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 […]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2014 at 10:14 and is filed under Equipment, Post Harvest, Projects, Refrigeration and Storage.

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 […]

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2014 at 05:51 and is filed under Equipment, Hops.

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 […]

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 7th, 2014 at 00:54 and is filed under Equipment, Hops.

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 […]

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 24th, 2013 at 19:13 and is filed under Equipment, Post Harvest, Projects.

How Refrigerators Work: “Principles of Refrigeration”

1944 US Office of Education video on refrigeration principles.  Excellent.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 10th, 2013 at 07:17 and is filed under Energy on the Farm, Equipment, Refrigeration and Storage.

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 […]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 at 13:14 and is filed under Energy on the Farm, Equipment, Refrigeration and Storage.

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 […]

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 2nd, 2013 at 14:42 and is filed under Energy on the Farm, Equipment, Food Safety, Heating, Refrigeration and Storage.

Food Storage Survey Results

Thanks to all of those who took the time to respond to the food storage survey several weeks back.  The information you provided has been really helpful.  A clear desire for additional programming in this area was expressed, and I’ll be working to develop that. Here are the survey result highlights: 82% of respondents expressed […]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 at 13:14 and is filed under Energy on the Farm, Equipment, Post Harvest, Refrigeration and Storage.

Efficiency Vermont Incentives for Agriculture

      Are you considering any equipment upgrades in the near future.  Check Efficiency Vermont’s webpage to research available technologies and to see if any of their many incentives apply to you. They have a set of rebates specific to agriculture and some for commercial refrigeration which may apply to folks with refrigerated storage on […]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 at 12:14 and is filed under Energy on the Farm, Equipment, Heating, Post Harvest, Refrigeration and Storage.

Food Storage Survey

I’m collecting information on Vermont’s commercial food storage practices.  This is most commonly a walk-in cooler or freezer on the farm or at a food hub, but there is room in the survey to tell me all about the other ways you store food.  The purpose of the survey is to provide a baseline against […]

This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2012 at 10:36 and is filed under Energy on the Farm, Equipment, Food Safety, Post Harvest, Refrigeration and Storage.