Harvest

Well it is harvest time here, actually we have been harvesting for almost 4 weeks now. We will continue harvesting into September and possibly October if weather permits.

Below workers are harvesting broccoli and putting it on the conveyor.

Once on the conveyor it is pulled up and onto a rotating table that is on a trailer attached to the conveyor. A couple packers then pack the produce from the table into boxes that are then loaded into a truck.

Below you can see the truck behind the trailer. The truck is attached and pulled behind the trailer. Once boxes are packed they are then loaded onto pallets on the truck. Once we have enough harvested the truck is then taken into the warehouse. At the warehouse it is cooled to an internal temperature of 34 degrees F in a matter of 20 minutes or less in a pressureization tank. After it is cooled internally it is put in a cooler warehouse until it is delivered to local grocery stores or wholesalers.

This is a weedy patch of broccoli that is ready to be harvested.

This is a patch of cabbage that is nearing harvest.

And this is green leaf lettuce that has not been harvested yet, but could possibly be too far along already. Alot of extra lettuce is planted each planting. The orders vary each week so it is hard to plan for the exact amount of lettuce. Broccoli and cabbage however keep longer so we harvest all of it and keep it in the coolers.

Well I will work on getting a better picture of the tractor, conveyor and trailer, but until next time.....

New kids on the block

Welcome the newest addition to our neighborhood. . .

These kids belong to our landlord. Sure are cute kids!

Charlie and Edward I believe were the final names chosen for them, but it could still change.

My View

So this is my view while transplanting. Don't see a whole lot other than the backs of the four people who sit on the transplantor. And how straight or crooked I can drive the transplantor!
But the mountain views are unbeatable! This is early in the season when they still had snow on them. Now they are all green and look so beautiful. Not sure which one I liked better.

Transplanting

So I am going to do my best in explaining how this process works and all the information that goes with it. Questions please let me know and I will do my best to address them completely.

This first picture is the Italian tractor hooked up to the transplantor. Gold Nugget Farms (GNF) has had this transplantor for about 7 years. For the most part we have had no mechanical problems with it this season, lucky for me. This is the back view of the transplantor. As you can see it transplants four rows at a time.

This is the bench that the four "riders" sit on while transplanting. GNF replaced the original 4 individual seats with this bench to allow for a variety of staff sizing, as my employer put it, some are wider than others. It actually looks comfy to me, but I have actually never sat on the bench.

These are the four sets of "cups" that the transplants are dropped into. They turn in a counter-clockwise rotation at a specified rate we determine with a set of different sized gears. It depends on what we are transplanting as to what the distance is between transplants. Greens-which consists of colards and kale are spaced every 6 inches. Lettuce, Broccoli and Cabbage-are transplanted every 12 inches apart.

This is the transplant wagon as I call it. A homemade wagon that carries 288 trays of transplants. This serves as the transportation from the green house to the field for transplanting. There are four compartments, each compartment has eight rows and each row holds nine trays.

These are a couple of individual transplants, more specifically red leaf lettuce. This gives you an idea of the size of a single transplant when we transplant them in the field. At the time of field transplanting the plants are at 3 weeks from seeding.

This is an individual tray. Each small hole holds a transplant similar to the picture above. The tray holds a possible 300 transplants. Depends on how well the seeding went as to how many acutal plants are in the tray, but usually pretty good, lets say at least 95%. (oh this picture is sideways, sorry)

This is the transplantor filled with trays and ready to transplant. The transplantor has four carisels. Each carisel holds 5 trays, so a total of 20 trays. This is usually enough to transplant a whole bed that is .25 mile long. If I am correct each bed is approximately 7'2" wide.

So here we go. The transplantor is loaded with trays/plants. This is the cups that the plants are dropped into.

This is the shoe below the cup that kicks out the plants into the ground.

And this is the process in action. People placing plants into the cups and the plants in the ground. Lets grow some lettuce! Four people sit on the transplantor and four people walk behind to check a row to make sure there are no skips or doubles or problems. Depending on the soil condition as to how many problems we usually have with this.

And this is a picture my dad took while he was here visiting. Me driving the tractor at a very very slow rate of speed, while people transplant and check all transplants in the ground behind.

So now does everyone understand? Good.

Gold Nugget Farms

Well I am finally getting pictures up here from the produce farm I am working at. It has been really busy lately with harvest, rain, getting the last few trans plantings done, rain, a never ending string of new help and more rain. But things are going good and we are staying busy.

So this is a view of the farm early in the season and the view of the mountains from the field. What a view huh! So this post is going to be mostly about the equipment that is used at this farm. I don't have harvest pictures yet but I will get them up soon I am hope.

So this first one is the fertilizer spreader, of course this is the first step.

After the fertilizer is spread the ground is rotor-tilled with this giant sized rototiller.


Then each "bed" is roller packed. The tractor has GPS hooked up but getting the thing to work isn't always easy, so getting the beds straight is left to good old fashioned driving.

And this is the transplantor. More on this on a different post.

Once the crops are in they need culivated and this is the machine for that job.

Caution-Watch for Crossings

Well it is that time of year here in Alaska....not only do we have to be aware of the big moose, but the small (well not really) baby moose that are beginning to appear straggling behind their mothers.

This set of twins (twins is very common to see) we saw just up the road from our house, so we are sure they are residents of our neighborhood.

Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum

Here are some pictures of when we went to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. It was a cool rainy day so we found something to do that was inside. Most of this museum was indoors, but we sure had fun and saw some really cool things.

Here is Tate by a plane float made out of mahogany and brass tacks. It was very cool!

And this is a small viewing of the large variety of plane skis.

And this is a Vega Model 5.

And Tate taking his turn flying the controls of a B-727.

And the two boys admiring a small helicoptor.
This is the front view of the aircraft.

And here is the side view.

It was a very fun and interesting museum. We recommend seeing it if you get the chance.