Cascade Snow Cauliflower, a product of Skagit
Growers, is treated with the utmost care during its journey from
field harvest to your store shelves.
Our cauliflower is field harvested and each worker involved in
the harvest operation has a specific job. The cutters cut and trim
the cauliflower leaves to that pleasing taper that the consumer
expects. The cutters are also responsible for covering any exposed
heads that will be harvested in the future. This prevents the sun
from reaching the heads, causing sunburn or yellowing. From the
cutters, the cauliflower is handed to the wrappers who wrap and
tape the cauliflower. These workers also dispose of any less than
perfect heads that may have been cut. The wrappers pass the
cauliflower on to the sizers who sort the cauliflower by size and
place it in boxes. These sizers sort the cauliflower into groups of
9's, 12's and 16's. After being boxed, the cauliflower is placed on
pallets in a covered trailer, which minimizes sun exposure.
When ten pallets have been filled, the trailer is complete. This
process usually takes around three hours. At the time of completion
the trailer is hauled directly to the cooler where the cauliflower
is unloaded immediately and placed directly onto cooling fans. Once
the cauliflower is on the fans it takes approximately six hours to
bring the core temp of cauliflower to a temperature below forty
degrees. After being cooled, the cauliflower is moved to a
thirty-four degree storage room where the temperature of the
cauliflower is brought down further to a level below 35 degrees
after a period of twenty-four hours.
We have storage capacity for approximately seven thousand cases
of cauliflower, which makes it is necessary for us to move our
product to customers in a quick and timely manner. We feel that by
minimizing the amount of time from harvest to cooler and moving our
product to you, the buyer, as quickly as possible, we are able to
ensure a good shelf life for our cauliflower. With the help of a
consistent, loyal Puget Sound customer base for our Cascade
Snow Cauliflower we feel optimistic about expanding our
cooling and storage facilities in the future.