It's a company that seems to act like a family with longevity in it's product and employees, and the ability to adapt their way through several owners and to improvise within an old building. He started out sifting flour in the summer of '71 and stayed. Until a couple of years ago, their junior employee had joined the company in 1984. Our tour began on the first floor, where they were bringing in jars. The jars arrive in a single layer box, and the box is opened upside down onto a conveyor.
Workers inspect and sterilize the jars.
The jars go from the first to the second floor, single file, on a custom elevator. The beans meet up with the jars later on, but first Don decided to skip up to the top floor where the beans arrive in their dried form. They use 200,000 pounds of beans every few days this time of year. In the fall, they use the same amount in four or five days. The newest addition is an electronic eye that checks for color differentiation.