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  • From: John Hendrickson <jhendric AT wisc.edu>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] cooler
  • Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:20:07 -0500

Great point; your comments are very relevant. Can any CooBot users report on how well it performs if you load up the cooler with lots of product? My understanding is that the CoolBot is not the tool of choice to remove field heat and chill down large volumes of produce. Things really need to be hydrocooled before going into the CoolBot and even then, if you're trying to cool down a lot of produce, it will not do as good or quick a job as a conventional cooling unit. This is what makes it, in my opinion, more relevant for smaller-scale farms than larger farms. This may also be another argument for using it for the 40-50 degree crops (peppers, cukes, etc.) instead of those that need 32 to hold well.

-John

David Inglis wrote:
I have a cooler question.
Everyone is referring, in terms of the capacity of the AC unit, to the size
of the cooler [in sq. or cu. Feet] but isn't it more relevant what weight of
produce is in the cooler? The air is far easier to cool down than the
produce. Maybe it is assumed that a cooler of a certain size is being fully
utilized but I see a lot of coolers with containers only stacked two or
three high. This makes sense to me from the point of view of the produce
cooling down quicker because it is exposed to the 'coolth' which we know is
crucial for quality and, more importantly, shelf life. But it does make the
size of the cooler rather arbitrary. So, would it not be more useful to rate a coolbot/AC unit combo by how many
bushel boxes it can cool from field heat to a target storage temp rather
than sq.ft of cooler space. Or is that not relevant?
Thanks.
Dave


Dave Inglis
Mahaiwe Harvest C.S.A.
Berkshire County
Massachusetts




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John Hendrickson
Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1535 Observatory Drive
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608-265-3704
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