Spin cycle
Here’s an important piece of the post-harvest station, the trusty washing machine-turned-salad spinner, flanked by laundry sinks, working on Sunday CSA harvest. The washer idea I read about someplace. When the washer here on the farm started doing odd things to clothes and was heading for the scrap heap, I intercepted it and pressed it into veggie service. With the agitator removed, it’s used on the spin cycle. Good ol’ centrifugal force! The trick to preventing leaves from getting crushed—either shredded (spinach) or veiny (lettuce, other light leaves)—is not to load too much at a time. The sinks contain cold well water. Mostly, rinsing greens is done to quickly cool them down after being cut in warm conditions (like…a hot afternoon, you can’t always pick your moment). Sometimes, it’s to wash off dirt splashed up by rain. Rinsing greens for one reason or another happens about 75% of the time during late spring through midsummer. Once the days start getting shorter (yuck…), greens harvests can usually be timed for the cooler evening, and rinsing happens less often. The sinks are also used to rinse other crops when they need it! Simple, effective!!
Somewhat related posts: • Last big harvest of the year! • CSA share! • Sort, bundle, bag • Packing station • Early harvest day…
steven said,
July 4, 2007 @ 9:01 am
Excellent re-purposing of an appliance, until this moment I thought the best thing you could do with an old appliance was make a smoker out of an old refrigerator, but your greens spinner is awesome.
Meps Schulte said,
October 18, 2007 @ 12:45 am
My family has used a washing machine to spin-dry lettuce since 1980, when an article in the New York Times mentioned it as an alternative to the expensive and new-to-the-market “salad spinner.” But your photo makes me smile, because I always hated taking the lettuce down to the dreary basement laundry room, and it would be much more fun to just take it outside!
Mike (tfb) said,
October 18, 2007 @ 11:17 am
Meps: That’s a funny image! It sounds like you had the washer doing double duty. Plucking wads of salad out of pockets… :)