Ansel Ploog and Justin Cote run Flywheel Farm in Woodbury, Vermont. They wholesale 2 acres of organic vegetables to local co-op stores and through a regional distributor. When starting their farm in 2012, they understood they needed a spot to wash and pack their produce, undercover and off the ground. They chose to go with …
Continue reading “A Three-Season Structure Keeps the Momentum at Flywheel Farm”
Key Takeaways Introduction Construction projects are both exciting and daunting. There’s great joy in dreaming about a new space or a renovated work area, but there can be a long windy path full of dread and stress between what you have now and what you hope to have in the future. Working with a contractor …
Continue reading “Top 5: Working with Contractors on a Postharvest Project”
Many winter storage crops love high humidity and low temperatures. Others like low humidity and warmer temperatures. It can be a real challenge to achieve the right balance. As we make air cooler, it holds less water vapor so the difference between high humidity and condensation (rain) becomes less and less. So, it is not …
Continue reading “Managing Humidity and Condensation in Coolers”
Way back in 2019, we visited Duijndam Machines in The Netherlands. We had heard from growers in the northeast about this fantastical place where used equipment from European growers goes, not to die, but to be reborn. We had to see it for ourselves. And to bring home some video of our tour. The video …
Continue reading “Duijndam Machines – Used Equipment from Europe”
Kate Donald began farming at Stout Oak Farm in Brentwood, NH in 2012. As the farm grew she quickly realized they could only handle one, or maybe two infrastructure projects at a time. Much of these improvements went into production practices, and greenhouses that clearly penciled out to be wise investments in the farm. Now, …
Continue reading “Easy Breezy Three Season Packshed at Stout Oak Farm “
Pheonix and Megan O’Brien of Hall Brook Farm purchased their farm in Thorndike, Maine in 2016, and are growing over 20 acres of vegetables with over ⅓ acre in high tunnels. They have experienced rapid growth of the business in the last few years. In 2020 they had gross sales over $250,000 which expanded in …
Continue reading “New Metal Building from Scratch at Hall Brook Farm”
Elizabeth Keen and her husband Al have been farming at Indian Line Farm in Great Barrington, MA for over 25 years. After taking a sabbatical in 2016, they had the realization that after 10-15 years “just running the farm” it was time that some things needed to change to make the farm more sustainable in …
Continue reading “The Next Chapter: Renovating a Barn to Sustain Indian Line Farm “
Key Points
Key points:
As part of our SCRUB Project, we have been demonstrating a wide range of Cleaning Tools for Produce Farms, on-farm with growers. This has opened up the question, “Which one(s) should I buy for this specific cleaning task?” Based on our experience and feedback from partner farms, here are some of our favorites that we’d …
