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Subject: Market Farming
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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)
|
-
Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales
, (continued)
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, Pamela Crowe, 08/19/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, Richard Stewart, 08/19/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, Marcy, 08/20/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, SaladG, 08/19/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, clearviewfarm, 08/19/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, SaladG, 08/20/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales,
clearviewfarm, 08/20/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, Laurie Allen, 08/20/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales, idyllwild farm, 08/20/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Need Help with Sales,
KAKerby, 08/21/2010
-
[Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Dalew Farms, 08/22/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
John and Katy Ehrlich, 08/22/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Richard Stewart, 08/22/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce, John and Katy Ehrlich, 08/22/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Richard Stewart, 08/22/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Carla Shafer, 08/22/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Deb Taft, 08/23/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce, Rob Wallbridge, 08/24/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Deb Taft, 08/23/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Etienne Goyer, 08/22/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce, Etienne Goyer, 08/22/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Mike Rock, 08/22/2010
- Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce, idyllwild farm, 08/23/2010
-
Re: [Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
John and Katy Ehrlich, 08/22/2010
-
[Market-farming] Inventory Systems for Produce,
Dalew Farms, 08/22/2010
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