chriscallahanuvm
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 […]
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 […]
Food Storage Workshops
UVM Extension with support from the USDA’s Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program will offer five one-day workshops on crop storage throughout Vermont this fall. Workshops will focus on long-term storage of crops for sale through the winter and into early spring, but will be relevant to many agricultural and food storage needs. Topics […]
How Refrigerators Work: “Principles of Refrigeration”
1944 US Office of Education video on refrigeration principles. Excellent.
Practical Produce Safety – April 11, 2013 – Vergennes/Monkton
Had a great time talking about all the ways we can get sick from produce related pathogens yesterday. The good news is that the bulk of the workshop was focused on ways to mitigate the risks. The Practical Produce Safety workshop series coordinated by Ginger Nickerson (UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture) and Hans Estrin (UVM […]
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 […]
Wash and Pack Stations
This is a great video overview from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Small Farms Project with helpful guidance on wash and pack station layout. More on the Cornell Small Farm Project can be found here. This video was part of a NE-SARE funded project. Some highlights: Cover – prepare for all conditions; rain, wind, cold, heat […]
2013 VVBGA Annual Meeting
I had the pleasure of joining the Vermont Vegetable and Berry Grower’s Association yesterday for their annual meeting. This event is packed with presentations ranging from the latest pests to farmer outreach in distant lands. My talk was on crop storage, and it was a great chance to summarize my recent work in this area. […]
Remote Data Monitoring – 1st Install at Pete’s Greens
As an engineer, I love data. It turns out farmers do also. At least, Pete Johnson and Isaac Jacobs at Pete’s Greens in Craftsbury, VT do. “Is it working yet?” Isaac asks as I put the finishing touches on the remote data monitoring system we have been installing in the four zone drive-in cooler. “Just […]
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