{"id":103,"date":"2012-11-28T13:14:25","date_gmt":"2012-11-28T17:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/?p=103"},"modified":"2012-11-28T13:14:25","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T17:14:25","slug":"food-storage-survey-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/2012\/11\/28\/food-storage-survey-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Storage Survey Results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to all of those who took the time to respond to the food storage survey several weeks back.\u00a0 The information you provided has been really helpful.\u00a0 A clear desire for additional programming in this area was expressed, and I&#8217;ll be working to develop that.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the survey result highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>82% of respondents expressed interest in a formalized course on food storage topics with the overwhelming majority preferring classroom \/ workshop format and\/or a webinar.<\/li>\n<li>66% of respondents have plans to expand your food storage capacity in the next 24 months.<\/li>\n<li>While most respondents expressed concern about the utility costs of their storage systems, relatively few (37%) currently know those costs.<\/li>\n<li>60% are storing in multiple zones (Temp and RH), but the overall knowledge of optimal storage conditions is relatively low (see <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/2012\/11\/14\/usda-handbook-66-fruit-berry-and-vegetable-storage-guide\/\">related post on USDA Handbook 66<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Winter markets included (% reporting sales to each)\n<ul>\n<li>Wholesale (74%)<\/li>\n<li>Retail (41%)<\/li>\n<li>Farmer&#8217;s Markets (41%)<\/li>\n<li>Winter CSA (38%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The most common systems in use are (% reporting use):\n<ul>\n<li>Walkin cooler (57%)<\/li>\n<li>Chest freezers (55%)<\/li>\n<li>Heated Winter Storage (39%)<\/li>\n<li>Root Cellar \/ Other Cool Storage (not refrig&#8217;d) (31%)<\/li>\n<li>CoolBot(TM) (28%) &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.storeitcold.com\">CoolBots(TM) website<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Walkin freezer (16%)<\/li>\n<li>Other cooler refrigerated (16%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Other areas where respondents expressed interest in learning more included:\n<ul>\n<li>basic refrigeration principles \/ fundamentals<\/li>\n<li>equipment overview<\/li>\n<li>construction how-to<\/li>\n<li>general post-harvest handling best practices<\/li>\n<li>insulation trade-off \/ bang for your insulation buck<\/li>\n<li>building in resilience \/ what happens when the power goes away?<\/li>\n<li>making better use of cold winter air and thermal storage<\/li>\n<li>how to best segment a walkin \/ zoning the storage space<\/li>\n<li>short vs. long term storage practices<\/li>\n<li>economics; what is this actually costing me now and in the future?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>When asked about their own lessons learned, respondents noted:\n<ul>\n<li>Get field heat out quickly and keep it cold<\/li>\n<li>Excellent storage is key to having excellent product<\/li>\n<li>Insulate, insulate, and then insulate some more<\/li>\n<li>Measurement of temperature (and RH) is critical, don&#8217;t assume you are hitting your target conditions<\/li>\n<li>Watch out for ethylene off-gas from, e.g., apples<\/li>\n<li>Climate change is impacting harvest timing and therefore marketability and storage needs<\/li>\n<li>Plan for power loss<\/li>\n<li>Insure your product for loss while in storage<\/li>\n<li>Build bigger than what you presently need. Coolers and freezers are quickly outgrown.<\/li>\n<li>Consider &#8220;keeping it on the hoof&#8221; instead of harvest and storage.<\/li>\n<li>Pre-sell &#8211; grow only what you know you can sell &#8211; Sales and product movement are critical.\u00a0 Do the pre-planning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to all of those who took the time to respond to the food storage survey several weeks back.\u00a0 The information you provided has been really helpful.\u00a0 A clear desire for additional programming in this area was expressed, and I&#8217;ll be working to develop that. Here are the survey result highlights: 82% of respondents expressed &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/2012\/11\/28\/food-storage-survey-results\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Food Storage Survey Results&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6522,50616,684047],"tags":[6521],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equipment","category-refrigeration-and-storage","category-energy-on-the-farm","tag-post-harvest","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Chris Callahan","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/author\/cwcallah\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cwcallah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}