Paintbrushes, Tomatoes, and Mushrooms!

Tuesday was a pretty packed day. We had three companies to visit: HELA, Conservas Centauro, and Bosques del Mauco. Therefore, we had to wake up very early to make it to all company visits.

One of the machines at HELA

Our first company was HELA, which is a company that manufactures paintbrushes and similar equipment. We were able to take a tour of their factory and see the machines that make all the equipment. It was so cool to me to see how blended human labor and machinery were in making their products.  For example, the hair for the brushes were put together manually, but the stamping of the wood, the wrapping and melting of the plastic wrap, etc. were all handled by the machines! One of the engineering students was telling me how massive the computer programming would have to be done for just one machine to do all the operations which shows how much genius goes behind manufacturing these products! 

Tomato Paste

The next company we went to was Conservas Centauro which is a primarily tomato product company that also sells other canned food items. My expectations were that the production process would be highly technical and fabricated, but it was not like that at all. Everything was super fresh! The tomatoes are washed without chemicals and then mixed and mashed together in a machine, and further processed with other equipment. We were also able to see how these tomato products (paste, salsa, ketchup, etc.) were packaged. In fact, Conservas Centauro has a special relationship with a retailed called JUMBO whom they exclusively distribute their salsa to. Therefore, they already have pre-made JUMBO packaging for their salsa. The owner also informed us that they also produce canned fruits, peppers, and now onions. In fact, they are trying to phase over to having onions be one of, if not solely, their main product for Chilean consumption of onions have now surpassed the consumption levels of tomatoes. 

At this point, we were extremely hungry (American appetites are one of a kind) so we took a lunch break and got….EMPANADAS! (it’s basically like “agua sin gas” to us now). I ordered a spicy sausage empanada and then for dessert an apple one. Even though this wasn’t our usual empanada place, the food was delicious! I never tried a dessert empanada before and didn’t really know what to expect, but it tasted just like an apple pie. :) 

The last company we visited was Bosques del Mauco, a mushroom farm. We were warned about this company pre-departure because of its alleged putrid aromas that infests the farm. However, I didn’t think it would be too bad.

Mushroom Farm

Mushrooms

…I was wrong. The smell was horrifying but I think I held composure quite well compared to Brice who looked like he was going to cry! Besdes the smell, however, the process of growing and harvesting the mushrooms is so cool!  First, they collect compost by mixing it with soiled straw, manure, microbes, and fungus. Sounds disgusting, but the owner made it sound so interesting on how natural the process is. Once harvesting is started, they harvest the mushrooms for about two weeks where workers carefully hand-pick the biggest ones

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