Market Farming

["Adriana Gutierrez" <gutierrez-lagatta AT home.com>]

Cornelius said:
"They wash the leaf in cool water and then soak it in cool clean water to 
allow the cells to absorb the most water that they can.
They then gently dry the leaf exterior on a paper towel or such."

I think commercial mesclun processors use similar processes to hydrocool 
and wash their greens.  Hand drying greens on toweling, especially baby 
greens would be very time consuming and would cause tissue damage.

Liz said:
"Harvesting your lettuce should be done 2-3 days ahead of time. For         
your lettuce to survive transport & display, it must be thoroughly 
chilled."
I disagree, Liz.  Research has shown that THE single most important factor 
influencing the shelf life of greens is cooling the product down to 32 
degrees F within one hour of cutting.  I believe that for baby greens this 
should be done within 30 minutes.  If you cool them properly they should be 
saleable the same day.  I developed a very simple forced air cooling system 
which has worked great for me and the greens are crisp and gorgeous 
immediately afterward:

You need a walk-in cooler to do this.  For most greens you want it set as 
close to 32 degrees as possible.  Build or install a work bench-type 
structure with a shelf on it.  Enclose the back of the shelf with heavy 
duty plastic and put a clear plastic curtain across the front.  Leave the 
ends open.  On one end install a square box fan ($12 at Walmart) blowwing 
away from the bench so that air is sucked through the tunnel.  Put your 
greens in a laundry basket (the cheapest Rubbermaids are great).  If it 
makes you feel better, lightly mist the top of the basket.  Put the basket 
on the shelf  and drop the front curtain.  Turn on the fan.  The cold air 
is rapidly sucked through the greens, cooling them down in minutes.  Then 
you can pack them and delivery any time after that.  Passive cooling is 
much slower compared to this.