As we wake to more mornings of frosty glory, sparkles on roofs and roads, cabbages and celery, Winter draws near. Time for soups and scarves, sunny windows and sipping tea. But also, coolers changing to heaters.
A few years ago we bought a prototype walk-in cooler from Feris Build Tech, a building envelope technology company. They make everything from ice-fishing huts to apartments, tiny-houses to commercial spaces. Net zero. Our application is the Canadian agricultural context where reliable temperature matters. We can't control outdoor temperatures, so we work with and around the weather in many of our farming processes. But when it comes to vegetable storage we need consistency. We've found that consistency in the combination of a walk-in cooler combined with a Coolbot and an oil radiator. The insulated building provides a storage unit we can efficiently cool in the warm months. Now, we have the reverse problem, as sub-zero becomes the norm. But, the same storage unit provides a stable warm environment with minimal heating from a small electric oil radiator.
Last week we shifted our "walk-in cooler" - Ahem! - our climate controlled storage unit from it's home at Feris, to a new location in Kingscourt. We're grateful for our new hosts, and James Reid who moved the unit for us. Now we need to complete the finishing touches: levelling the unit, installing an updated WiFi Coolbot for remote monitoring, adding eavestroughing, testing, and filling it with the veggies which are patiently waiting.
So, if someone asks you what your farmers get up to at this time in the season, and whether they've got the "garden all put to bed," you'll know what projects we're working on and can tell them.
Thanks for eating with Main Street Urban Farm, the little farm that could.
