ORCHARDS

Pastore

Packing Blueberries

From mid-June to early August, we are busy packing over 100 acres of blueberries. Check out the pictures of our packing machine and the video below to learn how blueberries are packed and prepared for shipment to our customers and to local grocery stores!

Blueberries are first dumped onto the initial inspection conveyor belt where they are manually cleaned of leaves and stems. The berries then enter the blower where any remaining leaves as well as small and green berries are discarded. Next, the berries enter the color/defect sorter. The color defect sorter houses an infrared camera that takes a picture of each berry and determines the berry quality. Any green, soft or defected berries are automatically removed. The blueberries then enter the manual conveyor belt where a final quality inspection is performed.

Once the blueberries have been inspected they continue to the hopper/filler. Containers are released from the denester and travel underneath the hopper where they are automatically filled with berries. Once filled, the containers enter the container closer and then an ink jet printer where each container is labeled with the date, the container size, the grower number and the warehouse location.