February in Minnesota has a way of making leisurely Saturdays at the farmers’ market feel like a distant memory. Although summer is a long way off, many farmers are already gearing up for their next season. Minnesota’s notoriously early frost and late thaw puts pressure on farmers in the Upper Midwest to produce a good crop within a short time.
That’s where Edina resident Mark Rieland, co-founder of the Minnesota Food and Agriculture Network, steps in. He understands the intricacies of the farming and agriculture system and knows that new infrastructure could help the local food movement take hold in Minnesota. Rieland and local food enthusiasts John Hatzung and Paul Hannemann, both architects, teamed up to find an affordable tool to help Minnesota farmers increase the quality and availability of locally grown products.
The concept for the Harvest Cooler began a few years ago when Rieland attended a conference to learn about the challenges Minnesota farmers face due to lack of refrigeration. “As soon as a vegetable is picked, it starts dying,” says Hatzung, who got involved in the project shortly after the conference. “But cooling the product stops the beginning of the decaying process and holds it there,” he explains. And if you bring the temperature of a product down quickly “you can greatly extend the life of the product.”
Mega-farms in California already use high-tech cooling solutions to help maximize their crop yield. But these systems exceed the small farmer’s budget or modest-sized property. And relying on a regular walk-in cooler isn’t an effective substitute. Many farmers harvest on Friday or early Saturday morning before heading to the farmers’ market to ensure their produce is still fresh. Without lowering the temperature, the produce won’t last long, says Rieland.
Hatzung and Hannemann, who each has a background in food-storage architecture and has worked for corporations such as Costco and Supervalu, began designing a 21st-century version of a root cellar, using with forced air. After much research and various prototypes, the team produced an aboveground model which, at 24 by 8 by 8 feet, is portable and affordable. The on-farm harvest cooler is not just a cold box; this compartment of storage bins and forced air “takes the cooling process down from days to hours,” says Hannemann. Nearly 2,000 pounds of carrots, for instance, can be reduced to their ideal temperature right above freezing in six to eight hours. This will enable farmers to harvest on a manageable schedule earlier in the week, cool the produce in batches, and then take everything to market for the weekend. By cooling produce right after harvesting, the farmer can also reduce losses from each crop and ensure a more bountiful harvest. That extra window gives the farmer more opportunities to put the produce on store shelves.
Not only will shoppers enjoy fresher produce as they shop farmers’ markets, the harvest cooler team believes the impact will extend to supermarkets, restaurants and school food programs. “It’s one thing to talk about local foods and another to have enough availability for the aggregation and distribution. This tool, we believe, is going to allow far more access to locally grown produce,” says Rieland. On a large scale, with more local farmers getting more produce to market, “we’re connecting communities and helping build the economic viability of rural communities,” says Hannemann.
The trio’s long-term vision is to have hubs of harvest coolers across the Upper Midwest where farmers can share or lease the portable devices. “It all goes back to the infrastructure that we’re trying to help build to increase locally grown products,” says Hatzung. They hope that by helping the local farmer and creating a system that accommodates and encourages eating locally, they’ll affect even larger issues, such as soil quality, obesity and public health. “What is fun about this process has to do with changing that paradigm. We want to be part of the solution,” says Rieland. “We see various stepping stones, and this is just the beginning.”
