Vegetable variety handled at packing company
By SALLY BAIR be harvested at this time of squash daily into frozen pulp
Staff Writer year? ready to be made into
LANCASTER - Ever At Consumers Packing delicious pumpkin pies,
dream of the hundreds of Company, Plum and liberty Consumer Packing, which
pumpkin pies which can be Streets, Lancaster, the began as an ice company, is
made from all those squash dream is a reality as they in its 75th year, and its
laying in the fields waiting to process 100-120 tons of largest locally grown
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Haines Walker, left, plant manager, and Mervin Hess, field manager, look over
part Of the daily processing run of squash.
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Frank Snavely, on the left, and Robert K. Bowman, proudly show off the
Consumers private label for their frozen foods.
products are hubbard and
butternut squash which are
processed for use in pies.
There are over 24 fanners in
Lancaster County supplying
the squash, with the larger
supply area stretching north
to Gratz in northern Dauphin
county and east to Hun
tingdon county. The size of
the crop ranges from one
acre to 120 acres.
Robert K. Bowman, vice
president and general
manager for Consumers,
says that squash is a good
cash crop for local farmers,
and while some harvesting is
done by machine, much of
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MILLER'S REPAIR
1 Mile North of Bird-in-Hand
8 Miles East of Lancaster
RDI, Bird-in-Hand, PA Phone: 717-656-9013
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 7,1978
the crop in this county is
harvested by hand.
Bowman characterized
this year’s crop as “super
yielding crops, with record
field yields.” He said at first
the squash appeared to be
very small in size, but the
weight is heavier than usual,
so he added, “It looks like it
will be a record yield.”
Because of the wet May
weather, Bowman said that
farmers were about two to
three weeks late in planting
the crop, so Consumers is
running two weeks late with
their harvest. However, if
there is no heavy frost in the
near future, the squash will
be in heavy production from
now until Thanksgiving.
Another large volume food
processed at Consumers is
frozen double cut white
sweet corn which is
packaged for the John F.
Cope Company, Inc. This
sweet com comes mainly
from Pennsylvania and
Maryland, Bowman said.
Because of the sandy soil
in Maryland and New Jer
sey, these two states are the
firm’s largest supplier of
spinach, a product which is
processed in large quantities
at Consumers. Green and
wax beans are frozen there,
with the bulk of that crop
harvested in Pennsylvania
and New Jersey. However,
Bowman noted that they
contract for beans from
Florida to New York State.
He added that they like to
purchase crops as close to
their plant as possible.
Obviously the largest part
of Consumer’s business is
processed during the high
yield summer months, but
mushrooms are processed
there year round. Many of
the mushrooms come from
neighboring Chester County,
but Butler County in western
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