Fruits and Vegetables Grown Here Are Ripe for the Picking
Published Oct 22, 2009
The sweet and earthy flavors developed in The Research Valley are appreciated throughout the country.
With 542 full-time employees, their own truck fleet and a coverage area reaching throughout Texas to New Orleans, Kansas and Colorado, Monterey Mushrooms is the largest manufacturer in Texas. Though its headquarters is in Watsonville, Calif., the Madisonville facility, now in its 34th year, is one of many Monterey plants in the United States and Mexico that oversee the mushroom process from spore to store.
“We pack and ship 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” says David Nesselrode, general manager of the Madisonville facility. “From this facility, 550,000 pounds of mushrooms are produced per week, which includes about 460,000 pounds of small-to-medium white mushrooms, 75,000 pounds of brown (baby or portabella) mushrooms and other assorted and specialty varieties, like oyster mushrooms.”
In simplified terms, the process begins with compost preparation and pasteurization, and the spawn is introduced from the mother culture. Then comes the “flushing” technique, which tricks the spawn into thinking it’s going to die in order to initiate the reproductive state, after which the mushroom grows to specifications and harvest begins.
“Every mushroom is picked by hand, roughly 65,000 pounds a day,” Nesselrode says. “We have no mechanical harvesters and every mushroom is graded for size and quality. Mushrooms have a very short life span and a seven-day shelf life, so it’s important we pick, pack and ship quickly. What we pick today, we pack today.”
It’s no wonder Madisonville is the official mushroom capital of Texas, and also the site of the annual Madisonville Mushroom Festival.
“We do a mushroom growing demo and in years past. there have been chefs that do cooking demos along with a wine tasting,” Nesselrode says. “We serve portabella fajitas all day long. A mushroom will take on the flavor of anything you cook with it; it’s very chameleon in that way.”
Watermelons, on the other hand, have a distinctive sweetness.
In 2008, Wiggins Watermelons, which grows its product on leased farmland across Texas, sold over 100 million pounds of watermelons. Even by Texas-size standards, that’s a lot of product for a company run by one man and his three sons.
“My wife’s grandfather started farming in the 1920s with his sons, and I married her and started farming watermelons,” says James Wiggins, owner of Wiggins Watermelons. “My sons farmed watermelons all through school for projects, and worked with me on other companies as well. But we started concentrating on watermelons in 2000, and since then, we’ve almost tripled the business.”
Wiggins Watermelons ships round seedless, long seedless, dark-skinned seedless and specialty varieties including yellow-meat, Carolina Cross and Black Diamond watermelons by truck to approximately 25 states and Canada.
“We follow them all the way from seed to market,” Wiggins says. “And we grow a good watermelon. We don’t bruise them up and when they get where they’re going they have a good shelf life. If you take care of a fruit and handle it right, it’ll be good for a long time.”
Story by Danny Bonvissuto
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