Orchard Day 2011 – Day 2

Incase you missed it: Orchard Day 2011 Introduction –

 

When we left off in the Orchard Day story telling, after site seeing around Gettysburg and a delicious cocktail hour, I was super excited to learn all there was to know about Musselman’s.

disclaimer: Musselman’s graciously paid my travel and accommodations for this trip.  As always, I promise to give you my 100% honest opinion. 

The fine folks at Musselman’s had a full day planned for us to conquer together.  The first stop on our tour was Peach Glen, one of Musselman’s storage facilities. It was bright and sunny outside, but we were warned that we were about to get chilly once we headed inside. I’m glad I grabbed my hoodie before leaving the bus because they weren’t exaggerating! 

Once inside, we learned about a special storing process Musselman’s uses to help to ensure that they have apples to work with all year long.  I loved learning about this process, and more specifically why Musselman’s uses it. 

Think about it – if Musselman’s only used apples immediately after harvesting, a few things could potentially happen.  First of all, keeping production only open for one season would likely put many, many people out of work for at least part of the year. 

I experienced first hand during my visits to the various Musselman’s facilities how strongly this company values the employees who get the job done.  Musselman’s is invested in each member of the Musselman’s family and the community that surrounds their office buildings, factories, facilities, orchards and fields.  You can see it as you drive throughout town and find the logo supporting local events, teams, and organizations.  You can hear it in the voices of the locals who asked why I was in town who each commented on a Musselman’s memory of their own.  And you can feel it in the handshakes and warm smiles that greet you each time you meet a Musselman’s employee. 

 

Another reason to aim for year round production at Musselman’s has more of a consumer focus.  As I’m sure you know, apple season only runs August through November, leaving eight months fresh-apple free.  Keeping apples stored in this sort of cold-storage facility assures that the apples stay as fresh as possible for an extended period of time, in order that Musselman’s can produce applesauce and other apple products year round.  This ensures the Musselman’s products you find on your market shelves will be as fresh as possible.

So, how does Musselman’s keep the apples as fresh as possible for production all year long?  These awesome uber-controlled cold-storage rooms! This cold-storage room, for example, is stored at 34 degrees Farenheit, and kept at 2% oxygen.  By removing 98% of the oxygen, you are able to stop the apples growth process from progressing at the normal speed [and in essence, stop it from dying or going bad].  The rooms are filled completely with apple crates, floor to ceiling, before being sealed and controlled in terms of temperature, oxygen levels and carbon dioxide levels. 

Of course, a lot of really interesting research has been done to get Musselman’s to this point.  They have done research and testing to  find the best temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels for each variety of apple stored in order to maintain a Musselman’s level of excellence with each variety.

 

After learning all about the gages and machines Musselman’s uses to monitor and control the various storage rooms at Peach Glenn, we loaded up onto the bus to head for the hill.

One thing I noticed during our tours was how informative each and every employee we met was about Musselman’s.  A lot of the employees we spoke to had been with the company for many years [which I personally think says great things about how things are run there] and had a lot of stories to share and tid bits to teach to us.  Our tour guides were all super helpful and always took the time to answer our questions and field our concerns.

Our next stop was the solar fields, which were HUGE. [These photos hardly do the massiveness justice.]  These gigantic solar panels [of plenty!] supply energy to the Musselman’s processing plants. 

 

While we were searching the fields, this fuzzy little guy found his way to my leg.  I named him Norman.

Before my trip to Musselman’s, I always kept my apples at room temperature, rather than in the fridge.  I’ve found that with all my friends I’ve asked, we’re pretty evenly split on cold-storage and room-temperature storage.  What about you; where do you store your apples?