McDonald's Lettuce Growers

This past week, on Thursday, we drove about 70 miles east of Catamarca, up in the mountains, to visit the Carlos Machado family.  Carlos grows lettuce seeds on his property that eventually are used for all the McDonald's in Argentina.  The planted seeds are grown for 30 days in this controlled environment that you see below.  From there the small plants are sold to farms in Túcuman, about 60 miles north of their land.  They're planted and once they're fully grown are transferred down to Buenos Aires for distribution.  What you see below are thousands of tiny plants that are in the growing process.  The grey area has seeds that have been planted for 2 days.  This is the last planting this season - it's nearly winter down here - until September.  Carlos said this is a tiny amount of plants compared to what they grow during the spring and summer months.

Carlos and his darling daughter, Antonella.

Isn't that a beautiful color of green?

Carlos, Laura, and little Antonella