Pick of the Pod (ca. 1939)

[Music] [Applause] e [Music] [Music] 5:15 American Standard Time the day end Rush is on as homeb workers throng the streets of every city town and Hamlet the Jane and John Doe's of the work a day world all of them made kin by thoughts of home and that looking ahead to dinner gleam in their eyes out at the other end of town it's hustle and bustle time too the climax of the day for Mrs housewife as she whips up the vittles for a family that will soon be in from work and play chubby sure dy's dressed today oh I don't suppose he meant to yes he did and he had to stay at the school for nearly through dear you just know it's getting close to nose bag time for here comes the star border nothing could have torn Junior away from that Sandlot ball game but but an empty inner boy hollering for heal hello f h mom here here none of that what you got for din the mom this junior is a roast of lamb boy it CH smells good now run along get ready for dinner son a gee your father will be here any minute and hungry okay and does Mary Butler know her appetite appeal it's Delma early Garden peas tonight and when those succulent green gems go on the table as a partner to that roast well can't you just smell a dinner Fit For A King how the baseball game come out today son well we beat the Slugger three to nothing you did make any home runs I made one good can I have some more Dad what you got a regular man-sized appetite tonight son well I've been doing man-sized work you mean chasing that baseball around the sand lot well it makes you awfully hungry that's his third helping daddy so what you've had two now now children there's plenty for everyone daddy did you have peas like this when you were little yes Lynn we had peas that tasted just like these only not as often as you do why not well we had to wait until they were in season I used to go out in the garden and pick them fresh for dinner daddy how to pece grow Anna Vine stupid don't you know anything that's enough Junior finish your dinner I mean how do they get in the cans you really want to know uh-huh well I'll tell you after dinner we'll get the big wonder book and I'll tell you the whole story well how's daddy's little girl tonight huh well that's good that's it no this isn't a page here it is you know when I was a boy we had a small vegetable garden not far from the kitchen door when peas were in seasoned mother used to send me out to pick them she and your Aunt Carrie used to shell them by hand but nowadays think how much easier it is why we can have fresh peas any Day in the year grown especially for canning on great farms like this down below hedged around by a checkerboard of golden grain fields and yellow green corn are the Pea fields of the Midwest Heart of America's great peag growing region much of this fertile soil as in other favored PE regions is now farmed by delmonti Clan planted to bring each field to perfection in proper succession that canning may continue in full swing Rhythm throughout the season here during the Blackhawk War a trio of famous men Abraham Lincoln Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis gathered together in conil on a piece of land now farmed by Delonte who could have foreseen in that distant hour that the rolling prairies of Illinois Would One Day become this lush green Green Garden in the towns that dot the countryside breathes a social and economic life that hinges on the Harvest and canning of vegetables for the market baskets of the world as the season near conversation on every hand turns to one major question how's the pack this year for when the pods are well filled and the Harvest heavy there's work for everyone and Community Prosperity from the surrounding Fields endless truckloads of peas harvested just at the instant nature says Ready Converge on big canaries like this one located at strategic points wherever the peas grow best long before the vines and the fields poked their tendrils above ground Delma field men were busy on soil tests fertilization selection of seed and painstaking soil preparation lending every scientific Aid to develop the finest peas that can be grown for it's in the field and in the field alone that quality is made now with the vines full grown every Safeguard is taken to protect that quality right into the can every field must be cut when the peas are just so timing counts and how 1 hour too early or too late and that Prime quality may be lost forever comes the zero hour and harvesting Begins the the peas and their pods are just busting their buttons with on the minute freshness there's not an hour to lose and the mowers move in to capture that June morning flavor right off the vine there's no twiddling thumbs when Nature's the timekeeper from the minute the field Checker gives his goahead it's a race of men and machines against time it's a chain of many links this Harvest job each dependent on the other if only one machine fails the chain is broken the whole canning SE sequins thrown out of stride when the vines are covered with Dew and the pods are crisp and snappy when the peas are at their Peak that's when the moow Goes to Town High tailing its way down the Pea Patch It Shear off each Vine like barber clippers on the back of your neck and then like a juggler that does a different trick with either hand rolls them into tidy wind RS ready for the loading Crews that follow right behind with train scheduled Precision the loaders follow right on the heels or rather the Clippers of the mowing machine pods are still crisp with Dew as that venerable Farm tool the Pitchfork begins hoisting them onto the wagons relentlessly the wagon trains move down the windr pitchers on either side holding a steady face to keep in motion the rhythmic cycle from cutting to canning there's no stop sign for these men until the wagons are loaded and if you've never worked on a farm just try that on your sacal iliac but maybe this type of Pitchfork is more to your liking fast mechanical loaders to speed up the Harvest on big farms like this straddling the rose so as not to injure the pods it carries its own passport to any spot in the field it's endless Grapplers gentle as a kitten pick up the vines take them for an escalator ride and toss them lightly onto the load more and more Delonte uses such high-speed equipment to step up the Harvest Pace to safeguard that distinctive quality Delma demands in peas for Delma methods like Delma men must lead in the march of progress loaded now looking like a parade of gray green circus elephants linked trunk to tail The Wagon Train Lumbers across Ross the fields to the Vining station for the next chapter of P progress hour after hour the loaded wagons roll up to the viners those shiny cylinders that look like aluminum Prairie Schooners the Vining station is the heartbeat of the Harvest a teeming beehive of men in Machinery that does what the housewife used to do by hand shell the peas this machine sulting slow costly hand methods really put America into the pea business in a big way what happens inside the Viner is much the same as if you tossed a pea podt in the air and gave it a firm whack with a flat paddle inside the Viner huge paddles set at just the right angle smack each mass of falling pods and Vines the air inside each pod is compressed by the blow the Pod bursts open at the seams and the tender peas burst out just as firm and uninjured as though you had shelled them by hand and so the Harvest job goes on often through the night there's only one moment in the life of every PE field when Nature says now is the time to act and be it Dawn or midnight that's the instant Delma men spring into action only such vigilance can capture the tenderness and flavor for which the Delma label always stands short moments away from the Harvest Fields the peas arrive at the caner where they Wonder perhaps what are these fellows doing but they'll have to get used to constant inspection by the time they're ready for the shiny tins at the other end of the canery they'll be the most scrutinized peas in the world here is the dispatch room that starts the pe's over the packing line from here on every PE will pass through test after test elimination after elimination until at the end only the very Prime p will have won their Spurs for the delmonti early Garden pack from start to finish it's every P for himself and only the fit survived chapter 1 in the caner story is the Shaker cleaner a cute Gadget with a movement like a Rumba dancer only more of it the Peas dance along until they find a convenient little manhole to drop through while any pods stems or bits of Vine get shunted onto a Sidetrack this is just a sort of warmer upper those peas Ain't Seen Nothing Yet now the peas cease to be land lovers and turn into long-distance swimmers and What dunking in the riffle washer they shoot the shoots in clean fresh water so regulated that peas pass over while heavier matter is trapped in the ripples then they get taken for a ride by a spiral conveyor that boosts them along to a rotary washer being heavier than water peas sink to the bottom bits of stems leaves or Skins are skimmed off the top by now Mr and Mrs P began to think life in a caner is one long Saturday night in the rotary washer they take a scrubbing like a small boy whose folks are expecting company if peas had ears this washer would get behind them and that's no fooling the next operation gives two things an elevator ride and a bubble bath as the peas travel up a pipe conveyor to the top flooor of the caner the water that carries them is bubbled constantly by a stop andgo surge of water every little Pee goes to the top in a billow of foam and gets a shampoo in the bargain the water separator drains the peas and at the same time eliminates loose skins and broken pieces now here's real magic the Colossus greater and what slight of hand stunts it does up to this point peas of every size are mixed together like a herd of sheep but that's no go when you're after flavor it takes skillful blending of just the right sizes to give that natural June morning taste so characteristic of the early Garden blend no one size or Si of peas can do it alone no hit or miss assortment of sizes can do it either so let's see what goes into the delmonti early Garden blend these peas sit for their portrait just as they came off the vines a jumbled collection of mixed up sizes many of them just don't have what it takes for DelMonte so let's put them through the grater and sort them into their respective sizes now as peas grow in size their flavor under goes marked changes these two young fellows are weak in watery flavor hasn't yet had a chance to develop so delmonti says out you go as peas approach old age their sugars change to starch so these overgrown ones hard and starchy their flavor gone are ruled out too it's the blending of those in between sizes that gives the true natural pea flavor and that's exactly what delmonti takes for its early Garden blend The Pick of the Pod gee I guess that's why they taste so good why of course you know I can hear my mother now feel the Pod son she'd say take just the best ones so I'd leave those skinny little flat ones that had no flavor and the big old ones that were hard and starchy and take just the prime plump ones like they do at that canery how were they good yes sir those peas we had tonight were just like old times yes that's one important keynote to DelMonte flavor the Colossus grater at one Fell Swoop unravels those mixed up sizes and cataloges them for blending the little ones first the big ones last and there you are so far so good our peas are nicely segregated into proper sizes but now another Safeguard the quality grader gives them a double check for Prime perfection in its continuous brine bath any hard starchy peas sink to to the bottom like pebbles in a duck pond the tender sweet ones being of lighter specific gravity Bob up to the top and travel swiftly on to further Proving Grounds still the Elimination race goes on from the quality grater the peas travel onto white conveyor belts where sharp eyed experts armed with automatic Pickers are on the alert for broken or discolored peas this is just one more Safeguard to the quality of that early Garden blend after this careful working over the peas roll off the belt and into Hoppers that channel them into the blending plumes these bring together peas of the selected sizes not too young not too old but just those exactly right in between sizes to produce that natural delicate right off the vine flavor there's no hit or miss no guesswork in that famous DelMonte pack when these selected middle sizes come together in the final Blend you get a balance of the finest flavor ever captured from a garden on a dewy Jewel morning up to this point it has been a long series of cold tubs and showers for those fast traveling peas now in this long cylinder the Blancher they take their first hot water plunge winding up a cleaning job that started way back at the other end of the canery and then just as you do in your own shower of a morning the bees jump under that last cold spray on the Shaker Washer by now every one of those ambitious young peas knows its Bend places and no mistake about it comes now the final ordeal a rigid inspection for broken pieces or discolored specimens if a p can get by this Gauntlet of sharpey eliminators it can throw out its chest and say I'm a world champion I made good why all this trouble all this constant inspection the careful selection and painstaking elimination because delmonti is determined that any product under its label will be the best that nature science men and machines combined can produce that's the answer these are the prime P's of the heart Harvest skillfully Blended to produce that succulent right from the Garden Flavor uniform in color uniformly tender as perfect as nature could make them it's the last lap now and those tender peas like a June morning peeking at you through a window are lined up at attention awaiting their turn at the filling machine just before the fill each can gets a cleansing blast of live steam canning is a fast tempo climax that happens faster than you can say Delon and the filling machine little less than human fills each can at the rapid fire rate of 3 to the second then away they March like an endless parade of proud Tin Soldiers into the automatic sealer where caps are crimped on and they're ready for the cookers huge pressure cookers checked and checked again by rigid time and temperature controls only a short while before the peas inside those cans were growing in the fields in any man's language that's traveling such is the story of delm Monti peas a story of quality started long before the seeds themselves were planted in the soil a quality nurtured in the fields by scientific cultivation improved in the caner by careful selection and exacting supervision and made available under the famous Delma label to Housewives everywhere from field to Canary it's one continuous cycle of unremitting care of men methods and machines all dedicated to one ideal that Delma peas shall be none but the pick of the [Music] pod