Peas By The Ton

While thousands of tourists and Nelsoniana were enjoying the Christmas-New Year vacation, in the country districts and at the factory of Snowcraft at Stoke, the harvesting and processing of this year's pea crop was going on apace. Not even the approach and arrival of darkness interfered with work. Tractors equipped with special mowers moved into the pea crops at 10 p.m and the trucks and their loading machines commenced to pick up the peas from 2 a.m. The pea viners at Richmond began to hum at 4 a.m. and the factory, silent from midnight, again began work at 6 a.m. The work continued day in, day out. There was no time to lose. In a day, peas, at their very best, could lose the flavour sought by the processing company.

The Snowcraft food processing factory at Stoke supplies New Zealand with its products and as well exports many tons of frozen vegetables to Britain. It has a factory staff of about 20 and a field staff of about 12, During the pea season, from November to the end of January, the factory will handle between 7 50 to 800 tons of peas and when the pea crop is finished, turns then to beans, cauliflowers, corn and sprouts. In this little story of this vary important local industry, we will take you right through the processing programme, from the harvesting of the crop to the packing of the finished frozen product.

Field supervisor Maurice Ivory ami farmer Phil Chisnall discuss the peas being cropped on Phil's farm at Brightwater.

The peas, cut off at the vine, are loaded mechanically into trucks

Two tractor mowers working side by aide make short work of the cutting.

Robin Maling, control laboratory technician, and June Spencer, his assistant, shell peas the hard way to assess the degree of ripeness. Should their tests be favourable, the harvesting of this crop will commence the next day.

A mountain of peas and vines arrive at the pea viner.

The vines are fed into the battery of vinera where the pods are threshed and the peas extracted.

On arrival at the factory the peas pass through a series of four washes.

On emerging from the last wash the peas are hand-sorted to ensure no defective peas go to the consumer.

Factory engineer Addo Mulders check, on the big steam cooker through which all the peas must pass.

After passing into the blast freezer the peas are then stockpiled in big bags and stowed in a cool store until wanted.

Refrigeration engineer Don Hopwood has an important job

From the sorting bench the peas travel by conveyor to the blast freezer (-40 degs), where they emerge 12 minutes later deep frozen.

Packing free flow peas for the consumer

A conveyor belt takes the filled bags to the women who seal them

Hard-pack frozen peas being prepared for the market.

A refrigerated van leaves with a huge load for the North Island

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The Nelson Photo News

No 39 : February 8, 1964

Peas By The Ton