Greens spinners play a vital role making greens production profitable for the small farm. Some farms find themselves stuck in the middle, where inexpensive, small-scale spinners cause a bottleneck, but it is hard to justify a more expensive industrial, stainless steel, restaurant-style machine. If you are just getting started, we have a full overview of …
Continue reading “Washing Machine/Greens Spinner Conversion Guide”
Washing machine greens spinners are often used for drying greens on small farms. They do require attention to cleaning and maintenance in order to keep them in sanitary working condition. This blog post highlights some tips to cleaning your greens spinner and provides links to six videos that focus on how to best clean these …
Continue reading “Washing Machine Greens Spinners: Cleaning Tips”
UVM Extension’s own television program Across The Fence did a segment on a project we’ve been working on related to greens spinners. You can watch the video clip here explaining why small farms are making use of washing machines as greens spinners and what we are doing to help make them more feasible.
This blog post is for those using or considering a converted washing machine as greens spinner. Background For background information on several different types of greens spinners and general thoughts on using washing machine conversions see this blog post. If you’ve purchased a machine and are ready to convert it, see our Washing Machine/Greens Spinner …
Continue reading “Washing Machine Greens Spinners: Shopping Advice”
Have a washing machine that you want to convert into a greens spinner? Have you already done the conversion, but want to improve it? Join us for one of two hands-on, intensive workshops this fall focused on getting the job done and doing it well.
Download the PDF Fact Sheet Here! Introduction An important factor in growing and selling high-quality salad greens is being able to efficiently wash, cool, and dry the product. The drying step is commonly done using centrifugal force in a spinner. The water is spun off of the greens through a filter basket or other porous …
Philip Mason, owner of Crossroad Farm in Thetford, VT, has been working on this farm for over 10 years, but is not held back by the way things have always been done. He has an open mind and is always looking for ways to improve and take the business to the next level. When he …
Continue reading “A Fork in the Road: Outgrowing the Packshed at Crossroad Farm”
Jacob Mills started vegetable farming in 2017 and, after a few years of building the business, faced the reality that washing and packing out of the end of a greenhouse wasn’t going to help him meet the goal of working full-time on the farm. He was coming to a crossroads realizing that if this was …
Continue reading “Metal Building in a Week: Scaling up at McDonald Farmstand”
Lissa Goldstein runs the farming operation at Wild Work Farm in Keene Valley, New York nestled in the Adirondack Mountains. Wild Work is a diversified vegetable farm with some blueberries and fruit trees. When Lissa heard we were building out examples of wash/pack areas she reached out to share details of her shipping container project, …
Continue reading “Planning Tames the Postharvest Beast at Wild Work Farm”
Vegetable growers are seeking tools to improve flexibility and efficiency in the packshed. The AZS Rinse Conveyor is becoming a popular piece of equipment to meet the need to rinse off a variety of crops. Table of Contents OverviewCommon Uses Cost User Reviews Use as a Bin Washer Contact information This machine is designed and …
Continue reading “Farmer’s Favorites: The AZS Rinse Conveyor”
