforce part of the family.

Brian Antle's title is Harvest Manager. He has direct contact with many of the field workers that are out harvesting the produce every day. He knows almost all of his workers by name and everything about their families as well. Many of them have continued to work Tanimura & Antle (T&A) fields for over a decade.


A T&A field worker is guaranteed a minimum wage of $9.20/hour, but their paycheck is really calculated on how much is harvested in a day. Each harvest team's wages are based on team effort. It all amounts to how much their team pulls in a 'per piece' calculation based on the number of boxes filled. Because of this, field workers often specialize in a particular produce. You won't find a lettuce worker harvesting onions and vice versa. They have gotten a rhythm and technique down for picking their particular vegetable. Brian said that a lettuce harvester would be in danger of slicing a finger off if he suddenly switched to a cauliflower field. In reality, then, the teams are often making closer to $14-18 an hour.
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A Day on the Farm: Tanimura & Antle, Part 1

September 14, 2011 farm , field workers 0 Comments
I don't know about you, but I guess I had been indoctrinated by film footage of food running over large conveyor belts with lots of stops along the way to packaging. This week I was shown that this not the case for many types of produce being grown in California.

I was invited by KnowaCaliforniaFarmer.com to go on tours of a couple of farms down in the Salinas area. What an eye opening day it was. I learned a lot about modern farming from the folks at Tanimura & Antle farms and also from Naturipe, the berry producers. This post will talk about Tanimura & Antle and be broken into two parts (Part 2: Workers & Safety). Then stay tuned for another post about Naturipe.


We were greeted at the headquarters of Tanimura & Antle (T&A) in the town of Spreckles. The building looks like it might have been a golf clubhouse at some time, but now it houses the offices for T&A. Inside hangs a portrait of the founders. Our guide for the morning was Brian Antle, third generation in the business. Brian told us the story of the two families.
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