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Harvesting  
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            Even though we are seeding and transplanting well into March, we usually begin harvesting by mid October. (about the time many growers up north are wrapping up their harvest season!) Everything we grow is harvested by hand. Harvesting of some crops continues until the end of May.

  Summer squashes, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are picked into buckets in the field and brought into the packing house by truck. Most are run through a washer and onto a grading table for packing, before placing them in the proper cooler. Because they may be damaged by the washer, heirloom tomatoes and eggplants are packed without washing.

  Root crops are pulled and bunched and usually rinsed directly in the field by dipping them into buckets of water. Tops which can be eaten such as beets and turnip are left on the roots. Carrot tops are often removed.

  Hard-rind winter squashes (butternut and calabaza) are brought into the barns and, if they are going to be stored, cured at a high temperature for a week or two.    

The biggest harvesting operation is salad mix. We cut it by hand, using scissors until this year when we will begin using a new greens harvester sold by Johnny's Selected Seed. The leaves are put into plastic containers and brought into the greenhouse where it is washed twice in large tanks, using the local residential water supply. Then we spin out much of the water using an electric salad spinner. It is bagged by weight and refrigerated immediately.

  Large greens such as chard and spinach are usually cut the morning they will be sold. They are not washed. If it is necessary to keep them, they are stored for no more than one day just above freezing.

            Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are also usually cut in the morning of the day they will go out. They are bagged before refrigerating.

            Micromix greens are cut with scissors and put directly into plastic boxes or “clamshells”.

            Most of our vegetables are packed into plastic bags and/or waxed boxes. We have coolers or refrigerators at 3 different temperatures: tomatoes, eggplants, watermelons, and winter squashes are kept at 55-60° ; peppers, summer squashes, cantaloupes, basil are kept between 45-50° ; and root crops, all greens, cabbage family crops, and most herbs require temperatures just above freezing.