Category Archives: General

In memory of Anicasia Torres: 1921-2016

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This week, our Pine Island family had to say goodbye to Anicasia Torres, who has for so long been a part of all of our lives. Her late husband Ernesto was Bill Sr’s right hand man for many years, a role their son Fred later took over for Bill, Jr. After Ernesto retired and before they moved back to the area permanently, every trip back to New Jersey meant a round of visiting all of her “kids”, whether or not they were related by blood. She was one of the kindest, most giving people most of us could ever hope to know, and we’ll all miss Doña Nica very much.

Born on September 29, 1921 and raised in Villalba, Puerto Rico, Anicasia married the love of her life, Ernesto, on March 12, 1951 and together they raised 10 children. They came to Chatsworth from Puerto Rico in 1957, retiring back to Puerto Rico in 1992. It was their desire to stay with their children and grandchildren permanently, that returned them to New Jersey in 2006.

Anicasia was a faithful member of St. Nicholas Church. She was a quiet person with a big heart and a big smile. She loved to read, especially the Bible and was a member of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Anicasia was a dedicated homemaker who loved traveling and when company came to visit. She dearly loved all of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and was especially proud of all their achievements.

Predeceased by her husband Ernesto in 2010, four sisters and two brothers, Anicasia is survived by her 10 children – daughter Lucy Zapata (Rick), Green Bank; son Freddy (Cristina), Hammonton; daughter Mildred Morales (Jorge), Chatsworth; son Orlando (Hazel, deceased),Tuckerton; son Clark (Leslie), Medford; son David (Kristy), Laureldale; son Edgar (Trissa), Boston; son Uriel (Neida), Shamong; daughter Eva Haines (Michael),Tabernacle; and son Alex (Carmen) of Egg Harbor City. Affectionately called Grandmom, Memom, Abuela, and G’mom by her 25 adoring grandchildren who will miss her deeply – Eddie and Daniel (Danielle) Zapata; Jonathan (Amanda), Micah (Chelsea) and Sari Torres; Lindsey (Christopher) Hall, Kristina, Stephani and Brandon Morales; Joshua (Jennifer)Torres and Amanda (Thomas) King; Jason (Jessica) Anderson and Jordan Torres; Kaitlyn and Olivia Torres; Nadia and Trevor Torres; Erika (John) Wade and Jessica Torres; Becky Rivera, and Omar Mercado; Timothy, Michelle and Angela Haines; and Juliana Torres; as well as her 11great-grandchildren: Ella and Hudson Torres; Logan Torres; Michael Avery Torres; Alexa and Riley Hall; Luci Morales; Lucas, Dylan, and Caleb King; and Colt Anderson. She is also survived by her brother Juan (Fermina), daughter-in-law Kathy, nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends.

Core values in action

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Pine Island Cranberry’s strategic plan includes this definition of our Core Values (Whatever It Takes, Continuous Improvement, Protect the Enviroment, Continuous Growth, We are Growers, and Provide Opportunity): “Core Values are what we expect of ourselves and one another.” Nowhere were these more evident than when a problem arose on Monday night.

At 5:30 P.M., after most of our team had finished the day and gone home, a fuel-truck operator, out topping off equipment, backed down a tough dam…and got too close to the edge, getting stuck, and almost tipping over into the bog. This can happen with any one of our trucks, and in most cases, all it takes is a single operator on another piece of equipment to pull the truck off the edge and set things in motion again. Unfortunately, in this particular instance our team was not dealing with a dump truck with a load of sand, but a fuel truck with 2400 gallons in its tank. The operator alerted the equipment team, who immediately called out Junior Colon, our usual go-to in cases like this. Junior took one look at the scene, and immediately said, “Call Louis; this is going to need more people.”

“It was bad; the worst I’ve seen,” says Louis. “I mean, equipment goes off the dam, but this wasn’t a load of dirt; it was 2400 gallons of fuel. The big issue was: ‘What do we do if this tips over? What happens then?’ We had to come up with a plan for the worst-case scenario immediately, because if things did start to go bad, there’d be no time to come up with one later.” So while supervisor Carlos Baez worked with Louis to empty our second fuel truck into a 2000 gallon tank (that Louis keeps empty in building 0-3 for just these occasions) and Junior Colon and Mickey Mercado went to our current sanding location to “borrow” two excavators, Gerardo Ortiz started blocking off the water, and Louis called Matt Giberson to put two more drivers on stand-by.

“Louis called me and I drove out right away,” says Gerardo. “I saw the truck had started to go in, so the first thing we did was we close that canal so water couldn’t go to the swamp and spread out. Then we closed off the top to keep the rest of the water in place so we could do something with the oil if we needed to. We were worried if the truck went completely over that we’d lose the oil to the swamp and then from the swamp to the river, so we had to contain it right away. Luckily the dam was hard enough to support the truck; any softer and it would have been a different story.”

The dam had Louis concerned as well. “It took us a long time to empty the spare truck back at the shop, and then we still had to get out to the site to re-start and empty the one that went over. That’s a lot of extra weight; those trucks are top heavy. The waiting is tough; you don’t want to lose dirt. So while all this was going on we had Gerardo shutting the water off, we were planning to get a Crisafulli in, we were dealing with upstream water…all that worst case scenario planning, because if it did go bad there would be no time. Thankfully, it all worked out okay. But that’s the furthest I’ve ever seen the truck leaning over.”

About 9:30, four hours after the truck went off the dam, our team had the truck pulled out and were finally able to go back home. Carlos, Junior, Mickey, Gerardo, and Louis truly pulled together quickly, no questions asked, and immediately did whatever to took to solve the immediate problem as well as working out a plan to provide for several different outcomes and protect our water supply and our environment. “These guys are the best,” says Louis. “When things hit the skids, everyone here just puts their head down and leans into the work. They don’t ask questions; when you call and say you need them, they just say, ‘I’m on my way’.” Carlos agrees: “It was bad that we had to go out there at all, but it was good that everyone did what they had to do, and nothing bad came out of it.”

The next immediate step for our team, however, is making some changes so that nothing like this happens again. Or, as supervisor Matt Giberson puts it, “We need to figure out how to make it better. Louis is great at this stuff; when a situation comes up, he gets everything under control and takes care of it. He called me to have two additional drivers on stand-by, which turned out not to be necessary, but shows a lot of thinking ahead.” One of the solutions, he says, is to work out a re-fueling schedule that avoids sending anyone out at night. In addition, he and Louis worked out some other details that will help avoid incidents and still keep the equipment running smoothly. Some of these solutions include making sure that heavy equipment is moved to locations that are reasonably accessible to the fuel truck (without running it in reverse) and utilizing a bulk truck to fuel small equipment (some of which could be done during the day without shutting that equipment down or stopping it). Louis and Matt have also proposed adding small transfer tanks with 12 volt pumps to two or three crew leader or supervisor trucks that would allow fueling of small equipment without the use of the 5 gallon cans or a bulk truck.

CEO Bill Haines was pleased with the team’s efforts Monday night. “It’s clear the team members that came out Monday have our core values embedded in their hearts, even if they can’t repeat them word for word. They put three of them into action this week: they showed they will do whatever it takes by working in the rain and the dark to get the fuel truck back on the dam; they planned and organized to protect the environment in case the worst happened; finally, they are already looking for continuous improvement by changing our procedures so this doesn’t happen again. I’m proud of all of them.”

Pine Island Team Profiles: Tim Bourgeois

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In the middle of retirements, sanding, and the winter flood, our team is also working on training. Supervisor Tim Bourgeois started with us at the beginning of September, and is taking on increasing responsibility as the year goes on!

Tim, who comes to us with twelve years of agriculture experience, has been doing a variety of tasks since his start date three months ago. “I primarily started out helping Mike [Haines] and Jeremy [Fenstermaker] with the fertilizer applications. I also got to work a bit with the irrigation system, along with occasionally driving a truck or a Hydrema.” Not long after that, harvest started, and Tim jumped right in! “I was on Matt’s crew, mostly driving while hauling berries, but I did every task on that crew at least once. It was interesting to be among the first to learn about the bogside cleaner, too…working through all the bugs, all the trial and error involved.”

More recently, Tim has been on Matt’s sanding crew, and this week, he started learning the most crucial job in cranberry farming. “I started learning the water with Bill on Monday,” he says. “Learning where it’s coming from, where it has to go, and all of the things to go along with that.”

His interest and enthusiasm has not gone unnoticed. “Tim joined the team at one of our busiest times, harvest, and energetically jumped in to help,” says COO Bryan vonHahmann. “Since he was working on getting his CDL, he started off on our harvest team that used the new bog side cleaner driving a semi to the cleaning station. He kept his cool driving an 18 wheeler on dams that were not much wider than the truck. This trend of jumping in and helping out wherever help is needed continues. He’s done a variety of work, including learning how to manage the water, and will soon start training as the lead in all that is related to our fertilizer applications, managing the airstrip as well as all ground applications. He’s has been a great addition to our team, and we’re looking forward to working with him for a long time.”

“I don’t have a favorite job yet,” Tim says. “It’s all been interesting. Working with the water is especially challenging; the whole farm is a chessboard, where you have to get water from one side to the other and keep moving pieces around. It’s a fascinating process!” He’s particularly looking forward to being here throughout the entire growing season. “I can’t wait to see it from the beginning.” He’s also pleased about meeting more people within the industry: “It’s going to be great meeting all the Rutgers researchers, and the folks from Ocean Spray too, so I can learn more about how everything’s tied in. I’ve always enjoyed going to different grower meetings, learning what’s new and what’s coming up…just exchanging ideas with people doing the research.”

Retirement

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Pine Island bid a fond farewell this week to General Manager Fred Torres, who began his retirement on Tuesday!

We’re all going to miss Fred tremendously. He always gave the job 100%, and never asked anyone to do something he wouldn’t do himself. “He’s taught me so much since I’ve been here,” says supervisor Matt Giberson. “His work ethic is something else, and he really has the kind of personality that encourages people every single day. I’m going to miss the guy. He worked here for over forty years, he grew up here. After that long, the farm becomes a part of you, and you’re part of the farm as well.”

“There are a lot of ways we’re going to miss Fred,” says Facilities/Equipment manager Louis Cantafio. “He’s going to be a tough act to follow. He did a lot of hands-on work and had a ton of institutional knowledge. He was always up and always working…checking the temperature in the middle of the night, making phone calls, checking the water. He always knew what was going around here, every single minute.”

“It won’t be the same without Fred. Not only have I worked with him every day for forty-four years, but we worked together every summer before that; I’ve known him since we were five years old,” says CEO Bill Haines. “I knew his dad, who worked here for over forty years; I knew all of his brothers and his sisters. We did everything together as kids, and during summers we did everything together as well; we were shed boys, we cleaned ditches. And after we grew up and had real responsibility for the business, he was always my right hand. I could count on him to be there when he needed to be there and get done what needed to get done. I’m going to miss him as a GM, but am going to miss him more as a man.”

Thanks for everything, Fred! Neither the blog nor the buffet line will be the same without you.

Sanding 2015

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Our team has started flooding the bogs for winter, which means that our annual sanding project is now underway. Sanding is a fundamental component of our Pine Island Integrated Crop Management (PIICM) program, helping us manage the relationship between water, soil, weather, disease, insects, weeds, and nutrition. Sanding is a process where we apply 1″ of sand on the bog surface every four years on a rotating basis. This year we are scheduled to sand over 350 acres. This procedure helps improve growth and yield by stimulating the development of new uprights (covering the base of the roots strengthens the root system and creates a more healthy vine) while also suppressing disease and reducing insects (by burying weed seed, spores, and insect eggs). It also improves soil drainage while at the same time absorbing and releasing heat so that frost danger in spring is lessened. This increases our efficiency by lowering the need for extra plant nutrition as well as saving water by cutting down frost irrigation times.

In New Jersey, it doesn’t always get cold enough for ice sanding (the preferred method for growers at more northern latitudes), so our team usually works with a sanding barge. This process starts as you might expect: checking water levels. Our team needs to make sure the water is the right depth so the barge operator doesn’t get stuck on any vines or worse, tear them out. Also, the sand needs to be as pure as possible in order to prevent soil compaction (which can restrict water and limit growth) so we screen our sand before using it on the barge to take out any clay, stones, or other debris which could cause problems.

Our team begins to prep a couple of days beforehand by checking to see how much the water level needs to come up. The day before the crew arrives, a supervisor will get the water to sanding level (high enough to cover all vines) and measure out the distance the sander will travel. The crew will begin to sand on the deepest side. The water level can then be adjusted if necessary, which helps with dam conservation.

Our team also prepares by sending the necessary equipment out to the sanding location. A tractor with a winch is on one side of the bog, ready to move the length of the bog; an excavator is on the opposite side of the bog. The cable from the winch is stretched across the bog, through the sander (which has been lifted and put in the bog next to the excavator), and connected to the excavator.

The process itself is simple: a truck is loaded with sand, then heads over to the bog being sanded, backs up to the excavator, and drops the load into our specially built sandbox (designed to improve efficiency and reduce waste). The excavator operator then loads the hopper of the sander, while the sander operator moves along the cable, adjusting the opening for the sand to fall. The process is repeated, with the excavator and tractor moving forward the length of the bog together.

As GM Fred Torres has said in the past, “You have to sand when it’s time to sand; you can’t wait for perfect weather to do what needs to be done.” Unfortunately, though, we had to delay a little bit this week due to the weather. “Heavy rains can slow the process down,” explains Jeremy Fenstermaker. “It’s a lot of wear and tear on the dams, and we’d spend more time fixing them than getting the actual sanding done.” That’s where new equipment helps: “Now that we’re using Hydremas, the work gets done faster, and their wide tires are a lot easier on the dams.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

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This entry was originally posted on November 27, 2013.

It’s almost inevitable that a cranberry blog would do an entry about Thanksgiving! It’s a holiday which really is a chance for us here at Pine Island to relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor. (Sorry.) Many traditions in the Haines family come from cranberries, both our own and through the Ocean Spray cooperative. And best of all, they’re usually locally sauced! (Really sorry. We’ll stop now.) CEO Bill Haines goes out every year toward the end of harvest and hand scoops several pounds of berries for family use, using a wooden scoop that’s been in the family for generations.

Huge thanks to our friends at Ocean Spray for allowing us to use the following recipes and photographs, as well as posting the information showing us how these recipes are berry good for both you as well as the environment! (We said we were done. We lied. After all, cranberry farming can be a barrel of laughs.)

To start off, of course, you’ll want a cocktail. Vodka and cranberry is a popular combination, but did you know it actually has a name? To make a Cape Codder, you’ll just need the following:

Ingredients:

6 ounces Ocean Spray® Cranberry Juice Cocktail, chilled
1 1/2 ounces vodka
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions:

Pour into a tall glass filled with ice. Makes 1 serving.

Of course, you can’t have a turkey without stuffing. Cape Cod Cornbread Stuffing just fits the bill:

Ingredients:

2 cups cornbread stuffing cubes
1/2 pound sausage meat, cooked, drained and crumbled
1 cup Ocean Spray® Fresh or Frozen Cranberries
1/2 cup diced onion
1/3 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons thyme
1/2 cup chicken broth

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Combine all ingredients, except chicken broth, in a medium casserole dish. Add chicken broth; mix well. Add more chicken broth for a moister stuffing. Cover and bake for 30 minutes or until heated through. Makes 3 cups.

The following is a classic for a reason; it pairs perfectly with a leftover turkey sandwich! (Or, as some first graders we know have done…mix it with mayo and put it on a hamburger. To each her own.)

Homemade Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12-ounce package Ocean Spray® Fresh or Frozen Cranberries, rinsed and drained

Directions:

Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil; add cranberries, return to boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.

Makes 2 1/4 cups.

This side dish doesn’t contain any cranberries, but who’s to say you couldn’t add some Craisins?

Brussels Sprouts with Toasted Pecans

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds fresh brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Trim stems of brussels sprouts; remove any damaged leaves.

Place brussels sprouts in 3-quart saucepan; add water to just cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat; simmer until brussels sprouts are tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain; keep warm.

In the meantime, toast pecans. Place nuts in single layer on baking sheet. Bake in 350° oven 3 to 5 minutes or until light golden brown, watching carefully.

Melt butter in same saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic; cook and stir 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Stir in brussels sprouts and pecans; toss gently to coat. Season with salt and pepper.

Makes 6 servings.

Last but not least, we have dessert: a longtime family favorite is a cranberry nut pie that Bill’s mother used to make.

SARA’S CRANBERRY NUT PIE

Ingredients:

Filling:
2 cups cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar

Topping:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup melted margarine
2 eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract

Directions:

Mix the first three ingredients together and spread in the bottom of a greased 10 in pie plate. Mix together the last five ingredients and pour over cranberry mixture. Bake 55-60 minutes in a preheated 325 degree oven. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

No photos of that last one…it usually gets eaten too quickly. Happy Thanksgiving, from all of us to all of you!

Winter is coming.

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Preparation for our winter projects has begun! Mostly, this means getting ready for the winter flood.

As we have discussed here before, drainage is a key element in Pine Island Cranberry’s water management program. In addition to having irrigation systems that reduce water usage, well-drained soil is necessary to keep a bog’s root system functional. Beds should be designed for adequate drainage, which is essential for good root development and aeration as well as prevention of conditions that can lead to the presence of Phytophthora, which causes fruit rot and root rot.

Under normal conditions, the temperature steadily drops post-harvest; it is important to wait until the vines go dormant before starting to put the water on. Once they freeze and aren’t covered with water, the roots can become exposed, and we need to cover them as fast as possible.

Flooding starts by letting in streams from the reservoirs to canals and bogs. Strategic board placement (more boards in the southernmost bogs to catch the water) will get the ditches high enough to start flooding from the bottom up. As the water level in the bogs begins to rise, our team begins adjusting the water level in the bogs by adding boards where they are needed. Once the vines are covered and the stream has settled, we adjust the level of the reservoirs to maintain the stream and keep the bogs flooded for the winter. Wells are shut down once bogs are flooded, and only turned on again if it is dry and reservoir levels are dropping.

In addition to water management, our shop team is busy winterizing facilities and equipment by clearing out gutters and downspouts to prevent ice build up, shutting off the water supply to outside faucets, and draining all exterior water lines where necessary. They are also making sure to top off fuel tanks and perform other routine maintenance tasks in order to keep everything running as efficiently as possible!

Harvest wrap-up: 2015

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Harvest is over for another year, and our teams are ready to move on to their winter tasks. This week, some of them reflected on this year’s harvest, and what some of the differences were this year.

“Based on crop conditions, we found ourselves needing to change our harvest strategy significantly,” says COO Bryan vonHahmann. “It was great to see the crew leads pull together and work through the new plan that was evolving every day; this was all done while learning new equipment and working on increasing efficiency, and we still completed harvest on time.”

GM Fred Torres was similarly pleased: “We had to make new plans, but once we did I feel they were well executed,” he says. “It was a job well done, as far as moving water was concerned.” He emphasized that the plans didn’t just include flooding, but actually moving water from place to place with the help of Crisafulli pumps, thanks to difficulties with the weather. This meant our picking crews also had some logistical challenges with equipment, due to the change in picking patterns. “We had to move more people and equipment around than we usually do; move a truck here, a tractor there, put extra men on the picking machines because they were picking a large bog out of the ‘usual’ order. It took planning, but in the end we did what we had to do, and we did it well!”

Team leader Matt Giberson learned a lot about water management this year. “You never stop learning,” he says, “but this year in particular had a lot to offer. All three teams mostly picked their usual assigned bogs, but we all stretched a little and went to some different sections this year. I learned a lot about different ways to flood. At the beginning of the season we had very little water; we got that big rain, which helped, but then it started drying up again. It kept us on our toes!” The bogside cleaner, which his crew ran, was also a test for them: “I was really worried the first week; it was a rough start. But the shop and the team both said, we’re gonna figure this out, and we stuck together and made a lot of great changes. There are still a couple of things to improve on, but we can fix it. I have some ideas, and so do the guys on the equipment team.” This was also Matt’s first year with the Gates Harrow, and he quickly figured out where it would work best and why.

This week, we also said goodbye to our seasonal crew until next year! Thank you, guys…we’ll see you next fall!

Trommel

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Pine Island Cranberry has only been using our bogside cleaner for one season but our team is already figuring out ways to make it even better!

Our Equipment team spent a considerable amount of time over the past month or so working on a trommel attachment in order to increase the efficiency of the bogside cleaner. (A trommel, also known as a “trommel screen,” is a screened cylinder used to separate materials by size.)

The team took it on a trial run last week and were pleased with the results! “It did exactly what it was supposed to do,” says welder Fred Henschel. What this new extension is actually supposed to do is take in all the trash produced by the berry pump: berries that are too small, leaves, twigs…anything not supposed to go with the fruit, along with all the water it’s pulling up from the bog. “The problem before was, we were pulling in so much water it wasn’t separating from the trash enough,” Fred says. “We couldn’t entirely disperse the water and the trash truck would end up pulling away more than half full of water as opposed to full of just the debris.”

The team’s modifications made it possible to send clean water back into the bog and the debris into the trucks. It was also more efficient from a time and fuel standpoint, since instead of using three to four trash trucks per trailer load of berries, the gathering crew was able to load one tractor trailer with one trash truck. “It saved time on switching, as well,” Fred says. When it was time to switch out the trash truck, the team would have to stop the pump, pull the truck all the way out to the far corner of the bog, then back another truck all the way back in. Skipping that step allows the harvest to move much faster.

And in the true spirit of doing whatever it takes…”The guys were so excited to try it out that it couldn’t fail,” Fred says.

*Photos by Fred Henschel