Author Archives: stef

March storms

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Every year, we post an update about looking forward to spring, and it seems like every year, the first week of spring arrives via snowstorm!

The most recent nor’easter to come through this area left us without power for two days, but had the power not come back today, our team was prepared, thanks to the thunderstorms from June 2015!

Our winter storm prep remains basically the same every year: the number one priority is checking the water. The team checks for washouts, makes sure nothing’s too high or too low, and makes sure there’s no water on the dam itself. Team members make sure the main pathways are cleared; in order to do that, we send the front loaders home with some of them, which means once the snow hits, they can plow themselves out and start clearing the main dams. Then the rest of the team are able to go check the water or get to one of our facilities to do indoor work.

That means the Equipment/Facilities team also takes some precautionary measures, making sure those generators are ready to go in case we lose power for an extended amount of time. They also make sure the heat is turned up in any vacant properties onsite, just in case. “We also pack the shop with equipment to work on,” manager Louis Cantafio said last year. “That way, we don’t have to dig it out, or start it in the cold, or fill the shop with melting snow. We go over all the loaders, make sure they’re ready to go before the operators bring them home.” Then, once the storm hits “we have to get all the egresses open and get rid of snow everywhere we need to store incoming deliveries.”

Fortunately, the power outage didn’t last too long this time, and the snow seems to be melting quickly! Could this end of this long winter finally be in sight?

Blog anniversary: 2018

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This week is the six year anniversary of the Pine Island Cranberry website, and it’s certainly been an eventful year!

Our normal yearly workload proceeded much as it usually does, with our annual schedule of bog renovation, frost, planting, and sanding, as well as the yearly harvest.

We had our annual visit from Dr. Joan Davenport, and made some changes to our plant nutrition program, and dealt with the usual seasonal tasks for summer, winter, and spring.

Some team members celebrated some big work anniversaries, and everyone celebrated a couple of safety milestones by getting to go home a little early! We also welcomed two new employees this year on our Facilities and Equipment team and at the office, and are currently looking for someone to join our ICM team!

It’s been a huge year for our stewardship work with New Jersey Audubon and Pine Creek Forestry. The Northern Bobwhite Quail Initiative continues to go well, and even received some national and state recognition! We’re truly honored to be working with such great partners on such an important project.

Harvest continues to be the topic our readers are most interested in, and this year, they got to see a bit more than usual! In addition to our weekly blog posts, we received visits from both Nora Muchanic and Mike Jerrick, as well as several print publications. We’re always glad to tell people about doing what we love, and how our team does whatever it takes to make the prettiest sight in the pines happen, year after year!

Last but not least, we got to celebrate at a very special Annual Growers Meeting, which we’re planning on enjoying for quite some time.

We’re so glad you’ve continued following us from “Bog to Bottle” (as one of our favorite people at Ocean Spray likes to say) for the past six years, and we’re looking forward to keeping you updated for many years to come!

Preparing for spring 2018

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The weather sure likes to keep things interesting around here! Just two weeks ago we were experiencing an early spring, but this week we ended up shoveling several inches of snow. Nevertheless, spring should actually arrive for real before too long, and our team is getting prepared!

First, though, they have to do some clean-up. “A lot of tree branches came down during those last two storms,” says Matt Giberson. “So we’ve been clearing all that out.” The weather also, unfortunately, put a hold on sanding, but the team is very nearly finished! “We have two, two and a half days left,” Matt says. “We’re taking advantage of the time change to work a little later next week to finish it up. We would have been done today, if the weather had cooperated, but unfortunately it did not!”

Once that’s finished, though, the team will take advantage of the location. “Once we’re done, we’re going to patch up some dams that need work over at Sim Place, since we’ll have all the equipment we’ll need for that over there already. In the meantime, we’ll bring the sanding barges back and move on to installing gates up at the Cedar Swamp renovation.”

We’ll also be taking off the water before too long! “We’ll have a small crew doing early draw this year,” Matt says. “The plan is to do two to three systems a day to get ahead of that, concentrating on the young beds that we’re not going to frost protect this year. The priority will be getting Cedar Swamp ready to go so we can get the planting started. The earlier we plant, the earlier we get a head start on the growing season.”

As far as the established beds are concerned, the last two days of March the team will be installing the sprinklers before starting to take the rest of the water off the first week of April. “I haven’t done the numbers yet, but we’re shooting for four to five systems a day,” says Matt. “We’re not doing anything too unusual, but we have a lot of work ahead of us!”

The team has a busy spring planned, but there’s no doubt they’ll do whatever it takes to get it all done. And don’t forget, if you want to join them, we’re still looking for an ICM foreman!

February spring

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February has definitely been an interesting month for Pine Island. In addition to celebrating a spectacular Super Bowl outcome (the Eagles won the Super Bowl, in case you hadn’t heard) there’s been a patch of unseasonably warm weather.

“Warm weather in February doesn’t affect our crop too much,” says Matt Giberson. “We’re seeing some trees budding, though, and it’s really having an effect on the wildlife. Louis opened all the doors in the shop the other morning, and as Mike, Steve, Jeremy, & I were going over the plan for the day, a big frog hopped in and headed over to us like he owned the place.” Steve apparently sent him on his way, but as of this morning, the frog has yet to send in a completed job application.

In addition to the frogs, there have also been several turtles on the move; they might even get to where they’re going by the time spring actually arrives. And while many birds have become more active, we haven’t seen much of our eagles lately.

(We have, however, been keeping up on our Eagles. Who won the Super Bowl, by the way.)

A warm week with little to no wind has also been a great opportunity for our team to do some prescribed burning, which Mike Haines helped with for the first time and found really interesting. “It’s been kind of wet, but it hasn’t rained for a little while and Matt said that conditions were good,” Mike says. “We started burning some pieces that have been done on a consistent basis so it wouldn’t be too intense, which is a good chance to learn. The fire can get big if it hasn’t been done for a while. We started roadside over by the Turf reservoir and then burned a couple of places in the woods by Weymouth and Bluetta.” While some of this is to control the amount of fuel on the ground in case of wildfire, we also do this kill the briars in this particular section, as they can get into the bogs and carry fairy ring. (Fairy ring is not to be confused with actual jewelry, such as a Super Bowl ring, for example. It’s tough to fight–much like the Eagles defense–and doesn’t always have a happy ending…much like the Dallas post-season for the last twenty years or so.)

It’s already started to cool down considerably, but our team remains on track to finish sanding by March 9th!

And, of course, hope springs eternal that our Phillies might finish the upcoming season over .500.

Work anniversaries!

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This month, we celebrate work milestones for two of our team members: Carlos Baez and Jose Cruz-Soto, better known to all of us as Blondie!

Carlos has been back with us full-time for ten years now, but he’s actually been around for what seems like forever, first starting out as a seasonal worker and eventually moving up to Equipment Supervisor. “It’s great to have someone knowledgeable and capable backing me up when I’m not here,” says his manager, Louis Cantafio. “There can’t be interruptions in the service that the shop provides, so it’s important we have someone here to place orders, schedule jobs, and to make sure service calls in the field don’t go unanswered. We have to do what we do every day, and when I’m not here, we can count on Carlos for that. I never have to worry that things won’t get done.” Carlos enjoys being here, as well, Louis says. “I know he likes it here. And he’s here for us, there’s no doubt about that.”

Fellow equipment team member Ernie Waszkiewicz agrees: “He gets done what we need to get done; he’s a good guy.”

CEO Bill Haines also has high praise for Carlos. “Carlos started here I don’t know how many years ago as a seasonal employee with the harvest crew. He came on board as a full time employee helping Mike Guest on facilities, and then when we were kind of in a pinch and shorthanded at the old shop, he stepped in and held the fort for a long time. I’ve always appreciated that. He’ll do anything you ask him to do, even if it’s outside of his duties at the shop. He’ll make trips to the airport to pick up seasonal employees, he’ll come to work in the middle of the night if we need him. He’s always a guy you can count on.”

Blondie’s been with us now for twenty years and is the team early bird! “If I’m not the first one here in the morning, it’s because Blondie is,” Louis says. “He’s here and he’s out back, cleaning out the bus from the day before, or scrubbing out his water jug, getting the ice and the water for his crew set up for the day. While everyone else is getting here and settling in he’s already got 20 minutes in getting stuff ready for his crew. He really looks after his people; he makes sure they have their water, they have their tools, they have ice. He’s good.”

“Blondie also known as Smiley for good reason,” says Matt Giberson. “He’s always ready to work. He usually beats me to the shop by 6:15 and is the first one to greet me in the morning. His great enthusiasm,and ‘whatever it takes’ attitude is exactly what you get every morning no matter what the conditions outside. He never complains, and is always willing to ask questions to make things better here at Pine Island.”

“Blondie is one of those quiet guys that does a lot of thankless work, but it never occurs to me to ask if he’s here or not, because Blondie is always there and always has been, ” Bill says. “I couldn’t ask for a more loyal employee.”

“Pine Island is lucky to have those two on our team,” Bill says. “I’m glad they’ve been here for so long, and I hope it says something about what a good workplace we have here that we have employees like them who commit to us for decades.”

Ocean Spray AGM – 2018

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This week, CEO Bill Haines and manager Mike Haines attended the Ocean Spray Annual Growers Meeting (AGM) and a good time was had by all!

…At least, by all of the Eagles fans in attendance!

In all seriousness, the Ocean Spray AGM is always fun, and a great chance to catch up with fellow growers in a lovely, relaxing setting. “It’s always awesome to have the chance to check out new products,” Mike says, “and being able to catch up with growers from other regions is invaluable. I was able to sit with with Cass [Gilmore] and Ben [Richards] and had a good talk with them about fertilizer, for instance. I told them what Jeremy [Fenstermaker] and I learned in Wisconsin, and what they’re doing up in Massachusetts sounded similar; they said they’re getting good results. Cass even sent slides from a grower meeting they had about fertilizing hybrids more heavily and more often; I’ve been thinking about that, so it’s good to see those results.”

There were some good opportunities for leisure time at the beach and dinner with other New Jersey growers, as well as some good-natured football rivalry! “I wore Eagles gear every single day and never took my hat off,” Mike says. “And Peter Dhillon [Chairman of the Board of Directors] lost a bet, so he conducted the meeting while wearing Dad’s hat!” (Bill and neighbor Steve Lee broke out the Eagles polo shirts. Subtle, but effective.)

“It was good to see growers from around the country, and think that despite the pressures facing the industry that it was a positive meeting,” Bill says. “It was great being at Marco Island, it was a great Super Bowl party, it was great to be with the growers. All in all, I think everyone came away feeling positive about Ocean Spray and positive about the future of the industry.”

*Some photos provided by John Parke and Nadine Haines.

Equipment: New sander

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Sanding, our biggest winter project, continues this week, but we’ve made some changes since the last batch of ice started melting!

We are currently running two sanding teams, and one of them has begun using the new, larger sander, designed to increase our speed and efficiency! We’ve redesigned our sanding plan a couple of times over the years, as we’re always looking at what are the best practices for the crop, and this new machine will help us reach our targets.

“We started thinking about this a couple of years ago when we wanted to increase our sanding practices and cover about a quarter of the farm every year,” says COO Bryan vonHahmann. “The wintertime can be tough, not knowing what Mother Nature’s going to do to us. So shortening the time to sand while increasing number of acres was a challenge! Our initial thought was to increase the size of the equipment by fifty percent, taking it from 10 feet to 15 feet, but we were leery of the amount of water that would displace and how much we’d be able to flood the bogs, not to mention the mechanical problems it poses. We settled on going twenty percent bigger; it’s patterned after our existing sanders, but 12 feet wide with a bigger hopper. It’s already a huge improvement; with the old sanders, the excavator could fill them in three swings with two buckets of sand and a partial third. This new one takes three good-size bucket loads, and since that’s still only three swings on the excavator, it takes roughly the same amount of time to load but it’s covering 20% more ground. This gives us a 10% net increase in coverage, with our goal being putting another one in operation before we start sanding next year and get a full 20% increase.”

The team is still thinking of ways to increase speed and efficiency, however. Because the sanders can only come up to the dam to for a fresh load of sand, there’s a distance from the ditches at both the beginning and end of the dam which can be missed. “We’ve also purchased a used side-discharge manure spreader to fill in the gaps,” Bryan says. “We’ve retrofitted it to slow it down, then did a fair amount of experimenting and finally came up with something that seems to be working. What we do is we drive it down the dam and it throws sand out the side, roughly 15 to 20 feet. We’ve only just started using it, and the wind affects it quite a bit; it needs a calm day with no ice on the beds.”

While the machine was not running much this week, thanks to the weather, operator Wilfredo Pagan has been very pleased and is very excited about the increased speed and coverage area. And if the weather cooperates, we’re hoping to get some video so you can see it in action!

Vendors: Kreischer Miller

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Our team is working steadily on all of our usual winter tasks, so we thought we’d take a quick look this week at one of our favorite vendors: tax firm Kreischer Miller. From their website:

Kreischer Miller is a leading independent accounting, tax, and advisory firm serving the Greater Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas. We’ve built our firm to respond to the unique needs of private companies, helping you smoothly transition through growth phases, business cycles, and ownership changes. The companies we work with quickly adapt and respond to changing market opportunities and challenges. That’s why our focus is on being responsive, decisive, and forward-thinking. We’re up to the challenge—always looking at the road ahead, not in the rear-view mirror.

We’ve been working with them for about four years now, based on a recommendation from one of most trusted friends, John Krol from Legacy Advisors.

“We trust John’s opinion!” says CFO Joann Martin. “After he gave us his recommendation, we met with director Mario Vicari and found they were an excellent fit for our particular needs. There are a lot of complexities with co-op accounting, there’s the international angle with CAC…but they do everything, and if there’s something they don’t specialize in they have no problem referring us to an affiliate. Their entire team is fantastically responsive, too; I primarily work with Brad Frederick and Julie Miller and anytime I have a question they get back to me right away. Just a great place to work with.”

They also do wonderful work for the community:

At Kreischer Miller, we’re committed to actively supporting the communities in which we live and work. We have a strong belief in serving others and we strive to make our community and world a better place. That’s why we created the Kreischer Miller Cares program.

The program is comprised of two main components. First, we sponsor an annual Day of Service event, during which we close our office and send groups of team members to conduct variety of service activities in support of several local organizations. Second, we also host monthly firm-sponsored initiatives to provide an opportunity for team members to get involved with and contribute to worthy causes.

The significant participation of our team members in the Kreischer Miller Cares program is evidence of the character and quality of individuals we employ.

CEO Bill Haines is highly pleased with their work, as well. “Another great recommendation from John Krol,” he says. “It’s been a really good relationship over the past four years. Mario Vicari is our lead partner; I deal with him directly, and it’s always great. We have excellent discussions not only about accounting, but a lot of business issues. His advice is very valuable and his whole team’s very talented.”

Thank you to Mario, Brad, Julie, and the entire team at Kreischer Miller for everything you do . . . GO BIRDS!

ACGA Winter Meeting 2018

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This week the American Cranberry Growers Association once again held its annual winter meeting. The ACGA winter meeting is always a good opportunity for growers to listen to research findings from experiments during the previous growing season and the researchers’ recommendations for the 2018 growing season. In addition, it’s a great chance for the local cranberry community to catch up to each other after the busy harvest season.

This year, the attendees from Pine Island were Mike Haines, Matt Giberson, Matt Stiles, and Justin Ross, and all of them found the presentations useful and informative. The top presentation for all four of them was the work being done by Jennifer Johnson-Cicalese on new varieties. “Jennifer’s was my favorite this time,” says Mike. “Improving rot resistance will keep the industry as viable as possible in NJ, and it sounds like they’re making progress on that.” Matt Giberson agrees: “That’s most important for our needs. If she finds out a way to produce a new variety with lower rot, it can really help us.”

Everyone was also interested in the report by Peter Oudemans on heat, with Matt being especially interested in the use of fake berries with heat sensors to measure internal temperature. It was also his first chance to hear from Thierry Besançon. “I’m glad he’s working on the red root issue,” Matt says. “We can see from Red Road how the different treatments are working, and it looks like he’s been making good progress.”

The final presentation of the day was the safety talk, delivered by someone other than Ray Samulis for the first time any of us can remember. “It was weird not having Ray there!” Matt says. “George did a good job though; that was good info on new regulations throughout the year and I was glad to see we’re a little ahead of the game with our current training program.”

“I thought it was a great meeting,” says Matt Stiles. “All of the presenters did a great job conveying useful information to us that we will be able to use throughout the growing season.” He is also grateful to everyone that helped put it together. So a huge thank you, as always to Dr. Cesar Rodriguez-Saona for yet another fantastic program! Cesar does a ton of work on this every year in addition to his research, and we’re all grateful for the opportunity.

“This was a great learning experience,” says newer Pine Island team member Justin Ross. “There’s a lot of good stuff going on and a lot of energy in the industry.”

Pine Island Team Profiles – Michael Vitale

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This past October, Pine Island welcomed new Accounting Manager Mike Vitale to our team!

Mike has been here for three months now and seems to have settled in well. A lifelong resident of Manahawkin, Mike graduated from Stockton University, obtaining his accounting degree in 2013 and following that with a finance degree in 2017. “I first heard about the job via a recruiting firm,” he says. “I had family in Warren Grove who were cranberry growers a long time ago; working in the field piqued my interest and the position seemed to fit where I was at my professional career.”

He’s been greatly enjoying the position so far. “it’s a good environment here,” he says. “I never feel stressed out. The people here are great, and there’s never a problem asking questions. It’s been a good place to learn, especially for my first real job out of college. I can ask anyone here anything and it all feels pretty open.” Starting a new job in this industry in the middle of harvest can be tough, but Mike only noticed that in retrospect. “I didn’t realize how hectic things were until they quieted down!” he says. “But that’s good; it kept me busy, and it was interesting to learn about the process and see what goes into it.”

“Every week we work on something new,” says CFO Joann Martin, Mike’s immediate supervisor. “Because it’s yearend time we’re doing lots of different things besides our normal everyday tasks. Hopefully I’m being a good teacher!” She says Mike did very well getting thrown into the deep end at harvest time. “It always takes a little time to get all the people right, working out travel and vacation times and stuff like that. But Mike did fine, and he’s understanding the system well. He went through a little bit of QuickBooks training too, which shows his willingness to learn. Right now it’s all about learning the activities that we do at different times of year, and he’s actually done a lot to help us streamline some of our processes. He’s doing well for his first job out of college.”

We’re sure Mike will continue to be a great fit with our Pine Island team!