Eatwell Farm Cooler

Hi, Elianna here, and I am a tremendous friend and a fan of Eatwell farm. Over the years, I have experienced HOT days up at the farm when visiting for tomato canning days or with kids cooking and picking strawberries, but this was the hottest week on the farm ever - - like many places in the rest of California.

This heat broke one of the coolers, and the produce almost didn't make it to market; the team was able to work overtime and transfer the produce. However, moving forward, they need a backup cooling system. Now is the time we get to help out and be a part of making sure the fruits and vegetables we eat and the people who grow them have the tools they need to get them to our tables!

Lorraine explains the details of it all better than I can and says, "It has been one of the hottest weeks I can remember here on the farm. Watching my crew work extra hard and fast to get everything picked for our CSA this week, and get it done several hours early each day to get out of the worst of the heat, on top of our big cooler going down, I have realized that finding a way to create backup plans and options is really critical. The truth is, we are all facing a lot of uncertainties, whether it is extreme weather or PGE shutdowns, life is no longer as stable as we have all grown accustomed to.

Cory, who drove for us for many years, and someone I have come to rely on for many things since losing my husband, built his partner Tam a cooler for their flower business. I was extremely fortunate that the flower cooler was empty and we were able to use that space this week. Working in there got me thinking how great it would be to have a couple of small coolers for us to use as long-term storage for things like our potatoes, or our hydrosols. It would free up valuable space in our main cooler. Building two separate spaces side by side would allow us to adjust temperatures to best suit what is being stored at any given time, and it would allow us to downsize cooler space, turning one or both off when we don't need them. In case of emergency, hydrosols could get moved or stacked higher to make space for produce. In case of a power outage, we could run these units off of a generator, with the ultimate goal of running them on solar power as much as possible. A simple air conditioner fitted with a cool-bot can cool a room of 450 sq ft down to under 40 degrees. If a unit goes down, they are quick and easy to fix or replace. And reasonably priced.

Faced with so many uncertainties almost daily, I now understand one of the keys to survival is to be prepared. Two smaller coolers would go a long way in helping us navigate many of the challenges we face in farming. Cold storage certainly is a key component to getting quality produce to our customers. Building a couple of smaller spaces as opposed to another large cooler makes more sense for us economically as well as ecologically. We often have to run our large cooler for only a couple of stacks of veggies. How great it would be to have them in a small, more efficient cooler allowing us to turn our big cooler off over the weekends whenever possible.

Thank you for considering helping us with this project."

We are more powerful when we empower each other!