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

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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] wilting spinach
  • Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:46:10 -0400

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?


For a less complicated method than some others have posted, which may not cause it to keep quite as long as some of the others but does give me spinach that keeps about a week:

-- avoid letting it sit in the sun at all, even on its way from field to wash table; cover harvest trays with something to keep the sun off, if necessary

-- wash it off as soon as possible (ideally immediately after harvest, as soon as you can get it to the wash table) with fairly cool water; if there's a lot to wash, I get it all wet immediately by just spraying the whole collection down with a hose

--let drain briefly in the shade

--pack moderately loosely into boxes (I use waxed 1/2 bushel or 1 1/9 bushel as I have those anyway)

-- get it into the cooler, again, as fast as possible (I pack it still pretty wet.)

I bag most of it after I get to market; just do a couple of bags ahead for faster setup. I do a fairly loose pack in gallon size bags.

At market, I bring a gallon jug of ice with a sprinkler nozzle that fits it; if the day's hot and the greens start to look like wilting, I sprinkle with ice water at intervals. Also, on a really hot day I may fit as much as I can of what's not up on the stand in a cooler that rides in the van, with another gallon jug of ice to keep them company.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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