We drive past the bins of peaches waiting to be brought to the plant. Driving from the orchard to the processing plant, we hop on a golf cart, and watch the peaches go through their process.

Our next stop was back to the plant, to see what the next, natural occurring step was in this process, but not before meeting other family member Roger Wood, father of Daryl Wood. Roger was comfortably nestled in his office, surrounded by paperwork up to his shoulders. He waved a friendly hello. We then picked up plant supervisor Jerry Widick, and hitched a ride on a golf cart, and visited every inch of the 50 acre plant.

The Processing Plant

The peaches are brought in from the orchards in 850-1000 pound net weight bins. Each load is randomly graded for size, color, insect strikes, evidence of pit fragmentation and foreign content. The growers are paid according to this grade report. In addition, random samples of the fresh fruit are taken to the on premise State Certified Pesticide lab for analysis, where very elaborate testing equipment is used to determine what, if any, pesticides are present in or on the fruit. The concentration of these pesticides is analytically determined. This testing is done to assure our customers and ourselves, that no illegal pesticide is present or if a chemical agent is detected that the concentration is at or below state and federal mandated levels. These tests often are detecting concentration levels down to one or 2 parts per billion. From there, the fruit is placed into refrigerated storage at 35-40 degrees F. to remove the heat from the fields and slow down the maturation process. It can be held here from 24 hours to over a week as needed before being staged for processing.

The freestone peaches are either run directly out of the cold storage or may be brought out to warm up 12-24 hours in advance of processing, depending on the fruit's maturity. The processing begins with the dumping of the bins of fruit into wash tanks where the dirt and leaves are washed off. Initial hand sorting of the peaches is done at this stage. Over-ripe fruit is sorted and directed towards processing into purees and juices. Immature or green fruit is sorted out and set back into the staging areas for one to two days to fully ripen and then is either re-dumped into the main process line or is sent to the puree/juice production area.

From here the peaches travel through an enclosed conveyor area where they are exposed to a heated solution of Potassium Hydroxide. This serves to scald the skin and loosen it. Once loosened the peaches go through scrubbers which gently rub and wash away the loosened skin. The whole peeled fruit is then mechanically sized and directed to a bank of 11-13 peaches pitters, depending on which plant the fruit is processed in. At this point, the peaches are cut into halves and the pit is knocked loose from the center flesh of the freestone peach.

The halves are separated from the loose pits over a shaker that has holes in it of sufficient size to allow the pits to fall through, but the halves must pass over the holes. The halves are orientated by this shaker onto a moving conveyer with the pit cavity facing up. Now, visual and touch inspection is done on each halve to search for whole or fragmented pits that may remain in the pit cavity. These are removed in a very labor-intensive portion of the process to try and eliminate





them. The fruit travels over another shaker and wash section to help remove more fragments that may still be on the halves. This shaker also services to orientated the fruit into a 'cup-down' fashion. Now the pit cavity is laying on the moving conveyor and the outer peeled surface of the peach is available for visual inspection, trimming and sorting. The fruit is sorted for character and color at this point, any visible remaining peel or surface bruise is trimmed off and the peach halves then go on to be cut into various styles of cut.

The halves can be sliced, diced, cut into a strip or left as a halve dependingon customer orders and needs. Once cut, the fruit goes through another inspection where the inspector is looking for bad cuts, pieces, peel, defects, pit fragments, poor color, fruit that is too firm or too soft for the particular type and style of pack we are running at the time. The sliced peaches can be mechanically sized at this point by the thickness of the heel of the slice and kept separate according to this size. The fruit can now be packed into a number of sizes and styles of containers with specific fruit to sugar ratios, using dry sugar, liquid sugar or even water. Container sizes can be from 4 ounces to 430 pound drums, once again depending on customer needs. The fruit that is solid packed at this point is then palletized and transported to blast freezers to be frozen. This could take 24 to 48 hours. Once frozen the peaches are then transferred to sub-zero storage warehouses.

The IQF Freezing Process

The majority of the freestone peaches processed are run through a system process know as IQF, or Individually Quick Frozen. This is accomplished by immersing the peaches in a cold bath of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and Citric acid to preserve and protect the color of the fruit during storage and re-handling/processing by their customers. Once the fruit is protected, the excess solution is air blown off the fruit and travels into en-closed freezing tunnels.

My only regret, is that there are no pictures of this process. This is not for lack of trying. Every attempt at a shot in this tunnel resulted in fogged over lens, and a resulting black shot. But what happened in



here is quite memorable. As you walk into this dark. sub zero degreed enclosed tunnel, your freezing body and instantly fogged over eyes are staring at "moon lit" workers who are dressed in garb as protective as an astronaut's space suit. This has to be what being on the moon is like. They are shoveling peaches that are being lifted by the artificial wind as they individually freeze as they fly through the air. It was physically an eery sensation.

The Tree Pull Program The California Canning Peach Association is a bargaining association for outside growers to bargain and help set the prices of peaches in the marketplace.. They implemented the tree pull program, to reduce the amount of peaches in the market so they didn't have a surplus. That way farmers can make a decent return . They came up with the tree pull program to reduce the amount of acres of trees and tons of fruits, to get supply down more in line with demand. In turn, farmers received higher prices for their peaches . They were also instrumental in placing some of Tri Valley Growers tonnage into other processor plants - PCP, Cal Fruit, J.R. Wood, Del Monte. It is accepted that the tree pull program was good for the economy.

IQF stands for Individually Quick Frozen

"Here the fruit is exposed to very high sub-zero air while traveling on a mesh stainless steel conveyor. This high velocity air causes the fruit to lift off and fall back down onto the conveyor keeping it as separate pieces. The extreme cold temperatures cause the pieces of fruit to rapidly freeze, yielding the IQF sliced or diced peaches as they emerge from the discharge end of the freezing tunnel. The fruit can then be sized one final time, inspected and packaged per customers' requirements. From here the fruit is transported and stored in our frozen warehouses until called for by our customers or used in our repackaging room to be converted into food service and retail size packages," says Jerry Widick.

As we left the IQF tunnel, and climbed down the narrow stairs to the main floor of the plant, Yvonne, and Jerry yelled a friendly "hi" to an older gentleman, dressed in protective gear and a hairnet. It was founder Jim Wood, a man with a reputation of being "hands on". I wanted to turn back and shake his hand, but he was gone already, involved in some task on the plant floor that required his attention.

"All of the fruit we process is graded at the time of packaging to guarantee that it meets our customers' quality specifications and our standards," said Jerry Widick. " We also have on-site, our own microbiology lab where our products are tested for the level of various microbes. We do standard tests for Total Plate Count, Yeast and Mold, Coliforms, and E. Coli. We also upon specific requests do test for Staphylococcus, Salmonella and other specific organisms. No product can be used or shipped without being cleared and released by our quality control labs." If any end user has any complaints about a shipment of product they received, they can call the company, and the company can trace back that exact shipment to the grading results of that product. This enables J.R. Wood to be able to trace at all times, what is going on, or happening to, the quality of the product they have processed.

This in-house micro lab and pesticide lab affords J. R. Wood a very close control of critical points of product quality. The on-site labs also allow a much faster turn around time for test reports than if we were to use an outside, commercial lab, to do these tests, often saving 7 to 10 days in obtaining results.

From the groves to the freezer, J.R. Woods has succeeded in retaining the natural, sweet, flavor of the peach.

From the orchard to grocery shelves our own Ellen Walsh discovers how freshpeaches can be processed and still retain their own natural, sweet, great flavor.