Let the Long Hours Begin!

Harvesting started out slow, but now things are getting into full swing. With the beginning of harvesting includes new responsibilities to add to our every day tasks. I work the day shift which means I get to enter in all of the information for the new tanks, get samples from the new tanks and finish all of the paperwork from the night before. It's awesome that the company allows us to take on a lot of this responsibility and is helping us learn how the company runs. The other great part of working during harvesting season is getting to meet so many people. We have people that help us keep the trucks flowing easily through the yard and these people traveled all the way from Texas.

The first few days were slow, but we are slowly picking up steam. We have about 30 trucks coming from the fields tonight and we are expecting more and more to be coming in during the week. This makes for long hours and lots of paperwork! All in all, I have learned a lot and get to spend a lot of time outside. Now if only the weather would cooperate and cool off just a little to make it not so hard to work outside!

Did you know: If it weren’t for pickles, Christopher Columbus might never have “discovered” America. In his famous 1492 voyage, Columbus rationed pickles to his sailors to keep them from getting scurvy. He even grew cucumbers during a pit stop in Haiti to restock for the rest of the voyage.

Ready, Set, HARVEST!

So yesterday started the harvesting season! We only had a few loads come in to test the crops, but we are slowly picking up speed. This week was crazy! We had an average of ten loads a day and of course something always has to go wrong when we are that busy. On Thursday, one of the guys hit a full tank with the axel on the tractor. This meant that Friday morning, the first truck to load had to be from that tank. It took three hours to load the truck! This left crabby truck drivers sitting around waiting to be loaded in the office with me. Fortunately, after we were done with that load the others only took about 30minutes. We finished loading all of the trucks a little before 4pm. That made for a long day.

With the start of the season, we split our crew in half so that two of us are at the yard during the day and the other two are there at night to load tanks. It makes it difficult when we have problems with the pump, but we will work through it.

Did you know: Heinz® Ketchup retired the pickle from its label after 110 years. The gherkin pickle was featured on Heinz® Ketchup labels since the 1890s. Now Heinz has switched its label to the tomato.

It's Gonna Get Busy!

It's the time of year when farmers are in full swing. Well, at Hartung Brothers, Inc. in Bowling Green, Ohio we are preparing for the harvesting season to start! In the tank yard we are trying to get the tanks empty, clean and adding brine so that we are ready! It has been a long couple of days with trying to get as much done before the season as we can. The plan is to start harvesting some time late next week, which means that my work schedule switches from mornings to nights with longer hours. The to-do list is long, but with each item getting checked off it brings us one day closer to harvesting. Let's hope for a good season!


Did you know: July is National Pickle Month! This holiday is set aside for people who appreciate the pickle. 

End of Week 5

Well , the first five weeks are over and I can't believe it! It seems like I just got here, but I've been here for a month. This week was a week to test patience and communication. We had two load rejected due to a low CAS, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was trying to explain to the company where the product ended up (back in the tanks it came from). We had more calls and e-mails about "problems" that didn't exist than we had since I've been here. These calls and e-mails lead to taking time away from work to explain to the company what happened even though they had the paperwork in front of them. All of that set aside, I had a great week. I was able to work in the office and set up loads for the week. I also did a lot of the chemistry for the new tanks and I learned how to grade tanks CAS. These things will help me when the harvest season starts. I can't wait! We start working longer hours next week to get ready and let's hope for less confusion!


Did you know that Berrien Springs, MI has dubbed itself the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World?  In early December, they host a parade, led by the Grand Dillmeister, who tosses out fresh pickles to parade watchers.

What a Way to End a Week!

So we start work at 5AM... at least we're supposed to. Unfortunately we had to give wake up calls to a few of our co-workers so we could start pumping because we don't know how. We had nine loads today and almost everything went off without a hitch after we got started. I can't believe I have been here for four weeks because it seems like I just came to Bowling Green. I have learned a lot about the industry and can't wait for the season to start to see the hectic and crazy tank yard! 
Did you know: In 1985, Steven Trotter became the youngest man to conquer the crest of Niagara Falls in a pickle barrel. Actually, it was two plastic pickle barrels surrounded by rubber inner tubes. 

It's Been Crazy

So the past few days have been crazy! Last week I had to go home for a family emergency, but I came back and what a way to start the week... the pump broke. We were supposed to ship 10 loads yesterday and after the second one, the pump broke. The pump is used to get the pickles out of the tank and into the tubs on the trucks, but with it broke there is no easy way to load. We ended up cancelling the rest of the loads and using the remainder of the day to fix the pump. The only bad thing was that most of the loads we cancelled were shifted into today's loads. Luckily the pump worked today. We are expecting to ship out 10 loads tomorrow and will hopefully not have any other problems this week, but all is well in Bowling Green!
Did you know that the pickle is both a fruit and a vegetable? 

Another Week Down

What can I say, but another week is over! The week started out with shipping a lot of trucks across the nation. We shipped to Kaiser, Vlasic and Heinz this week. With having more time working in the office, I was able to take on more responsibilities such as entering information into the computers and printing reports to send to the companies. I even sent out reports to the president of Hartung Brothers, Inc. We started making new brine to get ready for the busy season ahead so we started testing the brine mixture. It has also been nice weather this past week unlike last week when we had lots of rain and tornado sirens. I can't believe I have been here for two weeks! I have learned a lot about the company and can't wait for work next week!
Did you know?: Many people consider pickle brine a useful commodity, with its complex flavor of spices, salt, vinegar, and pickled vegetables. It’s been used as a soup stock, a hangover remedy, a drink, and—for many eastern European women—a cosmetic. There are even reports of some American roller-skating rinks selling pickle-brine snow cones.