Tofu Packing 101

When we got downstairs today around 9 (we've been sleeping in a bit), we found a note saying that two of us were meant to pick veggies and the third could be used in the tofu packing process. I got to go to tofu-land.

I joined Heather (the daughter of the family we are staying with) after washing my arms up to my elbows and getting a clean apron, hairnet, and sanitizing myself. The steps were as follows:

Heather takes the pre-cut tofu blocks from their freezing cold water buckets and puts each one-pound or half-pound piece in a bag.



Then, I would take the bag and put them 4-up in the vacuum sealer machine.



Then I'd hold down the top till it sealed shut. The motor would start and it would take about a minute to seal up the 4 bags.



The top would pop open and I'd take out the four bags and put them on a towel in front of the scale with another towel placed on top to start the drying-off-each-bag process while I set 4 more bags in the vacuum machine and started them going. After a quick dry-off, each packet had to be checked for weight. Anything between 450 and 550 grams is a pound, and anything between 250 and 350 is okay as a half-pound. Over that, and they went in a separate container. Under that, I had to write the actual weight on the label and put them in a separate container too.



Once weighed, they each get a pre-printed, very nice label with the name of the company, the type of tofu, the ingredients and the "best if used by" date on them. We packaged plain, herb, thai, California herb, and extra firm all in half-pounds and pounds. Each gets a nutritional information sticker on the back, too.



Together, Heather and I packaged 300 pound packs and 70 half-pound packs. They will fill orders at stores and be sold at the Halifax Farmer's Market on Saturday in Halifax, which is the oldest farmer's market in North America. We are going to go when we are there Saturday (we're going for the weekend) and I can't wait. I love Farmer's Markets, especially big, huge, proper ones!

They also made today and will make tomorrow to sell: muffins of 6 different varieties some with wheat flour and some with spelt flour all with tofu; garlic tofu spread; other flavor tofu spreads; tofu kabobs; okaranola (granola using the by-product meat of the soy bean); okaranola bars; tofu brownies; tofu date bars; and tofu spring rolls. They often sell out of all of this between 7a and 1p. They also sell veggies. This week will be yellow and green beans that Christy and Paul picked today, pattipan squash, zucchini, maybe some tomatoes, potatoes, and more. I'm going to buy a bunch of this stuff to bring home with me. We had smoked tofu as one of the ingredients in the make-your-own-sushi dinner we had tonight and it was so good!

All this happens with a farmer who works a full-time job as an electrician in town and a woman who has serious back problems related to a ten-year old injury and their daughter. It's pretty awesome.

We also went to the Grand Pre historical site today. This town is on the short list to be a UNESCO site and is the exact place where the Acadians were driven out by the British in 1755 and sent back to France and to the U.S. after having lived here for 100 years. Longfellow wrote a poem about it in the 1800s which brought it to the forefront. It was pretty awful.

We took a quick drive down to the waterfront too, to see the cross that marks the exact spot where the people were forced into boats to be taken the ships in the Bay to be brought to wherever they would be deported to. They spent months on the ships in the holds and many died of disease, drowning and other fates. There was a declaration in the museum from England acknowledging this had happened, but also clearly stating they weren't going to take responsibility. Okay. The cross was quite beautiful.