The Tortilla Factory
The Tortilla Factory The Tortilla Factory Chapter One Fridays Jack and his sister Belinda lived with their grandma in Austin, Texas. Jack was seven years old and Belinda was five. Every Friday after school their grandma would take them to do something that they had never done before. It was a warm, sunny Friday afternoon. Jack and Belinda stood outside their school waiting to see Grandma's yellow pickup truck. "Come on, Belinda!" Jack shouted to his little sister, grabbing her hand. They
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The Tortilla Factory
The Tortilla Factory
Chapter One Fridays
Jack and his sister Belinda lived with their grandma in Austin, Texas.Jack was seven years old and Belinda was five.Every Friday after school their grandma would take them to do something that they had never done before.
It was a warm, sunny Friday afternoon.Jack and Belinda stood outside their school waiting to see Grandma's yellow pickup truck.
"Come on, Belinda!" Jack shouted to his little sister, grabbing her hand.They hopped into the truck.
"Hi, Grandma," said Belinda, giving her grandmother a big hug."Where are we going today?"
"Hello, sweethearts," she replied. "Today we are going to the tortilla factory.Jack, maybe you can do some research while we are there for your school project on Native Americans."
The tortilla factory was a large building that looked very old.Inside, it was loud and full of workers.Everyone wore rubber gloves and hair nets to keep the tortillas clean.A friendly man named Hank met them and said he would be their tour guide.
A wonderful fresh, warm smell drifted through the air. It made Jack hungry.Belinda closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
"Mmm…smells good," she said."That's the corn," Hank explained."In this factory we make corn tortillas.Tortillas can also be made out of flour."
Chapter Two The Tour
"These are the machines that assist the workers in making the tortillas," Hank said.
Hank showed them a huge machine that crushed the dried corn into cornmeal.
"Did Native Americans make these machines?" asked Jack, thinking about his project.
"No," said Hank. "Native Americans ground their cornmeal by hand with stone tools."
"We have electric mixers to make our dough,but we also use the same simple tortilla recipethat Native American and Mexican cultures have been using for thousands of years," said Hank.
Jack was remembering everything that Hank said so he could use it to write his report.
"Once the dough has been mixed, workers roll it into little ballsand then pat them into thin, flat circles," Hank said.
"This machine can cook one hundred tortillas in about five minutes," Hank said as he showed them a third machine.
"Amazing!" Grandma exclaimed.
"Smells good," Belinda said. Hank smiled.He took a warm tortilla from the top of a stack that had just come out of the machine.He tore it into three pieces and gave one to Grandma, one to Jack, and one to Belinda.
"Delicious!" said Grandma, tasting hers. "Great!" said Jack.
"Mmm…" said Belinda with her mouth full.
Hank took them into another room where the tortillas were packaged.The tortillas came in from the cooking machine on a moving belt in tall stacks.Then, workers took ten tortillas at a time and put them in plastic bags that had the factory's logo printed on them.Another machine sucked the extra air out of the bags to keep the tortillas fresh.
"Now the tortillas will be delivered to markets and restaurants all over Austin," Hank said.
