Tag Archives: post harvest processing

Weather Can Be Made To Help With Your Prep Work

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK

Weather is always a critical factor in farming, and SPIN farmers look for ways to use it to their advantage. Take today for instance. It’s an atypical fall day. Just before Halloween, and there is no snow on the ground. Late afternoon temperature is still conducive to outside work, if you bundle up a bit. So for me this is great weather for getting a significant volume of root crops washed and put into short term storage in the cooler.

It is much more efficient to do this task outside than inside. Setting up an outdoor workstation takes a few minutes. Only gear needed is a spray gun and wash buckets.

SF photo blog weather prepping

Single digit day time highs C. are perfect for letting the crops dry out during the day. Night time temperatures of 0 C. requires just a few tarps to cover the prepped crops. Once the washed crops dry out, they will last for many weeks in the cooler. I just take out what I need as I need it for market days throughout the winter.

We all know how uncooperative weather can sometimes be, so when there are days when you can make it work for you, go with it.

DDG4 photo 20Rainbow carrots really brighten up those dull winter days at market and are a very high value crop for SPIN farmers. If the aren’t already part of your crop repertoire, find out all about them in this guide.

 

Temperature Control for Winter Storage Crops

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon SK

More and more consumers go to year round farmers markets so they can know where their food comes from, even in winter. What they find at my stand are storage crops, like beets, carrots and potatoes.

Part of the challenge of year round marketing of produce in cold weather winters is keeping your storage vegetables in good physical condition for several months. Just as in the summer, I take SPIN’s high road by using a cooler. Keeping it at the right storage temperature is key. My cooler is on average around 35 F, or few degrees above freezing celsius. It’s in my garage, along with a work area for prepping produce. I keep it in my garage, which is heated with a small plug in radiant space heater. The thermostat is set to 50 F.

A few nights ago it was -35 Celsius overnight. Just made a celsius to fahrenheit calculation and ironically this is the temperature where the two scales converge: -35 C is the same as -35 F. So I have to deal with the outdoor temperature, the garage temperature and cooler temperature. The heater keeps the garage at 50 F., but the question is how do I keep the cooler at the desired temperature? I find just partially opening the cooler door allows air to seep in from the garage, when it is very cold outside. When temperatures outside get warmer, I can shut off the heater for certain periods of time and close the door for the cooler. Right now the cooler temperature is 34 F, which is about optimal. The aim is to keep it above freezing, and below 40 F.

SF photo Wally temp2

 

This is not a high tech method for sure, but it works, as long as I keep an eye on things happening inside and outside. So you don’t need an elaborate setup to keep your farm stand stocked with the staples that keep your customers coming, and your cash flowing,  when the snow is flying.

 

GAP Is Not Just for the Big Boys

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Courtesy of Wally S., Wally’s Urban Market Garden, Saskatoon, SK

Food safety regulations in the US have divided Big Ag and Small Ag into opposing camps, but there is one thing we can all be united on – Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). “Grow Responsibly” should be everyone’s mantra, regardless of size or country.

I attended a GAP workshop in 2011, and it was a real eye opener. I have been looking at and thinking about my business differently ever since. It was clear back then that implementation of GAP standards was being driven by industry groups and chain supermarkets to ensure, through a certification process, the safety of their far-flung supply chain. But what was enlightening to me when I started to wade through the manual was how it clarified the risks in food safety that I intuitively knew, but did not think all that much about.

Sure, the whole point of rebuilding local food systems is to keep the length of the supply chain short, thereby making it easier to monitor and control. “Direct marketing” is exactly that, moving food from farmer’s plot to market to plate. But every farmer faces risks when it comes to food safety, and it’s a worthy exercise for SPIN-scale farmers to identify them and devise strategies to deal with them.

Reviewing the GAP material and evaluating what is most relevant and do-able for your operation will take time. Looking ahead, it will be a good winter project. Or, if you are selling at a farmers market, you might recommend to your manager that they bring in a GAP workshop presenter at the end of this season when business quiets down to help you get started.

A good warm up for GAP is a free online tool developed by Family Farmed which walks you through how to develop a food safety plan for your farm.  It was developed in 2013 when the fight over food safety in the US was raging, and it is obviously designed for the big boys. But we can all benefit from reviewing harvesting and post-harvesting protocols, especially newbie growers. Much of the information is common sense, which nowadays may not be so common.

However is easiest for you to get up to speed on GAP, I’d highly recommend that you get familiar with the standards and begin to implement as much as you can next year so that you can display a GAP manual at your market stand or on your online storefront. You do not have to claim to be GAP certified; just use it to show you are aware of, and practice, the highest levels of food safety.

The fight over reasonable food safety regulation drags on, but it does not have to drag down your business in the process. The safest attitude to have is “If you can’t beat ’em join ’em.” Farms of all sizes benefit from abiding by GAP standards, and attending a GAP workshop is a worthwhile investment for any farmer who is serious about their business.

SPIN photo post harvesting station Linda

Here are 5 good resources to help you think through your food safety practices:

USDA checklist:  http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5091326

 Canada GAP manuals: http://www.canadagap.ca/tools/audit-checklist/

 CODEX List of standards:  http://www.codexalimentarius.org/standards/list-of-standards/

On-Farm Food Safety Project (OFFS):  an online program that identifies and helps you assess various aspects of food safety: http://onfarmfoodsafety.org/

 Farm Food Safety Decision Tree Project: an online program that helps you identify and evaluate food safety risks from Cornell University: http://www.gaps.cornell.edu/tree.html

 These organizations provide standards and administer programs to gain certification that the food you are growing and selling is safe. Certification is voluntary.

In Canada  GAP standards were originally devised by the Canadian Horticultural Society in 2000. They are currently administered by a non-profit corporation called CanAgPlus.   http://www.canadagap.ca

In the US GAP standards are administered by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/GAPGHPAuditVerificationProgram

Internationally GAP standards are administered by CODEX Alimentarius Commission, established in 1963 by the World Health Organization and  the  Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). http://www.codexalimentarius.org/

 

Keeping Greens Fresh to Sell at Market

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Courtesy of Brenda S., Thompson Street Farm, Glastonbury CT
I grow mostly baby greens. For me humidity and high temperatures are a huge factor.

I cut my greens either the day before or the morning before the market. When I cut my greens I try really hard to keep them out of the sun. I do this by covering my container with a basic rain umbrella. Then I dump them into a sink, which is in the shade, filled with icy cold water and let them soak for approx. 10 – 15 minutes.

After they’ve soaked, I pull them out and put them in a large salad spinner and spin them for about 1 minute. Then I spread them out on a table covered with clean towels. Humidity dictates how dry the spinner gets them. Sometimes its so humid and hot that I have to set up a box fan and have it gently blow over the greens to get them really dry. The drier your greens, the longer they will hold up.

After I weigh and bag them in bio-degradable #10 cello bags, from Pac Sel, I put them in the commercial cooler until I’m ready to load up for the market. I use this type of bag because it breathes, whereas plastic bags trap heat and wilts the lettuce. I transport the greens in a large ice cooler.

In CT, our form of government is towns. So every town (vs. county/state) has their own set of rules regulating farmers markets and how produce is sold. In the last year many town health departments are requiring farmers to keep leafy greens cold. So I now have to use a huge cooler with a small amount of ice in the bottom covered with a towel. I don’t want the lettuce directly sitting on the ice because it will burn/freeze the leaves so I use a towel as a buffer – the bags sit on top of the towel. During the market I place the cooler facing out with the lid open so people can look inside and pull out what they want.