I don't know how many of you out there have ADD or ADHD, or have child-induced ADHD, like me, but it makes life a bit chaotic sometimes. ;) Don't know what child-induced ADHD is? Well, it is what happens when a woman has children and becomes so scatter-brained about all the things that she has to do that she runs around in circles starting and stopping projects along the way, constantly remembering something else she is supposed to be doing, but loving chocolates and good foods too much to ever let all that running get to her metabolism. Some of you know what I am talking about? Okay, well, we do have some attention issues in my family, but I think that most of mine are self-induced. I cam down to the computer to work on some things for my church calling (job) and I realized I had not gotten my blog done for this week, and as I sat down I thought--"Oh, last loaf of bread is in the pantry--I am supposed to be baking this afternoon. Which I have to schedule around the kids schedules, so it means I have limited time to do certain projects, and so, here I am being silly by rambling on to you when I should be getting something done!!
SOOOOOOOO, let's get back to Arizona and the tours that we had the chance to go on this year!!!
This is a trailer of CARROTS! Now, I apologize for the bad photography, please keep in mind that we did not get off the buses for the majority of the tours and not at all at Duncan Farms. Duncan Farms is a BIG family owned operation that grows conventional AND organic produce for the US and Europe. Every time we ate a salad I wondered if the greens came from them or their neighbors--and it is quite wonderful to eat salad in the winter and know that it is VERY fresh and came from VERY close by. I eat a lot of salads and being in a rural town with a very small grocery store (maybe around 1000 sq. ft.??) Our produce is often not the greatest. But, 80 or 90 miles to the nearest Albertson's, Smith's or Wal-Mart and you make do with what you have.
The day that we toured, Duncan Farms was harvesting Organic Carrots. They got into the organic business years ago, in the early 90's I think, something to do with his wife bringing school classes out to tour the farm which grew into something bigger and which they did for a lot of years--but then he got sidetracked and never really finished telling why they went organic. It takes three years for one of their fields to be converted to organic, and has to be a certain amount of feet away from any conventional crops or any pesticides or chemicals.
It is hard to see, but right in the center of this picture is a person in white and another in blue to the left of them. They walk across the fields and clean up any debris that might get mixed in with the carrots or greens as they are harvested. They also do weed-pulling in a similar many as they keep things organic.
Here you can see the different types of salad greens--baby greens that are growing in the purple and green stripes. They also harvest at different stages for different products. The carrots that we know in the market as 'baby' carrots are not true baby carrots, they are regular carrots, harvested and put through a machine that cuts them, peels them, and rounds them off to give the appearance of 'baby' carrots.
The carrots are harvested in much the same way as potatoes.
In the middle of Duncan farms is a Women's Correctional Facility. Duncan Farms actually works with the prison and has a program to let the prisoners come out and work and harvest some of their fields. These salad greens are considered past their prime, so most of them are picked and donated to food banks. If you know about our YF&R Harvest For All food drives, where we partner with FEEDING AMERICA, you will better appreciate Duncan Farms, as they are a major contributor to the Feeding America group.
Just a sign outside of their offices.
And then it was time to smell the roses.....okay, so we didn't get to smell the roses, but we did get to see them being harvested at Wolf Rose Farm, a major supplier of rose bushes to wholesale companies, like Home Depot and Lowe's. They are in the middle of big time harvesting for up and coming Mother's day--the BIGGEST rose bush selling day of the year!
This is a picture of Dann Mathews and Shorty and Lacey Tom--all of NVFB YF&R learning from Mr. Wolf why this rose bush in particular is a cull, even though it looked like a good strong plant to the rest of us, it need to have three strong branch systems coming of it, which it only had two. Mr. Wolf's family had been in the valley for generations--starting out as cotton grower's, which they referred to as 'poor man's wheat.' Several decades ago (the 1960's???) they decided to try roses, and have had a successful (as farming goes) time with them. They rotate in crops of barley every couple of years, but other than that I do not know if they produce anything else besides roses.
Here you can see the roses stretching on and on and the urban-sprawl in the background, which is how you find much of the valley's farming--surrounded by the city. This has been a big challenge for AZ farmer's, fighting the infringing city and the regulations that come with it.
This attachment gently vibrates the roses right up out of the soil. Earlier they had been trimmed down to size, and now the workers come right behind to cull, sort, string, and load. The workers are organized into groups that always work together--they are paid not by the hour, but by their production level. This has been a good system at Wolf Farms, as they encourage and work together and report those who are not doing their part. The workers had good morale there and had better wages and more free-time because of their desire to be productive.
And after two rows, the wagon is loaded down with lots and lots of rose bushes. They are sold to the wholesaler companies who then decide whether they will sell them as bare root, potted, or other ways to the big chain stores. There is no way of knowing when you buy that bush if it comes from Wolf Farms, because they are not on any of the labels, but if you are looking for roses this spring--there is a good chance that if may have been grown in the Arizona winter!
We had one more stop on the tour, but since my little helper is awake and wanting mom's attention, well, I will leave that for next week!!
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