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  • From: "Dalew Farms" <dalew AT phonenet.ca>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce
  • Date: Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:59:22 -0400

I'm looking for any ideas or systems that others are using for keeping track of and using in the proper order your inventory of fresh produce.  I'll try to spell out how we are doing it, in case that helps anyone else tinker with their methods.
 
We have a 100 share CSA program, that predominately takes the harvests from the beginning of the week, but we also sell to a restaurant, and through a Farmers' market and through our farmgate, which takes the lion's share of the harvest from the end of the week usually.  We've grown to this level over the last 3-4 years mostly.  In previous years, we didn't really need to have a system in our walk in cooler to sort or manage inventory, because either my wife or I pretty much knew exactly where everything was, and when it had been harvested.  But now, as we get larger, and have other workers with a little more responsibility, we've found it a little more challenging.  Once in a while we'll be packing something for an order, and find a bin of something that should have went into Wed's CSA delivery instead of Thursday's CSA or Fridays' order. 
 
Currently, we pack almost everything into rubbermaid bins.  We've found most things store better in these bins with the lids on.  We use duct tape as a label on the lids, and write with a marker the type, the amount, and the day of the week harvested.  (For eg:  30 broc - Wed 18th.)  When we place these bins in our walk in cooler, we stack from the floor up, starting on the outside walls.  When we bring in freshly harvested produce, we are supposed to be pulling out anything that might allready be stored there, and putting the freshly harvested produce at the bottom/back, so that what was allready harvested is used up first. 
 
We don't write down anywhere else an inventory list as things come in, or go out, but we've been wondering if we should.  We're trying to decide whether the time it takes to double record that would be well spent and save time organizing, or if we aren't large enough to justify that yet.  Other pros and cons..... It seems like a pain to move bins of stuff out from where they are, just to place one bin of fresh cut produce at the bottom, but short of wasting cooler space, or building lots of shelving, I haven't thought of a way around this.  Sometimes those bins aren't moved when they are supposed to be, and the wrong bins are used first, meaning that something else becomes to old to sell if its left for an extra day or two - I'm not sure if we need to write up a strict written protocol for everyone to follow on this to prevent that, or if that's just something that will happen once ina while no matter what we do!  Other "fun" we've had with this system, is that we've had a student packing up our retail display at the end of the day quickly use lids from other (emptied) bins without changing the labels, and then I spent a half an hour trying to find that stuff the next morning, because it was labeled as yesterday's cucumbers instead of what it actually was! :) 
 
We find it takes a lot of time to keep the cooler organized and functional.  That's the system we're using but I'm sure looking for ways to improve on it if you have any suggestions!  I tried to scour the archives for this subject, but didn't find anything.  If I missed a good discussion on this subject somewhere, please let me know!
 
I also wanted to thank some of you for suggesting the coolbot for our new walk in cooler this year.  (We purchased a 26' insulated truck box this spring to avoid taking all of our produce up and down stairs to a walk in cooler in the basement of our house)  Although the deal I got on the truck box originally came with a conventional compressor type cooler that was supposed to be lots big enough to do the job, it wasn't!  Eventually, I received a coolbot and hooked it up to a 25,000 btu window Air conditioner and its doing a much better job now!  I'm thrilled with the coolbot!
 
Dave
 
Dalew Farms
Lavigne (Northern Ontario, Canada)
 
 



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