Monday, February 6, 2023

Salad maker for the world

Terri Burnett

     Draped head to toe, from hairnet to shoe covers, Terri Burnett stands alongside dozens of similarly clad workers in a 37-degree room, grabbing handfuls of dark green spinach from a white trough and poking them into round clear plastic jars of pesto pasta hurrying past her on a conveyor line.
     What’s her job like?
     “It’s fun,” she said.
     “Fun?” How can that be?
     “They let you just do you. They let you just be calm,” said Burnett, 41. “There’s no rush. They let you work at a pace.”
     Nor is she uncomfortable.
     “I’m actually not cold,” she said, noting that when she first arrived, three years ago, she bundled up in layers. “You need two pair of pants on when you first start, or you won’t survive,” she recalled. But that passed, and now she gets by with a hoodie and small knit gloves.
     We’re on the South Side, in the assembly room at Farmer’s Fridge, a company that produces fresh salads — and meal bowls and desserts like chocolate chia raspberry pudding — nestles them into clear plastic jars and dispatches them across the country.
     Readers might recall I first tried their Harvest Salad during a few hours of idleness at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, noticed that it’s a Chicago endeavor, talked to founder Luke Saunders and was intrigued by the fact that the salads, with their fleeting shelf life are not produced at satellite plants around the country, but are all created in Chicago, at a single 100,000-square-foot production facility.
     Even though Midway Airport is literally across 54th Street, the perishables are not put on airplanes but trucked overland to 20 markets in Texas, California and the Northeast: 700 locations, not just their distinctive vending machines — there’s one just off the great hall at Union Station — but stores like Target and Jewel-Osco.

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6 comments:

  1. I first saw a Farmer’s Fridge vending machine in the cafeteria at Truman College a few years ago, then spotted another one in the building on Halsted where I see my dermatologist. I think they’re great. Had no idea the business had grown to such an extent and I’m so pleased the worker you spoke with is enjoying her job.

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  2. When I looked at the prices the get for this, at a vending machine in City Hall, I was amazed at the appallingly high prices!

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  3. I've purchased salads, wraps, and chia puddings from these machines. Everything I tried has been fresh and tasted pretty good.
    I've only ever bought them at hospitals here in the city ( I have a relative with chronic health issues), and whenever I happen to fly again, I'll happily buy from Farmer's Fridge before boarding.
    It's not likely that I'd ever buy their stuff at a grocery store - in that setting, I agree they're overpriced. But at a hospital, airport, or other public space, their pricing is competitive, and probably unmatched for healthiness.

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  4. I think I want a salad for lunch.

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  5. Apples are "soaked in brine"? Really? So they take a perfectly healthful fruit and load it with sodium, possibly way more than the recommended daily amount even for healthy people. Heart failure patients, beware!

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    1. Apple bits. They'd turn brown otherwise. Do you know how many apple bits go in a salad. Not a lot. Big picture, PB, big picture.

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