In what some have called “ballet with a machete,” workers harvest celery for Dole Foods on the Bassetti Farm near Greenfield, California. The Golden State produces 80 percent of all the celery sold in the United States, and nearly all of it is hand-harvested, with workers wading through the knee-high forest of stalks that can number forty-four thousand plants per acre. Because the crop is processed in the field, harvesters wear hairnets for food safety. Traditionally the harvesters cut and trim the stalks, and then lay them on the cut stems for the packers who follow, loading 60-pound boxes that get shipped around the country and the world (right). Since this photograph was taken, the celery harvest has changed, and now cutting crews place fresh celery directly onto mobile food-grade stainless steel equipment that follows the harvesters through the field for washing, trimming, and boxing.
