Garden Greenhorns: Harvesting the Produce of the Land

an update from Garden Greenhorn and AmeriCorps VISTA Kelsey Grant

Wednesday, May 7, 2014, was the first day of harvesting in the beds. The Greenhorns and I learned all about food safety and the proper techniques at CCUA in harvesting. The first and most important thing we have to do is wash our hands. Carrie Hargrove emphasized before every time you touch and handle food, that you wash your hands with soap and water. Also, after handling the produce, it is enforced to wash your hands as well. A second thing that was done by the Garden Greenhorns is washing the equipment we would use in harvesting. This includes everything from the harvesting knives and scissors to the harvesting bins, drying racks, and washing tubs. There was a two-part system of washing, then sanitizing. This system is in place so that the produce being taken from the field to be sold will be stored in a clean environment.

Photo from Columbia Farmers Market VISTA, Matt Jernigan

Once the produce is gathered and placed in bins, you begin the next step - washing it. The produce, in our case – leaf lettuce, is placed in a big tub filled with water. The Greenhorns and I then picked through the lettuce to filter out if there were weeds or straw accidently mixed in. The lettuce is placed in mesh laundry bags and then spun in a washer machine on the spin cycle. By spinning the lettuce in the washer, it is able to get all the excess water out, just like a salad spinner. The lettuce then is weighed and placed in bags to be sold.

By the end of the session, we harvested about four bins of lettuce, which equaled out to 15 ½ pounds! We did this whole process in less than four hours. It shows that this hard work will give you good food.  The whole process from which we start plants in the greenhouse to transplanting, to then caring for them in the beds, to harvesting them is amazing. It feels like as a garden greenhorn, I’m seeing the full swing of the urban farm in action.