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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] wilting spinach

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  • From: Willie McKemie <mf AT austinfarm.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] wilting spinach
  • Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:06:44 -0500

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 03:55:42AM -0400, DFORD8N AT aol.com wrote:
> Anybody have a cure for wilting spinach? It only holds up for a few hours
> after cutting it for the markets then goes kaput. Is there any way to keep
> it bagged, or loose even, overnight or for a day or two?

I've handled quite a bit of spinach; here is what I do:
1) pick into bushel sized plastic laundry baskets
2) hose it down and store in shade until it can be put in walkin
3) store wet in walkin until there is time to wash it
4) rinse again in laundry baskets, plunge baskets in tub of clean
water, agitate, remove from tub, rinse (in hose stream) again
5) pack moderately tightly in large plastic bags
6) store large plastic bags, inverted to drain, in walkin
7) after several hours or a day when spinach is drained and cooled,
pack tightly into 10oz retail bags, removing as much air from the bags
as possible. The product is still pretty wet when packed.
8) store in the walkin until ready to sell and/or deliver.

Shelf life is a week or more. From new customers, there is quite a
bit of resistance to the tight pack. Until they try it. I pick
single leaves every 2 or 3 days for 2-4 weeks on each planting. I cull
the product at each stage.

I started tight packing spinach quite a few years ago when I noticed
loose packed was not worth much more than the boxes I was putting it
in. I now put 28 10oz bags in a ~1 bushel banana box. My rationale
is that the spinach sustained some damage being packed, but was not
much damaged by subsequent handling.

Most of the product goes to grocery stores. Some of the product, I
retail at farmers markets. At farmers markets, new customers are more
likely to buy if I open a display bag and allow it to puff up. Repeat
sales are very high.

For a few years, I was doing 5-15 acres of spinach during our winter
season. With labor problems, I now do less than an acre.

--
Willie, ONWARD! Through the fog!
http://counter.li.org Linux registered user #228836 since 1995
Debian3.1/GNU/Linux system uptime 641 days 23 hours 34 minutes




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