Golden Run at Packing Shed

On Tuesday we went to Wenatchee to watch our Goldens run at the packing shed. When the fruit runs the grower is notified so that s/he has the option to view the fruit as it is sized, graded and packed. We always like to go watch our fruit run. Sometimes the timing works out well like it did Tuesday, but other times it isn't as convenient when it happens in the middle of picking or night.  You can see things at run time you just won't see anywhere else.  It's also the last time to view and assess the job you have done throughout the growing season.

At most of the packing sheds, the sorting crew are women who sort out the culls and lower grade fruit. The belts above move the fruit to the appropriate packing area.

These apples have been manually grade sorted and are headed to the automatic sizer and then on to the sticker machine and packing area.

On both sides of the traveling apples people are packing the apples into boxes. The three critical components of a good packout are:

1. Maximum packs (boxes) per bin - the maximum is 21 to 25 packs (depending on bin size) our bins hold 23 bushels or boxes
2. High volume in the top grade - premiums are the top grade
3. Excellent size profile - 80's & 88's are the sweet spot for most apple varieties (Goldens, Galas & Fugis always do better on the larger sizes so 72's are worth more money)

If you do well on all three components, it's like a triple double in basketball.

We asked this lady if we could take a picture while she was packing. This is what the apples looked like in the box.

They look good enough to eat! Both blocks of Goldens ran really well. In terms of the three criteria I listed above, they had 18 packs per bin which is very good for Goldens.  Because of their fair color, they bruise easily, and other blemishes are more easily noticeable. Eighty percent of the fruit was in the top grade, premiums, and all of our fruit was sized between 100's and 72's which are good sizes.
We visited the sales desk across the street at CMI (Columbia Marketing International) to get an update on the sales plan. The original plan had been to store these Goldens for a few months before selling.  This would allow any bruising to come out (small bruises in Goldens will come out when stored as short as two weeks). However, last Friday CMI called us about an opportunity to make a good sale now to Canada if we were interested. Since we didn't have many bruises, and the profile of this fruit is what they want, we all decided to make the deal. The fruit will ship to Ontario Canada to a main distribution center and from there go to all parts of Canada. Canadians don't grow many Goldens. These are organic so that makes them even more special.
We're so pleased, we're considering farming the Lake Goldens another year. Since the size profile was on the large size, we can assume the trees will have nice return bloom next spring. Something to consider this winter....
Here are some more pictures from the shed.

This is a picking bruise that is too deep so this apple was culled. We had an extremely small percentage of picking bruises.

All of these apples are ready to be packed in a box. They're all the same size and grade.

The boxes are labeled Daisy Girl Organics. This box size is called a "Euro." It's half the size of the standard box and sold for almost as much.

In this picture, you can see the Euro next to the standard size box.

Bill is watching the run.