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  • From: "Adriana" <adriana AT chefsgreens.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Cooling and storing produce
  • Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 11:41:39 -0600

This brings up some concerns about everything being wet for a week or more.
And, how can I cool that much water every day?

Sure hope some of you have dealt with these issues and have some great
suggestions/solutions!
Early on I came across research that indicated that cooling down lettuces and greens within half an hour of harvesting was the single most important contributor to shelf life and I believe it based on 8 years of growing experience.

Passive cooling is not the best way to cool produce since it can take hours for large quantities to cool down. If you can, rig up a forced air cooling tunnel within your cooler. The way I did this was to designate a shelf on a rack as the cooling tunnel. The shelf was solid on the back, top and bottom and I had a plastic drop curtain for the front. I had a box fan on one end pulling air through the "tunnel" Seal any gaps between the edge of the fan and the sides, top and bottom. I would pick produce (in my case basil and salad greens) into large laundry baskets which fit snugly into the tunnel. When you put the baskets into the tunnel and turned the fan on I found that the contents would be cooled down in 10 or 15 minutes. It works best if the baskets are fairly full and they fit snugly in the tunnel as this forces the air to be pulled through the vents in the baskets and then through the leaves.

I used an indoor-outdoor thermometer with a probe that I could insert into the middle of the basket to determine if it had cooled down sufficiently to remove it from the tunnel. Some leafy greens can get dehydrated if you leave them in too long - they might benefit from a mild misting on the top surface to prevent this problem.

Adriana




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