chicken feathers

mystery solved

Before coming home last night, Russell checked his e-mail and was surprised to see several on-line fruit orders hanging out in his in-box.  They had all come in within a few hours of each other.  By morning there were several more.  On-line sales are usually a slow trickle...what was up with the rush?

A quick check on the Oregonian website confirmed a suspicion that an article had been run about the cannery.  A reporter came out last week but Russell wasn't sure when, if ever, the article would run.  Turns out it hit the web last night and will likely be in today's paper.  We're grateful for the positive publicity!

Here's a link to the article, if you're so inclined to read it.

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Update:  The article did indeed run in the paper...on the front page!  Above the fold!  Russell said there were a bunch of on-line orders and the phones have been ringing off the hook this morning!  Totally amazing.  Such a blessing!

 

 

"pretty much the end of the season" barbeque

Our friend Gordo and his wife Cheryl showed up Friday night to start preparing for our 2nd Annual fall barbeque.  They roasted pork, chicken and ribs all night long and then Saturday morning made potato salad, broccoli salad, and simmered a big pot of beans.  The food was fabulous and it was fun seeing all the people who have worked at the cannery this year.  My friend Elena also came with her little girl, Maisie (see the previous post for a picture).  Maisie and Anna did this funny loop thing when eating.  They would both take one bite and then run a loop: onto the dock, down the stairs, around the fence, up the hill and back to their plates.  Another bite, another loop.  They'd probably starve if that's how they ate all the time.

 
banquet hall/loading dock.  we are so high class.

gordo and his custom barbeque (that he built!)

sigh...how i love good food!

insider's view of the cannery

My Dad recently (sort of...sorry for the delay, Dad) gave me the task of taking pictures of the cannery in operation.  I felt like a dork taking pictures but at least I had the camera to hide behind.  Here are the pictures from cherry days.  We are currently in a lull between cherries and peaches.

the cherries.  these are raniers.  we canned 28 bins of this type of cherry this year (which resulted in 14,136 28 oz. cans).

the bin is loaded onto the dumper and the cherries are, well, dumped.

then up the conveyor they go.

as the cherries are unloaded, the pallets of cans are moved from storage...

and put onto their own conveyor system where they'll meet up with the cherries at a later point.

back to the cherries -  they are hand sorted

and shaken (not for any reason, really, but this is the same equipment that is used for peaches and apricots and the shaking flips them so they are cut side down).  the chute you see in the lower left corner leads to the...

waste removal system (aka wheelbarrow) to get rid of any rejects.

back to the line all the high quality cherries head to...

these lovely ladies who hand fill the cans.

then the cans file into the syruper where they, surprise, get syrup added (we use sugar, by the way.  not corn syrup.  HUGE difference.)

 
then things heat up.  into the exhaust box they go where they are jostled a bit to remove the air bubbles and to begin heating those babies.

the exhausted (how can you not be in that heat...and it's humid, which makes it seem hotter) cans head to the next stage.

then they are lidded, not in the lidder as you might think but in the seamer.  those cannery folk like to keep you guessing. 

up they go to the cooker, past russell who always seems to be lurking in the rafters with a crowbar, ready to beat the cooker into submission.

the cans travel the length of the cooker (the big metal thing running the length of the ceiling in this shot) for a total of 22 minutes.  we cook with steam generated from a big boiler that i refuse to go near.  that thing freaks me out.  when they get to the end they drop down to the lower portion of the cooker where they cool off.

the cooked cans then roll out of the cooker, down a chute where they are stacked and taken to the warehouse where they will sit until a slow period when they will be labeled and boxed.

and THAT is how a cherry goes from bin to tin at our little cannery.