FIRST BUSINESS TRIP

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to go on a my first business trip. Myself and 2 other co-workers headed over to the other side of the state to meet up with Jeb (from our Monterrey CA office) to visit some of the companies we do business with. We arrived late on Wednesday so on Thursday we went to our first onion sheds. I was able to meet some of the people I have been talking to for the past 5 years. It was awesome to put a face with a name. After meeting everyone we headed out to their facilities to see how they ran the onions we use for our business. The technology that is involved with packing onions and potatoes are incredible. They have to use millions of $$'s worth of machinery to get the product from the dirt to our tables. It gave me a whole new perspective on things. Onions are stored in huge areas were they are allowed to dry out the first 2 layers of skin, which you see when you buy an onion. This allows the onions to store longer. The process of storing them is awe inspiring too. They have these huge fans that go all of the time, sometimes they bring the cool air from the outside or they heat up the onions using huge heaters. During the really cold days, they can use up to 500 gals of propane a day. You do the math, that is an incredible chunk of change.
One of my favorite sheds to visit was in Weiser Id. They showed us a different way to store the onions. Instead of putting the onions in bins that are about 6 x 4 x 3, they have these huge sheds that they just pile the onions up. Each side (usually about 3 to 4 sides) of the shed holds about 300 million pounds of onions. We were able to go above the onions by climbing a ladder that was about 15-20ft high and the shed was longer than 100 yrds if not longer. It reminded me of an old Disney cartoon where Scrooge McDuck swims in his money, well if any of you know that cartoon you will be able to picture it perfectly. But that is what the piles of onions looked like. It was freakin' amazing.
We had a great time while we were there. I learned a ton, got know my onions sheds and how they run, and best of all I was able to get to know my co-workers a lot better. What great people they are. And they sure know how to make me laugh. I was laughing so hard at one point, I was making myself sick.

I will have pictures later.