There were multiple reasons Lissa Goldstein of Wild Work Farm, a diversified vegetable farm, needed a new wash/pack station.

The outdated barn she was using was difficult to clean, the lighting insufficient, the ceilings too low and it was difficult to move produce efficiently in and out of the building.

Additionally, Goldstein was concerned the space might eventually fail to meet Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) standards.

“I kind of anticipated that FSMA rules could apply to us eventually, and I just didn’t see a way to make that work in that space,” she said during an interview with Andy Chamberlin, an agriculture engineer at University of Vermont Extension.

Goldstein farms on leased family land in Keene Valley, NY, in the High Peaks region. She has three acres under cultivation; each year about half of that ground is in diversified vegetable production and the other half is cover cropped. Produce is marketed year-round through a community-supported agriculture (CSA) model, several wholesale accounts and one farmers market.

In brainstorming a new wash/pack station, she briefly considered retrofitting the old barn. But in leveling the floors and adding insulation, she would have lost height in a space that already lacked clearance. Building a new barn was appealing but too costly, and since she leases land, she knew she would never be able to sell the building to recoup the investment.

Then, a few people suggested shipping containers. Goldstein was familiar with using shipping containers – previously, she worked at an urban farm in British Columbia, Canada, which used them for storage and as coolers and saw them widely used during travels in Copenhagen – but she was skeptical about their narrowness.

Her skepticism ended when a friend introduced her to a Plattsburgh business owner who retrofits shipping containers, primarily for restaurants.

“We had him and a friend who’s a general contractor who was our builder, and we started brainstorming. Then, the project kind of took off,” Goldstein said.

The 40-foot insulated shipping container is one component of Wild Work’s new wash/pack station. The complete wash/pack structure consists of a 30-by-40-foot concrete slab with reinforced edges with the retrofitted 8-by-40-foot insulated shipping container sitting on one edge of the pad. The entire slab is covered with a trussed roof creating a large open-air pavilion.

In brainstorming a new wash/pack station, Lissa Goldstein considered retrofitting the old barn. But she would have lost height in a space that already lacked clearance. And building a new barn would be expensive. So she thought outside the box. Photo courtesy of Lissa Goldstein

Essentially, the build, which cost about $120,000, created two wash areas: on the slab where a series of wash stations are set up and inside the shipping container.

On a busy harvest day during the main season, Goldstein and her crew unload plastic boxes of dirty produce on one section of the concrete pad. Bins are stacked onto dollies which move easily on the concrete floor. From the dollies, produce is moved to different stations, some with water, like for washing root vegetables, and some dry, like for sorting tomatoes, etc.

The hoses for the wet stations hang from the rafters, and the slab is slightly pitched toward a trench drain. Once produce is clean, it is shifted into the cooler which takes up about a third of the shipping container. Large end doors at the back of the cooler can be opened to allow for easy loading into a vehicle.

The shipping container is used mostly to wash greens which are harvested year-round (from the field during the growing season and from unheated high tunnels during winter). The walls of the container are stainless steel, so they are easily washable. Dirty water created in the shipping container flows into a sump pump, and the water is pumped across the street.

Goldstein said, “Because there’s not much of an incline, we had to put in the pump.” The plumbing is well insulated and the container is heated with a heat pump, so freezing hasn’t been a significant issue in the space. There is also a small office space in the container.

Goldstein credits the new wash/pack for allowing the business to grow. She has expanded winter greens production, since they can wash greens more efficiently and comfortably in the container. Because of the new cooler in the container, they can use their original cooler (in the old barn) for winter storage crops.

The outdoor section of the wash/pack has also made it easier for CSA customers to pick up their weekly produce. Goldstein likes that the new space has allowed for better organizational and communication systems with her crew.

While Goldstein still sometimes dreams of having a larger barn with more indoor space, she also understands the disadvantages. “We’re on a flood plain. During Hurricane Irene this area definitely flooded and having a big stick structure that has insulation in the walls is just not a great idea,” she said.

She does wish the concrete floor was a bit smoother; it can be hard to sweep arugula leaves, for example, on the broom finished (rather than polished) concrete floor. Still, Goldstein acknowledged that she wouldn’t trade safety for a smooth floor though even if she could do it all over.

“I think it’s generally a really nice space to work in,” she said.

by Sonja Heyck-Merlin