We are going to follow a mandarin today. We are going to visit a fruit packhouse, it is my last day in Central California. Nothing you will see is sustainable or organic and absolutely nothing is old fashioned. But interesting nevertheless. 
This packhouse packs the Cutie mandarins. Mostly I am interested in the architectural shapes created in a packhouse. They are designed specifically to be efficient, so everything is refined right down to the essentials. Also the grading machines themselves are created with extraordinary precision. On walking into the packhouse we were hit with a fresh blast of citrus. If they could only bottle that scent! The fruit is washed and scanned and runs along these lanes and onto the grader.
This packhouse is 400,000 square feet. Each fruit drops into its own individual cup and travels along the grader. 
500 fruit per minute per lane, 10,000 fruit per minute on this one machine! In its own cup the mandarin is pre graded for blemish, colour, density and weight. Then onto another belt and sent through a wall, in a river of orange, to be waxed then onto the next series of graders that grade for size. 
None of these images can capture the vastness of this arena of fruit. Each piece of fruit can be graded multiple times depending on the market. The girls do a last quality check before bagging. This packhouse that sends your Cuties to your supermarket is absolutely pristine. I was very impressed. 
Automation everywhere.
The bagging machine is behind glass and fascinated me!
And off to the market.
there is always a shadow..
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
67 responses to “Following a Mandarin through a massive Californian Packhouse”
Wow, absolute prestine precision there C. LOVE your ring in the last piccy.
🙂 Mandy
Thank you Mandy it was my Grandmothers ring, it is a mourning ring for the old times.. c
I’m with Mandy. I want to know more about that ring. Is it onyx? 🙂
It is a carved black onyx, a cameo but deeper i guess is the best way to describe it and yes it is Black Onyx.. c
Simply stunning, Celi.
Thank you Mrs Misk it was a nice little morning.. c
How fascinating! How on earth did you get in there? I have an image of you as a leather clad Bond Girl scaling walls with your camera slung over your shoulder and some night vision specs! I love factories – had a contract with a big dairy company in the UK and most of the processes were very highly automated but there were two sites where the cheese was still made “traditionally” on a small scale – I loved going up to visit, especially as there were always tastings!
The engineering is amazing, I look forward to going through a cheese factory.. c
I do love visiting places like this, too… On one trip to France, we went to two vineyards. The first was a tiny (10 hectare) family-owned place where everthing was still done by hand, and the bottling equipment – and crew! – were rented every year. The second was a gleaming modern facility, that sorted on belts and had fancy instruments to check the sugar content of the grapes as they rolled past…
Both were fascinating.
Oh I love the vineyards.. and how lovely to see the two different generations of systems.. c
I love touring places like that! If you ever have a chance to visit Oregon you can tour the Tillamook cheese factory. A tourist favorite but quite interesting to see how it all works. Oh, and I am eating a Cutie right now for breakfast! Quite the ko-inky-dink, wouldn’t you say? 😉
That is so cool -koinky-dink, I had to ask the american what that meant! They are pretty tasty that is for sure.. c
So how old do you think those Cuties are by the time they actually make it to my market in Tennessee?
At this time of year it should only take as long as it takes the truck to drive there I would imagine, they will not be paying to store them, so they are packed and moved out very fast! c
Great photos, I can understand the appeal of the factory, the process and those amazing machines.
Everything in it’s place, it appeals to the tidy C on the inside! c
How great to see the entire process – I am having a clementine right now 🙂 such a taste of ‘winter’ for me…
they are a little burst of sunshine aren’t they! c
And to think I just bought a bag of these at the store last week. Tasty little cuties.
Hi Miss T, they are everywhere aren’t they, those cuties.. very big business! c
I love those tangerines. My mom always put one in the toe of our Christmas stockings, which was the same thing her mom in Scotland did. We, of course, did not appreciate it nearly as much as Grandma did when she was small. I do it for my kids too, and they don’t get it at all so I have to remind them every year why we do it – to remind them to be thankful for the abundance they have and to think of wee Grandma all those years ago being thrilled over a simple tangerine!
My Mother told the same story about only getting an orange in the depression years, Did grandma talk about the bad kids getting coal instead? c
You know, now that you mention it, it probably was an orange that Grandma got…and my Mom switched to tangerines/mandarines just because they were in season. And yes, certainly the threat of coal was there…though whether or not it really happened I’m not sure!
I have always wondered whether anyone ever got coal too. It would have been SO MEAN! c
Machinery and citrus! Great! I wonder if the workers ever get tired of the smell. Or like me say it smells like money! (except citrus would definitely smell better than my line of work)
Certainly would smell better than some of the lines of work you get to do.. harold!!
Wonderful dear Cecilia… Thank you, with my love, nia
Good morning nia, hope you are having a lovely sunday!
I always wanted to know where Cuties came from. What a fun excursion and I can only imagine what how wonderful the smells were.
Well, now I’ll always have this great visual when I eat one of these in the middle of a cold Minnesota winter.
If it comes from this packhouse then it will be clean and good to go. i would trust them!
c
Just came across your post, thought I’d let you know that the grading machine you see here is designed and manufactured in your home country!
It is rather beautiful, an extraordinary piece of machinery, thank you Ken and welcome! c