Leeks are a really beautiful vegetable that has leaves that grow out into a fan shape, but how often do we really pay attention to this vegetable? To learn more, I visited Sábor Farms in Salinas, California to see the leek harvesting, packing and processing steps first-hand.
Table of Contents
What are Leeks?
Leeks are related to both onions and garlic, look very familiar to green onions, and have a similar flavor to onions. In comparison, leeks are said to be milder and sweeter than onions.
Harvesting Leeks
Leeks can either be hand or machine harvested in the field. In this case, they are machine harvested. The harvesting machine consists of a digger with rotary blades that digs up the leeks (maintaining a portion of the roots), shakes off additional soil, and trims off the tops of the leeks.
After the harvesting machine does its job, the workers standing on the harvesting machine sort out any of the bad quality leeks. Leeks can be sorted out for the following reasons:
- If they are significantly smaller than the rest of the harvested product
- If they are really bent or crooked
- If there is any root rot or browning (that can be a sign of root rot on the horizon)
The leeks then pass along a conveyor line to an adjacent trailer, where workers place the harvested leeks into plastic bins, which will then be sent to the packinghouse.
Leek Harvesting Video
You can see the entire leek machine harvesting process in the video below.
Packing Leeks
After being harvested, the bins and are brought into the packinghouse. Once the bins arrive at the packinghouse, the following steps are performed:
- Bin Removal – The workers remove the leeks from the bins and place them onto the packing table.
- Rinse Step – The leeks are individualized before they are rinsed with sanitized water. The tops are also trimmed during this step so that all of the leeks are uniform in size.
- Removal of Outer Leaf Sheaths – When the leeks pop out the other side, the outer leaf sheaths are removed to improve the appearance.
- Trimming – Farther down the packing line, there are workers that cut off the rooting portion of the leeks, and then the leeks are bundled into groups of three. When doing the bundling, the workers place a rubber band into the bundling machine that grabs ahold of it. When the bunch of three leeks is placed inside, the rubber band releases around them to form a bunch.
- Packing – The bunches are ran through a sanitized rinse step and then through another hydrochiller to cool the leeks prior to boxing. The leek bunches are packed into boxes. As you can see here, there are different types of boxes. This is typical in produce operations when packing operations pack product for multiple different customers using their specific packaging. Once complete, the boxes are palletized and sent to the cooler.
To give you an idea of the work performed throughout the leek packing process, you can see what the leeks look like when they arrive from the field (below left) to what they look like once they are packed (below right).
Processing Leeks
Leeks can also undergo further processing in order to create more of a ready-to-eat or ready-to-prepare product. In this case, the leeks are trimmed down at the top and all of the roots are removed. This results in an easier to sell packaged item for the grocery store.
Two of the trimmed leeks are placed together and run through a bagging machine. Those bags are boxed, palletized and are placed in the cooler until they are ready for transport.
Leek Packing & Processing Video
Click on the video below to see an overview of the leek packing and processing operations.
Featured Grower Information
I would like to thank Sábor Farms and Fresh Avenue for the tour and for allowing the gathered content to be shared. Sabór Farms is a vegetable grower located in Salinas, California, and you can see more of their operations here: escarole, endive, radishes, and Bok Choy.
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