Produce Growers Learn Efficient Packing Options
Submitted by Editor on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 3:33pm.
John Friel
Southeastern Pa. Correspondent
LEOLA, Pa. — “Everybody packs something.”
That’s Denise Sheehan, assistant program director of the southeast region of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). Her audience: about 15 farmers and prospective farmers attending a recent master class in produce packing at the Leola warehouse and distribution center of Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFF).
At least five audience members run community supported agriculture (CSA) operations in PASA’s nine-county Southeast region. One reported 100 members, another 400. Sheehan said the class was intended “to try and make packing better ... to maximize your efficiency.”
Casey Spacht, LFF’s general manager, showed several packaging options and discussed the pros and cons of each. Most common, he said, is the waxed carton. LFF uses several sizes and two different weights. The lighter, less costly box is used for lighter crops like peppers and cucumbers.
Holding up a black plastic bulb crate, Spacht said, “This is the least desirable.” He explained that since such crates cannot be folded or broken down, they take up just as much room empty as full, making for costly back-hauling. And with their open-grate sidewalls and bottom, they allow too much air circulation, leading to dehydrated produce.
Spacht said it’s important to choose the proper container, and to handle it properly. Displaying a waxed carton with torn tabs, he said “You can’t really use a cabbage box twice.” The co-op uses a low, flat box for peas and cut lettuce. Easily-bruised items like eggplant must be packed more carefully, with fewer units per carton.
The class shared experiences with production issues, such as removing field heat from harvested crops. Farmer Dan Burkholder raises asparagus and several kinds of berries at Burkholder’s Ever-Green Farm in Denver. He told the group he tries to “keep the humidity as high as we can” while chilling berries, which he spreads out in his cooler for six or seven hours at just over freezing. Once chilled, the berries are stacked and covered with plastic to keep them from drying and shriveling. Burkholder has just taken up growing in tunnels, which Spacht said most of the co-ops berry farmers use.
Audrey Fisher-Petersen said she and her husband are taking up vegetable farming on three to four acres of her father-in-law’s land near Mercersburg. She apprenticed for three seasons at an organic farm. It was valuable experience, she said, but even so, “You think you’ve learned, and then you get out on your own and Whoa! How do I do this, how do I do that?”
Fisher-Petersen called farming “a trade-off: There’s the freedom, but you also have the insecurity. We’ll see how the balance works out.”
The group toured LFF’s spacious cooler, which is kept around 36 degrees, and (briefly) the adjacent freezer, which runs about five below zero. The cooler, even in January, held a surprising amount of produce. Neatly stacked cartons held eggs, broccoli, cider, cabbage, winter radishes, apples, sauerkraut, and Yukon Gold potatoes. On shelves lining the walls were more cartons with butter, yogurt and pickle relish.
Spacht said the organic sauerkraut, now a popular item, originated as a solution to a problem. Due to a crop-planning error early in the co-op’s development, he said, “We had way too much cabbage coming in.” With 30 pallets of the pungent vegetable in the cooler, Spacht recalls, “I said, ‘Let’s make some sauerkraut’. Now, we have to have farmers grow more cabbage just for our kraut.”
A Thriving Cooperative
LFF has experienced amazing growth since its inception in 2006. Spacht said the co-op started with seven farmers, expanded to 22 in 2007, and now takes produce, meat and dairy products from 75 farms. The farms average four to six producing acres; the largest is 18 acres.
“This is the first year we’ve had to turn farmers away,” Spacht said. “We probably could have had 100, but there’s no way we could handle it all.” He said produce is LFF’s major source of income, but more animal products are planned.
The original facility near Strasburg was just 3,000 square feet including cooler, warehouse and garage, he said; now, “the coolers alone are as big as our original space.” At the old facility, Spacht recalled, “We were totally maxed out. The neighbors weren’t happy with us, either, always making noise at 4 a.m.”
LFF employs four drivers full-time, three more part-time. The full-time staff of six swells to “many more” in summer and fall, when harvest is in full swing.
Most gratifying, Spacht said, is the change in the farmers’ lives. “Some of our farmers were really struggling,” he recalled. “Now, I see them doing really, really well, getting six-figure checks every year. My thing is to get the best price I can for the farmers, to keep them happy.”
An audience member asked Spacht if he had a five-year plan. “Yes,” he replied, “but it changes every year.” Asked if prices were set before the season started, Spacht said that would be impossible as “produce prices change at least three times a week.”
Sheehan said the association’s master classes are designed “to give our membership learning opportunities in a condensed format.” There are also field days for “longer formatted programs,” and a yearly “Farming for the Future” conference. This year’s conference, entitled “The Sustainable Challenge: Providing for a Liveable Tomorrow,” will run February 4 - 6 at the Penn Stater Conference Hotel in State College. The next master class will be held February 13 in Exton, and will cover two topics: “Chickens in My Backyard?” and “Planning Your Planting,” which Sheehan said is aimed at “small-scale, intensive gardening.”
John FrielSoutheastern Pa. Correspondent
LEOLA, Pa. — “Everybody packs something.”
That’s Denise Sheehan, assistant program director of the southeast region of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA). Her audience: about 15 farmers and prospective farmers attending a recent master class in produce packing at the Leola warehouse and distribution center of Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative (LFF).
At least five audience members run community supported agriculture (CSA) operations in PASA’s nine-county Southeast region. One reported 100 members, another 400. Sheehan said the class was intended “to try and make packing better ... to maximize your efficiency.”
Casey Spacht, LFF’s general manager, showed several packaging options and discussed the pros and cons of each. Most common, he said, is the waxed carton. LFF uses several sizes and two different weights. The lighter, less costly box is used for lighter crops like peppers and cucumbers.
Holding up a black plastic bulb crate, Spacht said, “This is the least desirable.” He explained that since such crates cannot be folded or broken down, they take up just as much room empty as full, making for costly back-hauling. And with their open-grate sidewalls and bottom, they allow too much air circulation, leading to dehydrated produce.
Spacht said it’s important to choose the proper container, and to handle it properly. Displaying a waxed carton with torn tabs, he said “You can’t really use a cabbage box twice.” The co-op uses a low, flat box for peas and cut lettuce. Easily-bruised items like eggplant must be packed more carefully, with fewer units per carton.
The class shared experiences with production issues, such as removing field heat from harvested crops. Farmer Dan Burkholder raises asparagus and several kinds of berries at Burkholder’s Ever-Green Farm in Denver. He told the group he tries to “keep the humidity as high as we can” while chilling berries, which he spreads out in his cooler for six or seven hours at just over freezing. Once chilled, the berries are stacked and covered with plastic to keep them from drying and shriveling. Burkholder has just taken up growing in tunnels, which Spacht said most of the co-ops berry farmers use.
Audrey Fisher-Petersen said she and her husband are taking up vegetable farming on three to four acres of her father-in-law’s land near Mercersburg. She apprenticed for three seasons at an organic farm. It was valuable experience, she said, but even so, “You think you’ve learned, and then you get out on your own and Whoa! How do I do this, how do I do that?”
Fisher-Petersen called farming “a trade-off: There’s the freedom, but you also have the insecurity. We’ll see how the balance works out.”
The group toured LFF’s spacious cooler, which is kept around 36 degrees, and (briefly) the adjacent freezer, which runs about five below zero. The cooler, even in January, held a surprising amount of produce. Neatly stacked cartons held eggs, broccoli, cider, cabbage, winter radishes, apples, sauerkraut, and Yukon Gold potatoes. On shelves lining the walls were more cartons with butter, yogurt and pickle relish.
Spacht said the organic sauerkraut, now a popular item, originated as a solution to a problem. Due to a crop-planning error early in the co-op’s development, he said, “We had way too much cabbage coming in.” With 30 pallets of the pungent vegetable in the cooler, Spacht recalls, “I said, ‘Let’s make some sauerkraut’. Now, we have to have farmers grow more cabbage just for our kraut.”
A Thriving Cooperative
LFF has experienced amazing growth since its inception in 2006. Spacht said the co-op started with seven farmers, expanded to 22 in 2007, and now takes produce, meat and dairy products from 75 farms. The farms average four to six producing acres; the largest is 18 acres.
“This is the first year we’ve had to turn farmers away,” Spacht said. “We probably could have had 100, but there’s no way we could handle it all.” He said produce is LFF’s major source of income, but more animal products are planned.
The original facility near Strasburg was just 3,000 square feet including cooler, warehouse and garage, he said; now, “the coolers alone are as big as our original space.” At the old facility, Spacht recalled, “We were totally maxed out. The neighbors weren’t happy with us, either, always making noise at 4 a.m.”
LFF employs four drivers full-time, three more part-time. The full-time staff of six swells to “many more” in summer and fall, when harvest is in full swing.
Most gratifying, Spacht said, is the change in the farmers’ lives. “Some of our farmers were really struggling,” he recalled. “Now, I see them doing really, really well, getting six-figure checks every year. My thing is to get the best price I can for the farmers, to keep them happy.”
An audience member asked Spacht if he had a five-year plan. “Yes,” he replied, “but it changes every year.” Asked if prices were set before the season started, Spacht said that would be impossible as “produce prices change at least three times a week.”
Sheehan said the association’s master classes are designed “to give our membership learning opportunities in a condensed format.” There are also field days for “longer formatted programs,” and a yearly “Farming for the Future” conference. This year’s conference, entitled “The Sustainable Challenge: Providing for a Liveable Tomorrow,” will run February 4 - 6 at the Penn Stater Conference Hotel in State College. The next master class will be held February 13 in Exton, and will cover two topics: “Chickens in My Backyard?” and “Planning Your Planting,” which Sheehan said is aimed at “small-scale, intensive gardening.”
