Bins, Buckets, Baskets & Totes

So you’re starting to farm, or scaling up your production. You hear talk about produce safety and cleanability.  You are checking out what other farms are doing and are looking for harvest crates and storage bins. You probably noticed lots of people use many different things. Some use 5-gallon pails, milk crates, muck buckets, some …

Construction Details for a Counter-top Forced Air Cooler

To learn more about forced air cooling visit go.uvm.edu/forcedaircooling To download the PDF version of this plan click here! Farms that need to cool smaller volumes of produce can also benefit from forced air cooling. Whether cooling stacked pallets, pallet bins or individual cartons, the same principals apply. A smaller pallet cooler was noted on …

Construction Details for a Pallet Forced Air Cooler

To learn more about forced air cooling visit go.uvm.edu/forcedaircooling To download the PDF version of this guide click here! Framing: 2”x12” lumber to make a 43” wide x 74” tall x 11-1/4” deep plenum for suction air distribution. Plenum Panel: 3/8” CDX Plywood with an 11-1/4” circle cut out for the blower suction inlet. Position …

Forced Air Cooling On The Farm

A downloadable/printable pdf of this article is available here. Introduction The preservation of quality in fresh market and storage crops on small and medium-sized farms in the Northeast depends on the rapid reduction of pulp temperature and maintenance of relatively low temperatures to slow metabolic respiration. There is strong foundational work showing that rapidly reducing …

Simple Ergonomics and Lean Thinking at Chewonki Farm

I recently visited Chewonki, a school, camp, and farm in Wisscasset, ME that had a recent visit from an ergonomics consultant at their beautiful new pack shed. Some insurance companies offer these visits for free as an injury (and claim) prevention measure. Several things that struck me: They were experimenting with different heights for wash …

A Better Way to Pick Strawberries

Tried and tested, the Picking Assistant by Crop Care works great for picking strawberries! Using both hands to “swim” through the plants helps you become efficient and thorough at picking. This machine is also great for weeding or planting other crops as well. More information about their new model can be found here: https://cropcareequipment.com/vegetable_equip/picking_assistant.phpI have experience …

Greens Spinners for Farm Use

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 …

The AZS Rinse Conveyor at Picadilly Farm

Picadilly Farm is owned and operated by Jenny and Bruce Wooster since 2006. Their farm is located in the South East Corner of New Hampshire in Winchester and has about 30 acres in production. They provide fresh produce to over 1,000 families through CSA shares spread across New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Bruce reached out …

Skip to toolbar