Harvest and processing of conventional (not organic) carrots at Grimmway Farms, the biggest carrot grower and largest supplier of organic vegetables in the United States. Grimmway supplies approximately half of the carrots consumed in the USA. They have 35-40,000 acres planted in carrots at any given time. This family company was founded in 1964 and they now have operations in California (San Joaquin, Salinas, Imperial Valley and Palmdale areas) plus Arizona, Colorado, and Oregon. About 80% of their business is in carrots. They rotate their crops (carrots, potatoes, grains) with carrots ideally being planted no more than 2-3 times a year, and a half year from seed to harvest for a carrot crop. Organic carrots are a small but rapidly expanding part of their business. Grimmway grows some of their crops on leased land but owns all of the land for their organic crop operations to maintain control of soil. They primarily grow long skinny carrots that can easily be cut into pieces about 3-4 inches long and about 1 inch wide. They would like to grow their carrots longer to get more useable finger-length cuts per carrot.
In the 1980's they acquired a company that had developed equipment for chopping and skinning carrots so that they could be packaged as fresh but ready to eat, which soon became the dominant way that carrots are consumed in the US market.
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- ©2015 George Steinmetz
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- Contained in galleries
- 21st Century Agriculture
