Before dawn on a cool July morning, the rumble of cars breaks the silence on a farm on Colorado’s Western Slope. Agricultural workers, prepared for the sunrise with long-sleeved shirts and baseball caps, gather on the road to await the start of the first day of sweet corn harvest.
John Harold, founder of Tuxedo Corn Company in Olathe, has run this farm for decades and always feels a little nervous during the season kickoff. After many months of fighting the elements, he’ll soon get a first look at this year’s crop.
As daylight crests on the horizon, a refurbished five-ton U.S. Army truck takes its position on the north side of one plot. The machine has been custom-tailored to meet the needs of the corn harvesting process, but as it spreads two metal wings to reveal platforms where workers will stand, the odd-looking vehicle looks as suitable for Burning Man as it does the cornfields.
Tuxedo Corn Company farmer John Harold watches as trucks pull into gather boxes of Olathe Sweet brand sweet corn for delivery across the United States from a field off Falcon Road, southwest of Olathe, Colorado, on Monday morning, July 22, 2024. (Special to The Denver Post, William Woody)
What’s more impressive, however, are the dozens of agricultural workers it transports, those who are responsible for bringing this coveted crop to the hungry Colorado masses.
Harvesting sweet corn is primarily a manual operation. While workers are often aided by machines, most of the process – from picking to packaging – is done by hand.
That’s true of many Colorado-grown fruits and veggies, including peaches and cherries, as well as products that you don’t find in grocery stores, like hops.
At Tuxedo Corn, workers follow the retrofitted military vehicle through the cornfields and pick ears that they deposit in collection trays on each wing. Individuals standing on the truck then gather the ears and stack them into crates of 48 each. Those standing on the second level build and distribute the crates that eventually get filled. And once they are, workers slide the crates down a ramp and stack them onto a flatbed truck that’s being towed behind the picking vehicle.
The operation is a well-oiled machine. One pass through the cornfield produces exactly enough crates to fill the truck bed. Harold, dressed in overalls and a flannel shirt, follows closely behind the crews, shucking and analyzing random ears.
“That looks like something the birds got after, and the bugs came behind them. So we haven’t really solved our problem, we’re still working on it,” Harold said, referring to an ear worm infestation that plagued the farm in 2023.
There’s not much time to dwell — the good ears will be in grocery stores the following day.
A few weeks later, as July fades to August, peaches begin to ripen about 30 miles away from Olathe at Ela Family Farms in Hotchkiss. Proprietors Steve Ela and Regan Choi plant several varieties of the stone fruit at varying times so that they …read more
Source:: The Denver Post – Business
