BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015
A4 HERMISTONHERALD.COM
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Hermiston Foods
has processed
local vegetables
for 25 years
BY SEAN HART
HERMISTON HERALD
The asparagus harvest
rolled through the lines
at Hermiston Foods last
week as the plant fired up
for its 25th year of pro-
cessing and freezing local
vegetables.
General Manager Trent
Waldern said the business
employs 40 people full
time and up to an addi-
tional 180 people during
the harvesting season
through Thanksgiving.
He said more than 200
people — employees,
family members and dig-
nitaries — attended an
anniversary event Sunday
in Hermiston, and about
75 employees were rec-
ognized for more than 10
years of service.
“We’ve had a real
strong group that’s been
here from the start,” Wal-
dern said.
Three seasonal em-
ployees — Cindy Mc-
Callister, Tom Swope and
Herminia Lopez — have
worked for the company
since it started 25 years
ago, and Human Resource
Manager Cyd Bothum
said, in some families, all
of the children work at
the plant in high school
and college.
“The one big thing I
SEAN HART PHOTO
Hermiston Foods General Manager Trent Waldern, right, rec-
ognizes employee Cindy McCallister for 25 years of service at
the company’s 25th anniversary celebration Sunday.
SEAN HART PHOTO
Hermiston Foods employees and family members celebrated the company’s 25th anniversary
Sunday in Hermiston.
think Hermiston Foods
can look back at is the
great families that have
gone through,” she said.
“We’ve had a really big
group of those families
that have put their kids
through here. They’ve
been big assets for sum-
mer hires.”
Hermiston Foods em-
ployees process aspara-
gus, peas, sugar snaps,
lima beans and edamame
from local farms and even
harvest some of the crops
themselves with the com-
pany’s seven combines.
Waldern said the pro-
cess
differs
slightly
among the various crops
but generally involves
several steps of cleaning
before the vegetables are
blanched, or treated with
hot water.
“It does a bit of a pas-
teurization, kind of a kill
step on vegetative cells,
so any microorganisms,”
he said. “The big thing it
does is it deactivates the
enzymes in the plant. If
you don’t do that, it will
start feeding on itself, and
then the quality deterio-
rates. After that, it’s just
cooling it and freezing
it.”
Carrots require addi-
tional steps. Waldern said
they are steam peeled
and cut before they are
blanched and frozen.
Waldern said it takes
about 45 minutes on aver-
age to process the crops,
which are usually frozen
within four hours of being
harvested. He said Herm-
iston Foods’ cold storage
facility can store 3.5 to 4
million pounds of prod-
uct, but the business pro-
Banner Bank recognizes top employees
Banner Bank has announced the re-
cipients of the company’s Banner’s Best
awards for 2014. This year, 51 employees
IURPDFURVVWKH3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWZHUHUHF-
ognized for their exceptional performance
in exceeding personal and bank-wide goals
and delivering superior client service.
The Banner’s Best Award is given to em-
ployees who have made an extraordinary
difference throughout the year by deliver-
ing exceptional quality service and prod-
ucts to clients. The four recipients of the
2014 Banner’s Best Award from the eastern
Oregon-area include:
• Customer Service Manager — Herm-
iston Branch, Casey Hinkley
• Teller — Hermiston Branch, Anabel
Rodriguez
• Senior Vice President — Blue Moun-
tain Division Manager Shawna Taylor
• Vice President — La Grande Branch
Manager Jeff Puckett
HermistonHerald
VOLUME 109 ɿ NUMBER 28
JESSICA KELLER
REPORTER
smhart@
hermistonherald.com
541-564-4534
McKay Creek Estates
presents:
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a green vegetable, so it
will kick it out of your
flow stream.”
While automation and
other technology have
reduced the size of the
Hermiston Foods work-
force through the years,
Waldern said the prod-
uct volume has remained
Chamber hosting upcoming
events
Join the Greater Hermiston Chamber of
Commerce for the following events. These
are businesses celebrating success in the
Hermiston area:
• Grand opening and ribbon cut-
ting, 11:30 a.m. Friday at Stetsons
Steak House, 1619 N. First St.,
Hermiston.
• Grand opening and ribbon cutting,
5:30 p.m. May 13, C and R Mercantile
SPORTS REPORTER
sbarbee@
hermistonherald.com
541-564-4542
FIRST
SEAN HART PHOTO
From left, Hermiston Foods employees Roy Taylor, General
Manager Trent Waldern, Refugio Garcia, Shane Page and Joe
Shoemaker pose by one of the business’s combines Monday.
Hermiston Foods recently celebrated its 25th anniversary of
processing and freezing vegetables from local farms.
steady. He said, in the fu-
ture, maintaining a qual-
ity seasonal workforce
while competing with
year-long positions will
be a challenge, but he is
already looking for ways
to keep the business roll-
ing down the line for an-
other 25 years.
BUSINESS BITES
To contact the Hermiston Herald for news, advertising
or subscription information:
• call 541-567-6457
• e-mail info@hermistonherald.com
• VWRSE\RXURI¿FHVDW(0DLQ6W
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SEAN HART
EDITOR
jkeller@
hermistonherald.com
541-564-4533
cesses that much in about
eight to 10 days. Once
frozen, the vegetables are
shipped out for further
processing or packaging.
New technology has
made processing vege-
tables more efficient in
recent years, Waldern
said.
“Lately, we’ve got
some new electronic
sorting inside the plant
here, so that’s kind of a
big thing in the last five
years,” he said. “They’ve
got sorters now that do in-
frared, where they shoot
one wavelength of light,
and if you’ve got chloro-
phyll, it’ll absorb some of
that light, and then it re-
emits light at a different
frequency. The machine
can measure that, and if
the object doesn’t do that,
it recognizes that it’s not
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JEANNE JEWETT
MULTI-MEDIA CONSULTANT
jjewett@
hermistonherald.com
541-564-4531
Co., 165 S.W. Third St (next to Bi-Mart),
showcasing the outdoor market, Hermis-
ton.
• Alive After Five networking event,
5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sheer Illusions, 611
E. Highland, Hermiston.
• Ground-breaking ceremony, 3 p.m.
May 14, Guardian Angel Homes new
Memory Care Homes, 540 N.W. 12th St.,
Hermiston.
For more information about the events
contact the Hermiston Chamber of Com-
merce at 541-567-6151.
The Hermiston Herald (USPS 242220, ISSN 8750-4782) is published twice
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OFFICE COORDINATOR
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541-564-4530
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