chriscallahanuvm
“Will the 007 be enough?” is a common question in early spring as greenhouses around the region fire up and we do our best to keep seed trays and their cargo warm on the still-cool nights. My mind instantly goes to “which movie?” And then I crash back to earth and realize this is a […]
Thermostats for Agriculture
I am often asked by growers and processors to recommend a thermostat for greenhouse, cooler, or postharvest process use. There are many to choose from and their specifications can be confusing. It is important to remember just what a thermostat does. It is essentially no different from the light switch on the wall with one […]
DIY Auto-fill Humidifier
I recently built a humidifier I think others might find useful. This could be useful for cheese aging, meat curing, and storage of winter crops all of which require maintaining specific temperature and humidity. The details are available on the Tool Wiki at FarmHack. Take a look, and let me know if you find ways […]
UVM Hops Harvester, Yellow Dog Hopyard and Rock Art Brewery on Across the Fence
Across the Fence, the longest running daily farm and home television program in the country, joined us when we were harvesting last summer with the UVM Mobile Hops Harvester. In this segment, hear from Nick Aleria of Yellow Dog Hopyard in Cabot. VT and Matt Nadeau of Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville, VT about how […]
Hop Harvesting Roundup
I recently presented a summary of mechanical hop harvesters at the 2013 NEHA Hops Conference in Morrisville, NY. As I prepared that material I was struck by how far we’ve come since 2010. In just three years since our small team embarked upon the development of the UVM Mobile Hops Harvester, several independently designed mechanical […]
2013 UVM Mobile Hops Harvester Summary
The UVM Mobile Hops Harvester visited six hop yards this year, harvesting approximately 400 dry pounds of hops, over a 4 week period plus harvesting the UVM Extension NW Crops and Soils Team’s research hop yard. This harvester, developed as a result of a Northeast Hops Alliance, UVM Extension, VT Agency of Ag Food and […]
How Refrigerators Work: “Principles of Refrigeration”
1944 US Office of Education video on refrigeration principles. Excellent.
CoolBots(TM): Inexpensive Cold Storage
Demand for on-farm cold storage of produce and other Vermont agricultural products is increasing as local markets for these goods expand. I receive many inquiries regarding CoolBotsTM, an adaptation of a window air-conditioner to make a cooler out of an insulated space. This article is intended to collect related resources in one place and to […]
FIDO – A Do-it-yourself Temperature Monitor with Text Message Alerts
As I’ve mentioned in several other posts, I think the continual monitoring of conditions in greenhouses and food storage spaces is incredibly important for quality and safety and insightful for any operation. There is a really clever design for a do-it-yourself temperature monitoring system called Fido, on the FarmHack site. It uses an Arduino control […]
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