All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S22E09.Harvesting.Plus.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] Harevesting
provides humans

with over 2 billion tons of
fruit and vegetables every year.

It's one of the most crucial
industries on the planet.

- [Dennis] It's
dangerous work up there,

one slip and they could
end up in a world of hurt.

- [Narrator] These high tech
wonders have transformed

America's 2 million farms into
a $140 billion industry.

- [Mitch] You're talking
about the ability to harvest

4,000 or so bushels an hour.

- [Narrator] From
optical fruit sizers

to computer controlled
corn picking combines.

You'll never shop for
produce the same way again,

on "Modern Marvels."

[electronic music]

[upbeat music]

- [Narator] Every year,
from spring until fall,

California's fruit
harvest is in high gear.

At Reimer Farms in
California's San Joaquin valley

they're picking nectarines.

For all growers, stretching
the harvest season

means raising different
varieties of the same fruit.

- We have varieties
planted specifically

throughout the different
times of the season

to fulfill those
different time slots

for providing fruit
to the marketplace.

So a typical variety
of nectarines

may harvest for
two to three weeks.

- [Narrator] A good
harvest depends on fruit

that looks and tastes its best.

To add maximum appeal
to a nectarine,

most growers line the orchard
rows with strips of Mylar.

The reflective surface
concentrates the sun's rays

into the tree canopy,
promoting photosynthesis

and increasing the sugar content

and color quality of the fruit.

- And then that's
when the fruit's

actually going through
its sizing process.

It's when it's
developing its sugar,

developing its color.

And so we're trying to
maximize its environment

during that particular critical
time point before harvest.

- [Narrator] As the
workers begin picking,

growers will spot
check the fruit

to verify their decision
to start harvesting.

- So what we'll do when
we're trying to decide

whether we're
harvesting properly is

we'll sample them
with a penetrometer

to see what the
flesh firmness is

to determine whether we are
picking the level we want.

So we just quickly just shave
a piece of the skin off.

And then we use this
plunger to push in there.

And the force that it
takes to push that in

will then determine
the flesh firmness.

This one rated at 11.

- [Narrator] Picking is
no longer the last step

in the harvest.

In many cases, it's
just the beginning.

This 10 acre packing facility

operates three state of
the art packing lines

for boxing peaches,
plums, blueberries,

apples, and many other fruits.

Today, it's nectarines
and pomegranates.

In one shift, the workers
can back up to 120,000 boxes

of fruit on two lines.

All of it sorted,
according to size, color,

and degree of ripeness.

- We become almost the
warehouse for the grocery store.

So they'll give us
an order and give us

only like a one or two
day lead time to pack it,

put it on a truck and
get it over to anywhere

in the United States.

- [Narrator] Once a
piece of fruit is picked,

its limited lifespan

sparks the race to
preserve freshness.

Here, sophisticated
post-harvest handling

is a way to stall for time,
starting with a cold shower.

The hydro-cooler pours
frigid 32 degree water

over the fruit to reduce
its internal temperature

and slow down decay.

- This is absolutely crucial
in maintaining good quality.

In the harvest season in
California in the summertime,

our temperatures can be well
over 90 degrees Fahrenheit,

even a hundred
degrees Fahrenheit.

And the fruit will lose
quality quite quickly.

It will dry and lose sugars.

- [Narrator] The cooled
fruit quickly makes its way

onto the sorting line
for a quick wash and wax.

After it's rinsed,

it's sprayed with a
vegetable oil product

to help prevent moisture loss

during the long journey
to the supermarket.

Before sizing begins,

inspectors use their
highly trained senses

to remove the subpar fruit.

- As they touch it, they're
looking for a soft shoulder

or soft tip on the fruit

that would bruise
or damage easily

and could later
decay in transit.

So that piece of fruit
that's a little bit too soft

is then removed.

- [Narrator] The
rejects are diverted

and will later
produce juices, jams,

and other processed products.

The fruit that passes inspection

continues its journey to
the high speed sorting line.

For centuries, farmers
have sorted fruit

to achieve uniform
shipping weights

and to satisfy
consumer preference.

The first packing houses
used crude sizers,

with wooden slats or holes

through which the smaller
sized fruits would drop.

Today, the optical
fruit sizer is a faster,

more accurate method.

The fruit is first diverted
onto a single file cup conveyor,

moving at about 10
pieces per second.

As it passes into the sorter,

each piece is rotated and
photographed by two lenses.

An infrared lens gathers
shape and dimensional data

and a color lens collects the
color qualities of the fruit.

The camera quickly
snaps 25 photos

to create a two dimensional
projection of the entire fruit.

From this picture, the computer
interprets its exact size,

shape, and color.

- Now we've got
a full look at it

and then we can determine
if the amount of color

that we see, red versus yellow,

is the appropriate color
that's desirable for packing.

And that's helpful in markets
where we want to send fruit

of a uniform size,
color and shape.

- [Narrator] Once the
computer obtains the mugshots

of a certain piece of fruit,

a timing device triggers
a lifting finger

that deposits the fruit
into a specific lane

according to size and color.

This high tech sorter delivers
nearly identical fruit

to each of many packing lines.

After a final human inspection,

the fruit is hand packed
in a variety of boxes.

- [Kelvin] Then it's
conveyed by forklift

into a cold storage
room where it's stored

at an ideal or
optimum temperature

that actually puts
the fruit to sleep.

Once the fruit is in that
condition or in that state,

it's in the best environment
to be transported

from California to the
various markets in the Midwest

or the east coast.

- [Narrator] The packing house
can even hold boxed fruit

at a higher temperature
to force ripening.

Sophisticated post-harvest
handling of fruit

is a progression and a ritual

that has remained
otherwise unchanged

over thousands of years.

This Egyptian tomb
drawing dated at 1900 BCE

depicts two workers
harvesting a fig tree.

- The key components of
harvest are the same.

One's picking the fruit and
then putting it into a basket.

The other is sorting the fruit

and putting it into
a consumer package.

The practices involved
in picking and packing

are basically still the
same and haven't changed.

[gentle music]

- [Narrator] Ancient Egypt
is one of the birthplaces

of horticulture.

The first growers learned
to irrigate their fields

by tapping the Nile
River's seasonal floods.

But without modern technologies,

these growers were faced
with the problem of spoilage.

- They didn't have
refrigeration,

and they didn't have canning.

They didn't have
these other processes

to preserve the harvested crop.

So the crop had to
either be consumed fresh

soon after harvest or
dried and stored dry.

- [Narrator] China was the
birthplace of temperate fruits,

such as peaches and pears
more than 4,000 years ago.

The Greeks and Romans
oversaw thriving fruit trade

throughout the Mediterranean.

When Mt. Vesuvius
erupted in 79 CE,

the Romans were cultivating
extensive orchards

including peaches,
citrus trees, and grapes

on the volcano's slopes.

During the middle ages,

monks were the most
sophisticated growers.

They practiced the
skills of tree grafting

and cross breeding to produce
new varieties of fruit trees.

The colonists brought
Europe's fruit tree saplings

to the new world,

but the true American
orchard revolution

was again fueled by monks.

As the Spanish moved
north into California

and established
missions in the 1600s,

the monks took advantage
of the dry climate

and raised large
orchards of grapes, figs,

peaches, pears, and apricots.

As settlers moved to
California in the 1800s,

the orchards fanned out to
supply the new urban centers

of Los Angeles
and San Francisco.

Growers also planted
in the Sierra Foothills

to feed the influx
of gold miners.

California fruit production
exploded in the 1890s

when refrigerated railroad cars

allowed growers to
ship fresh fruit

to the huge east coast markets.

But in the coming decades,

the small family operated
farm would nearly vanish.

- Farms began to get bigger

primarily because
of competition.

There's a continuing pressure
to reduce the price of fruits

and vegetables at retail market.

And that means the farms
generally have to get larger

in size to take advantage
of economies of scale.

- [Narrator] Large
vertically integrated growing

and packing operations
are now the standard

in US fruit production.

But labor remains the
most unpredictable

and expensive cost for growers,

especially when balancing
a need to pay a decent wage

while providing affordable
produce for consumers.

Beginning in the 1960s,

engineers from the University
of California at Davis

began testing a multitude of
mechanical fruit harvesters.

Various tree shakers and
shake-and-catch machines

were very effective at
harvesting fruit quickly.

But the percentage of damaged
fruit was unacceptable.

Half a century later,

there are still no commercially
viable mechanical harvesters

for picking many
types of fresh fruit.

One solution may be a
man machine interface

that allows laborers to
more efficiently access

the tree canopy.

Here, a pear grower and
engineers from UC Davis

are testing a modified
European built platform

in Northern California.

The machine offers six
moveable picking platforms

at three different heights

allowing the harvesters
to move laterally

or up and down inside
the tree canopy.

- So the workers, instead
of placing fruit into bags

and delivering it to bins,

would place fruit two
or three at a time

into little feeder conveyors

that fed into a main elevator.

At the top of the main elevator,

the fruit would go into
what's called a bin filler

where the fruit is lowered and
placed into a rotating bin,

which ensures even distribution
of the fruit in the bin.

- [Narrator] By eliminating
the need to carry heavy ladders

and picking bags, the
platform might expand

the potential workforce.

It could also improve
employee safety

by reducing hazardous
working conditions

and injuries from ladder falls,

a major problem
for many growers.

The harvesting platform has
already gained a firm footing

in Europe where hand labor
has been in short supply

for decades.

- [Narrator] In the Midwest,
America's biggest harvest

has eliminated handpicking

and put the farmer at the wheel

of a computer controlled
maximum efficiency machine.

Nebraskan John Sandahl
is harvesting corn

in a John Deere 12 row combine.

The air conditioned
cab may seem cushy

and combining corn may look
a bit like mowing the lawn

but this harvest
demands a sharp eye

and fast decision making.

- While harvesting corn,
I'm scanning the corn head

all the time, watching
for objects in the field,

make sure that all the row
units are functioning properly.

Pulling the corn
stocks down through.

And this corner post
monitors all the functions

of the machine.

The first one down
here has the engine RPM,

the speed that I'm traveling,

the middle one is the
grain loss monitor.

That's very important.

It keeps track,
monitors how much grain

the combine is
losing off the bat.

- [Narrator] A small percentage
of the harvested corn

drops back in the field

and the operator
minimizes these losses

by slowing down when necessary.

The modern combine is
a factory on wheels.

As corn stalks enter
the corn head,

a series of rollers
pulled down on the stalks

and snap off the ears.

An auger moves the
ears into the combine

where they're conveyed into
the threshing mechanism.

Here, a spinning rotor
threshes the kernels,

removing them from the cob

while a strong fan blows
out the leaves and chattel.

The kernels are
then conveyed to the

combine's holding tank.

On Sandahl's farm, the corn
is offloaded onto trailers.

The kernels are loaded into bins

that will store the grain and
complete the drying process.

Corn is a crop with many uses,

everything from tortillas
to corn syrup, animal feed,

and ethanol, a corn
based alternative fuel

that is boosting demand
across the corn valley.

More than 7,000 years ago,

it was a decidedly simpler crop.

In the region that
is now Mexico,

natives began harvesting a
wild grass called teosinte.

Over thousands of years,

the meso Americans
domesticated teosinte

by sewing and reaping
only the best kernels.

It evolved into a hardier,

more productive plant
known as maize or corn.

After its first migration
north at about 1200 BCE,

it would become the
most important crop

in American agriculture.

- When the pilgrims
first arrived,

they planted in small hills,

several seeds in a hill.

They grew the corn,

they harvested the ears and
they ground it into flour.

[gentle guitar music]

- [Narrator] In the colonies,

and for centuries that followed,

corn was harvested by hand.

The corn knife with
an 18 inch blade

was one of the original
methods of the stalks.

When farmers were
picking only the ears,

handheld hooks or pegs
made of iron and bone

were the standard tools.

- This is a bone peg,
probably used in 1890.

They used anything
that was sharp

to open up the
shuck at that time.

- [Narrator] Gloves
with embedded hooks

later replaced the peg.

- People in rural communities
are very innovative.

And so they were always
looking for some way

to do it better,
to do it faster.

The hooks and pegs allowed
for faster harvesting

because they could rip the
shuck away from the ear,

snap it and harvest it much
quicker than just by hand.

- [Narrator] Even today,
many rural communities

still celebrate the
days of hand harvesting

with husking bee competitions.

Ted Martin is a former
Nebraska state champion.

- You grab the ear
towards the end like this

and come in with the hook
crossways, open up the shucks.

Then you peel 'em back
and you snap the ear out

and throw it.

And it's all one motion, really.

- [Narrator] A fast Husker
could generally harvest

about a 100 bushels or
one acre of corn per day.

But enormous advancements
in agricultural technology

allows modern farmers
to dwarf this number.

- [Narrator] Now we
return to the fields

here on Modern Marvels,
Harvesting Plus.

Tillers, combines,
cultivators are just some

of the innovative
pieces of farming gear

that have revolutionized
harvesting in the modern era.

But long before
machines like tractors

and harvesters took over,

farming meant putting your
shoulder to the wheel.

For decades, nearly
every farm was equipped

with a hand operated
corn sheller.

- Okay, we've got a
couple cobs of corn

and we're looking at a
hand powered corn sheller.

That's about a hundred years old

and we're gonna run a
couple cobs through it.

First, I'm gonna crank it up.

Couple plates inside the machine

going in opposite directions

are gonna shear the kernels off.

The corn kernels
go down the bottom,

the corn cobs come
out the other end.

And there's a fan at the bottom

that blows some of the
chaff away as well.

- [Narrator] Many
farmers harvested corn

for silage or animal feed.

This included the stalk
as well as the ear.

Silage was the first corn
harvest to see mechanization

in the form of the corn
binder in the late 1800s.

On one Nebraska farm,

Ron Lange operates an
antique corn binder

to harvest feed for his horses.

- It's an international
corn binder.

Just press it and ties it.

This mainly would used to
be used more for green corns

and fill silos with it.

They would cut the corn green

and haul it in and
fill your silos.

- [Narrator] The
binder both cuts

and then automatically ties
the stalks into bundles

with twine.

The operator uses a foot clutch

to engage a conveyor that
drops the bundles in the field.

Corn binders were usually
followed by a crew of laborers

who stood the bundles into
larger upright stacks,

known as shocks.

According to Ron,

this traditional shock
building technique

prevents mold from
growing in the bundles,

which helps keep the
feed from rotting.

- Shocking is for
your winter feed

and it would mold and
stuff on the ground.

And the shocking is for
curing, you gotta shock it

so the wind goes through it.

- [Narrator] Up through
the Great Depression,

the meticulous hand harvest
was still the only way

to pick the ears directly.

The first mechanized
corn pickers,

powered by internal
combustion engines,

debuted in the late 1930s

and would soon
double productivity

to 15 acres in one day.

The pickers selectively
harvest only the corn ears,

depositing the stalks
back in the field.

Farmer Randy Jensen uses
a two row 1960s model,

237 John Deere Picker to harvest

600 acres of corn each year.

The picker uses rollers to
snap the ears off the stalks.

The ears travel to a husking vat

where rubber rollers
remove the husks.

The clean ears then
drop in a wagon.

- When you come to the end,

you'll have a full
wagon most of the time,

and you'll have a
guy at the other end

and he'll switch
wagons with you.

And he'll take it home
and run it to an elevator

which elevates it up
into an ear corn crib.

And basically,
that's all you do.

- [Narrator] While
the mechanical picker

has endured for decades,

they couldn't shell,
clean, and dry corn

immediately in the field.

By the mid 1950s,
there was an answer.

The combine, which had
long before mechanized

the harvesting of
other grain crops

was now advanced enough to
produce clean corn kernels

at a staggering pace.

What began with two row designs

grew to the 12 and even
16 row corn head combines

of the 21st century.

- You're talking about the
ability to harvest 4,000

or so bushels an hour, which
translates to, you know,

maybe 60 to 70 pounds
of grain, clean grain

every second that this
machine can harvest.

- We go back to working
with a corn binder.

We're talking about working
maybe eight acres a day.

And now we're talking
about hand picking,

we're talking an acre
or so day, 100 bushels.

Today's big farmers
with large combines

can do 40,000 bushels in
a day with one combine.

- [Narrator] The American corn
harvest relies on the size,

speed, and sophistication
of one machine.

- [Narrator] Every year in
October, there is a fruit

that must first go for a
swim before it can be picked.

[upbeat music]

Just days before harvesting,
farmers in central Wisconsin

divert water from
nearby reservoirs

in order to flood thousands
of acres of cranberries

in up to two feet of water.

This is called a wet harvest.

The berries grow on short vines.

When they mature,

the fields are flooded to
make harvesting easier.

These water reel harvesters,
also called beaters,

will transform the
marsh into a sea of red.

- And the first guy
that goes in the water

is opening the bed

and then the rest of
the guys behind him

just keep following
along behind him.

What they're looking
for in the water

is what we call a berry line,

where you can see where the
fruit's been picked clean

and where the
remaining fruit is.

So you try to line up on that.

And the idea is to
not miss any fruit

and beat it clean
or pick it clean.

- [Narrator] As the beaters
move through the vine,

they strip off the berries.

Cranberries contain
four air chambers.

When freed from the vines,

their natural buoyancy
causes them to float.

- Cranberries are trained,

meaning the vines lay
a certain direction.

Good analogy would be like
petting a cat the right way

and the wrong way.

You pet it the right
way, everything's nice.

You go against the vines
or against that cat

and his fur gets all ruffled up

and it's not a very nice thing.

Same thing can happen
with cranberries.

If we go against the vines,

we'd rip them outta the
ground and it would be a mess.

- [Narrator] Once the
three acre bed is beaten,

the workers deploy a
cran boom to slowly coax

the flotilla to one
end of the marsh.

Here, more than 80,000
pounds of berries

are loaded by elevator
and trucked out.

At the Ocean Spray
receiving station,

the berries are offloaded
into holding tanks.

[upbeat guitar music]

And then conveyed into
the packing houses

where they're cleaned
and then sized.

These cranberries are
destined for processing,

meaning they will end
up as juice, sauce,

or even Craisins, the cranberry
equivalent of raisins.

But long before cranberry
juice and Craisins

dominated the market,

Native Americans understood
the power of the fresh berries

using them in medicines,
poultices, and dyes.

Dried berries were even
pressed together with venison

and fat to produce
pemmican, a survival cake

that kept for long
periods of time.

The first commercial
growers in the 19th century

recruited cheap field laborers,
often women and children,

to meticulously hand harvest
the wild growing vines.

- When the men, women,
and children would show up

on the cranberry marsh,
they were given a measure.

Once they had a full measure,

they would go over to
the edge of the bed,

dump the measure
into the receptacle.

And that picker was
given a picking chip.

That picking chip would
be used for either cash

or merchandise at
the company store.

- [Narrator] In the 1890s,
the first cranberry hand rake

replaced the picker's
calloused fingers

and quickly became the
harvesting method of choice.

Growers eventually
discovered that flooding

the cranberry beds made
hand ranking much easier.

- This is the hand rake,
it's got metal teeth

with slots in it.

As you rake, you go through
the vines like that.

The berries are floating
on top of the water.

They're attached to the vines,

but you still
gotta take 'em off.

And it's a back wrecking job

if you have to do
it all day long,

especially if the
vines aren't trained.

- [Narrator] In the 1950s,
Wisconsinite Leonard Getsinger

designed one of the first

successful mechanical
harvesters.

The hand pushed Getsinger picker

uses retractable metal teeth
to comb through the vines

and pick berries.

Up until the 1970s,

the majority of all cranberries
were sold as fresh fruit

for traditional cooking.

- During the 1970s and 1980s,
the juice market exploded

and the demand for cranberry
juice far exceeded the demand

for fresh cranberries.

The whole industry
shifted from fresh fruit

to processed fruit.

- [Narrator] Starting
in the 70s and 80s,

most farmers began wet
harvesting with beaters

to bring in a larger, yet
less carefully handled crop.

But today, one man feels there
is still a better mouse trap

for farmers who raise
cranberries for processing.

It's called, The Ruby Slipper.

- It's a machine I invented
trying to find a simpler,

faster method to
harvest cranberries

that was easier on the
fruit, easier on the vines.

This is a lot gentler.

The bar itself is
traveling at a slower speed

when it contacts the vine,

but the ground speed of the
machine is a lot faster.

- [Narrator] The Ruby Slipper
is pulled through the marsh

and requires no moving parts
to remove the cranberries.

Regardless of the machine,
harvesting cranberries for juice

or Craisins is not
a gentle affair.

But there's another harvest
more steeped in tradition

that demands a more
delicate touch.

Habelman Brothers
in Tomah, Wisconsin

is one of the world's
largest producers

of fresh cranberries.

This harvester is all about
delivering the perfect berry.

Habelman's harvesters utilize
stainless steel teeth

to comb the vines, much like
the original Getsinger pickers.

But these gentler
modern harvesters

use a series of paddles to free
the berries from the vines.

- The berries never end
up back in the water.

They go right into the boats
and then into the trucks.

We can do about 10 acres a day

with the two machines that
we're using right now.

- [Narrator] When
it's time for packing,

the berries go through
a separator line

to remove discolored and
poor quality berries.

At the front end is
an antique device

that has never been
upgraded or redesigned,

the Bailey Separator.

Invented by the H.R.
Bailey Company in 1917,

it was conceived with the idea

that only fresh
cranberries will bounce.

- So they pass through
a series of boards,

good ones jump and
land on a finish belt.

The bad ones just kind of
filter down the machine.

And a lot of companies
have tried to come up

with a better design, but
there isn't any out there yet.

- [Narrator] The cranberries
that pass Bailey's tests

are then double checked
by more modern equipment.

Two different electronic
separators use ultraviolet

and fluorescent light to
detect inferior color and rot.

After the antique and high
tech separators have their go,

the final quality
check is human.

Any bad berries that have
survived the gauntlet

are weeded out before packaging.

As the demand for healthier food
and drink continues to spiral,

a wild assortment of
cranberry harvesting machines

will continue to prowl the
marshes of central Wisconsin.

[western guitar music]

- [Narrator] In the low desert

of Southern California's
Coachella Valley,

there's an annual ritual that
is perhaps the most dangerous

harvest in America.

This man is a palmero.

His job is to harvest
dates from trees

that can grow to heights
of more than 80 feet.

Date grower Dennis Jensen
speaks to the industry's anxiety

over the ladder harvest.

- It's dangerous work up there.

One slip, and they could
end up in a world of hurt.

As much as we try safety wise,

it seems that every other year,

we lose someone to
this terrible tragedy.

Some of the other items
that are very dangerous

are the spines,

the palm fronds themselves
that can pierce your hand

or an eye, or an arm,
or a leg, or foot.

And they're located throughout
the crown of that tree.

So there's a lot of
different dangers

that they have to work with.

- [Narrator] The
palmeros in this field

are hand harvesting a premium
date, known as the Medjool,

one of several date varieties
that have been cultivated

since before recorded time.

Dates are likely the oldest
of all harvested fruits.

Nearly 6,000 years ago,

they were cultivated in
the region of Mesopotamia

or what is now modern Iraq.

Some traditions trace the
fruit to the garden of Eden.

- Even the Bible refers to
the land of milk and honey,

and we've been old
by Jewish scholars

that the honey it
was referring to

was the honey of the date palms.

- [Narrator] Its ability
to grow and produce fruit

in such an arid environment

made the date palm
a sacred tree.

- Dates keep very well.

And in that hot desert area
where they had no refrigeration,

they could keep
them for a long time

and early on they'd
discovered the ways

to press them together to
get rid of air and so forth

so that they would keep.

- [Narrator] After
many failed attempts,

date palm offshoots were
successfully imported

and planted in the Arizona
desert in the year 1900.

The coveted Medjool offshoots
came from Morocco in 1927

and were later planted
in the Coachella Valley.

Today, California
growers of Medjools

and the other major
variety, the Deglet Noor,

oversee a thriving industry
that annually harvests a crop

worth around $50 million.

And it's not just the
fruit that is valuable.

The date palm is
considered so beautiful

that as many as 15,000
trees are harvested

and sold each year to
real estate developers.

The times are changing
for the skilled palmeros.

Most date growers are relying
less on the ladder harvest

and more on a mechanical
harvesting aid.

The Canasta.

Mounted on a nine ton lift,
the platform opens and closes

around the date palm's trunk.

Even as mechanization makes
the work safer and easier,

the job still requires
a trained palmero

to distinguish dates that
are ripe for picking.

- Normally, what
they're gonna do

is they'll be looking
for the ripest ones

and they're pretty
easy to pull off.

And sometimes you
can just shake them

and they'll actually
fall off of the bunches,

but they'll be pulling
off the ripe ones,

which are the darker color ones.

There's yellow ones on here,
which are not ripe yet.

It'll take another,

probably two to three weeks
before they will ripen up.

- [Narrator] Prior
to harvesting,

the palmeros wrap each and
every growing date bunch

in a nylon bag.

- Our date bags are used
to keep moisture away

from the dates should we
have a sudden thunderstorm.

And the rain,

the moisture causes a lot
of decay for the dates.

Additional purposes of these
bags are to keep insects away

and to keep birds
from eating the dates.

[upbeat rock music]

- [Narrator] To prevent
damage to the delicate fruit,

harvesters lower small
baskets to the ground

where they're hand
sorted for ripeness.

After a short journey
to Dennis Jensen's

Seaview packing house,
the dates are cooled.

Then they're carefully
washed and dried

before they're hand
sorted for packing.

One of five quality
categories are assigned

before the dates are shipped
to points around the world.

- [Narrator] Welcome
back to Harvesting Plus.

Today, Kennett
Square, Pennsylvania

is known as the mushroom
capital of the world

and not long ago,

the world's largest mushroom
grower was Creekside Mushrooms

located near Pittsburgh.

Creekside owners have since
moved on to other ventures,

but for many years, its 800
acres of limestone tunnels,

burrowed beneath trees
and pasture lands

was a fungus farmer's fantasy.

- The neat thing about
growing mushrooms

at this particular facility
is that the temperature

is pretty much consistent
all year round.

And we maintain about
a 62 degree temperature

all year round and
about a 95% humidity,

which allows mushrooms to
just recycle themselves

pretty much every 24 hours.

- [Narrator] Here,
the fungus of choice

is the Sylvan White Agaricus,

the ever popular
white button mushroom.

A small army of harvesters

speeds from one
cave to the next.

Each worker aiming
to pick up a minimum

of 55 pounds an hour.

Mushrooms are grown in

and harvested from
large wooden trays.

Each tray is harvested
in passes or breaks.

The first break yields the
large and medium mushrooms.

Removing the larger
fungi allows more room

for the smaller mushrooms
to grow and develop.

- I'm picking the
mushrooms that are ready,

at the prime time for harvest.

And that depends
upon the stem length,

the shape of the cap,
whether it's domed or oval.

If you notice the only
smalls that I take

are the ones that come
off basically by accident,

they're left on
there for tomorrow.

They'll be mushrooms that will
be harvested again tomorrow.

- [Narrator] Each
tray ultimately yields

approximately 250 pounds
of organic mushrooms,

but not every
mushroom is perfect.

- [George] This
mushroom in particular

has a blemish on it.

That is what we
consider a number two.

It would not look as nice
when it hits the supermarket.

- [Narrator] The popular
White Agaricus mushroom

was first domesticated
in the cellars and sewers

of 19th century France.

The process of
producing the spawn

or seed was the key to growing
the fungus commercially.

After the French perfected
a strain of spawn,

it was soon exported to England

and ultimately to
the United States.

The mushroom business
took off in 1904

when the United States
Department of Agriculture

perfected a
domestically bred spawn.

One of the very same strains
that are used today.

Even with the healthy spawn,

profitability growing
mushrooms in vast numbers

is a very demanding craft.

The process begins with piles
of hay, straw, and manure.

This compost is turned,
adding water and fresh air

to speed up decomposition.

The compost is then pasteurized

in a fresh air tunnel system.

- It kills all the
other microorganisms

that are in the compost so that
when we do plant the spawn

or the mushroom seeds into
the tray, it gives a nice,

clean medium for the spawn to
take hold inside the compost.

- [Narrator] Each tray
is filled with compost

and the spawn is then added.

The trays are transported
deep within the pitch dark

limestone caves to begin
coaxing the root structure,

or mycelia, to the surface.

This tray of organic
White Agaricus

will begin harvesting
around day 15.

Its many mushrooms then
travel to a packing facility

where they're weighed, packaged,

or sometimes sliced,
before they're cooled

and quickly shipped to market.

- We don't get a
whole lot of lead time

nor do we want a
whole lot of lead time

because what we produce today,

we wanna make sure we ship
within the next 24 hours.

- [Narrator] While the mushroom
harvest may seem stable,

its future is not.

- People that get outta
high school today,

look for other opportunities.

So it gets harder and
harder to find labor.

- [Narrator] Today, mushroom
growers have only 75%

of the workforce needed to
harvest at full capacity.

Mushrooms are not the only crop
impacted by a lack of labor.

The trend is affecting
harvests across the nation.

- There's certainly
less labor available.

It began several years ago,

but the increased pressure
to reduce illegal immigration

across the Southern
United States border

has influenced the
amount of laborers

that are available for harvest.

- [Narrator] As
workers become scarcer,

mechanization will
play a larger,

but probably still restricted
role, in the harvest.

- Labor is the most important
factor in this business.

When you look at the fragility
or the nature of the fruit,

this is not something
that is conducive

to mechanical harvesting.

We rely very heavily
on a labor force

that's skilled to discern
fruit quality on the tree.

And there's really no other
way to go about doing that.

- [Narrator] Truly our
machines will become

more sophisticated and sensitive

and a declining labor force

will spur that
mechanical innovation.

But only time will
tell if the machine

will ever match the
human hand's ability

to delicately pluck an
unblemished piece of fruit.