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  • From: Jay Sleichter <jaysleichter AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Another Wilting Question
  • Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 21:48:09 -0700 (PDT)

I will agree with Darnell.  I hand pick all my greens and snap of with my fingers. It does take longer, but I am getting 2 weeks easily out of them. 

I am just about to give up on selling greens. I am tired of all the work to pick, wash, spin, bag and bring them home when they don't sell.  I don't get it.  I have a great product, good price and good markets. I guess I don't have the reputation for greens. With all the work, I am fine with it.  Now, customers will line up 15-20 people deep for my tomatoes. I guess I should stick with what I know.

Jay

Jay's Jellies, Produce and More
Clay Center, Kansas
www.jaysjellies.com
http://highfarming.blogspot.com/

--- On Fri, 5/28/10, darnell erickson <darnellerickson AT yahoo.com> wrote:

From: darnell erickson <darnellerickson AT yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Another Wilting Question
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Friday, May 28, 2010, 8:19 PM

We used to cut with kitchen shears and found that we had some issues with browning on the ends of the leaves, lots of damaged leaves, quick wilting at the market, and we were only getting about five or six days out of the greens.  We switched to 100% hand picked( pinching each leaf off) at the suggestion of a more experienced vendor at our martket.  Not only did we find that the greens held longer and looked better but the plants left behind last much longer and recovered faster.  The customers report that the greens will hold for as much as two weeks.
 
We have always hydrocooled the greens, picking about a pound at a time and then putting them in ice cold water.  We let them sit in the water until the leaf feels about as cold as the water, and then spin them gently in a household salad spinner.  We store and transport them to market in 22 gallon rubbermaid plastic bins.  We place a flat block of ice in the bottom bin, cover it with a towel and then place the bin with the greens inside of it.  Without the towel, the greens get "freeze" damage.
 
We bag up a bunch of half pounds once we get to the market, and keep those on ice too.  Our display buckets on the table used to get wilty if it was windy or hot, but we fixed that by bagging from the display pretty regularly, and refilling it from the ice cold bins.
 
We are processing about 60 pounds of greens a week including 29 varieties of lettuce, spinach, arugula, mustard greens, cress, endive and orach.  The only detriment to switching to hand picking from shears is that it takes us longer to pick.

Darnell Caffoni
Boxwood Gardens
Orleans (Cape Cod) Massachusetts
Where we have been having August temps in May

 


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