7/29/26 When the Farm’s Cooler isn’t COOL
There are certain pieces of farm equipment that work so well in the background that you hardly think about them—until they stop working. Our walk-in cooler is one of those things. We’re having a current farm emergency as this piece of infrastructure gave out last week.
Why is this an emergency? Once harvested, vegetables are still alive. They continue breathing, using stored sugars and losing moisture. Warm temperatures speed that process up considerably. Leafy greens wilt. Cucumbers soften. Broccoli yellows. Herbs lose their fragrance. Our cooler may look like an unremarkable insulated room in the back downstairs room of our barn, but it is one of the central organs of the farm.. especially in a heat wave!!
On our farm, and many many other small farms there is an ingenious piece of farmer designed equipment that we rely on. It’s called a CoolBot.
The CoolBot itself has a wonderful agricultural origin story. In the early 2000s, vegetable farmers Kate and Ron Khosla needed a walk-in cooler for their small farm in New Paltz, New York. Conventional refrigeration equipment is expensive, complicated and often required a specialized technician to repair.
Ron began experimenting with ordinary window air conditioners instead. A window AC already contains most of the same basic machinery as a refrigerator. It pulls heat from one place and releases it somewhere else. The problem is that an air conditioner is designed to make a room comfortably cool—not refrigerator cold. Its internal thermostat generally tells it to stop working when the room reaches somewhere around 60 degrees.
Early attempts to override that thermostat created another problem: the cooling coils would freeze into a block of ice. Ron eventually partnered with an engineer friend, and together they created a small controller that could persuade an ordinary air conditioner to cool a properly insulated room into the upper 30s without allowing its coils to freeze solid.
The CoolBot was launched in 2006 and has since made walk-in cold storage accessible to thousands of small farms, florists, food businesses and organizations around the world. We were early adopters and installed ours in 2008 and as such we have a vintage, 1st generation CoolBot brain. Amazingly it still works!
The CoolBot essentially works as an exterior brain that hi-jacks the AC brain, telling it the air is still warm and to keep cooling allowing it to go down to 40 degrees instead of the normal 60 degree minimum an AC can do.
One of the great advantages of a CoolBot system is its simplicity and efficiency. Instead of a commercial compressor, we use an air conditioner that can theoretically be replaced with another compatible unit. It is also much more energy efficient than a traditional walk in of the same size (give me more details on this).
Two weeks ago our AC started to die, the crew did what they could while Elizabeth was on vacation but ultimately they and then Elizabeth determined the 8 year old AC was dead. Ordering a 24,000 BTU AC in a hot year in late July is not an easy thing, no stores have in stock now. The quickest we could get was 6 days out (Monday evening). Yesterday morning first thing we installed it and low and behold it did not work. It kept turning off due to overheating. We troubleshot and called support and finally were told we were sold a faulty AC. So last night at 4pm Elizabeth found another model on Amazon (we don’t love ordering from them but it was only a 2 day turn around). Wish us luck, we hope the 2nd AC on Thursday or Friday morning works for us!
This is farming too. Farming is planting seeds and picking tomatoes, but it is also refrigeration, plumbing, carpentry, electrical systems, delivery vehicles, irrigation pumps, bookkeeping and the urgent search for a very specific air conditioner during the hottest part of summer.
This Week’s Box
Classic Cabbage: Napa (SR) OR Green (WC)
Bunching Green: Rainbow Chard (SR) OR Toscano Kale (WC)
Eggplant (SR) OR Shishito Peppers (WC)
Carrots (SR) OR Mixed Beets (WC)
Cucumber (SR) OR Summer Squash (WC)
Mixed Tomatoes
Genovese Basil
Produce Notes & Recipes
This week we have a break in Lettuce… but Classics do have Cabbage and there are many a salad option from Eggplant to cucumber to of course a Cabbage Salad like below. Note we didn’t have enough Napa so Classic Santa Rosa’s have Napa and West County has Green Cabbage.
Cabbage & Cucumber Salad with Basil-Lemon Dressing Serves 4–6
½ Napa or Green Cabbage, thinly sliced (5-6 cups)
1-2 cucumbers, thinly sliced into half-moons
2 medium carrots, grated or julienned
½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn
¼ cup toasted sliced almonds or sunflower seeds
Dressing
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
½ tsp sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper.
In a large bowl, combine the Napa cabbage, cucumber, carrots, and basil.
Toss with the dressing and let stand 5-10 min nor Napa Cabbage or 15-20 for green cabbage to soften slightly while the cucumber stays crisp.
Sprinkle with toasted almonds or sunflower seeds just before serving.
Our indoor early Tomatoes have certainly been preforming and although their flavor is not that of a field ripened heirloom they’re quite lovely. Everyone has at least one colored tomato. Not all of these are heirlooms, we have some hoop house yellow and purple tomatoes we’re trialing this year. They’re super productive but the flavor is okay. We just turned off the water and are hoping the flavor intensifies. In our family, it’s Caprese Salad season!
Insalada Caprese
½ lb fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced ¼-inch thick
2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced ¼-inch thick
1 cup fresh basil leaves
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbs drained capers (optional)
¼ c extra-virgin olive oil
Optional instead or in addition to olive oil: Balsamic Vinegar or a sweet Balsamic reduction.
Alternate tomato and fresh mozzarella slices on plate, overlapping them
Tear basil leaves and sprinkle liberally over the slices. Add salt and pepper to taste and capers if desired.
Just before serving drizzle with good quality olive oil (don’t let it sit in oil too long).
Notes: We’ve really gotten to love the little balls of Mozzarella, we just cut them in half. We also love adding some cherry tomatoes for diversity of flavor and size, cut in half.
We’re in the second week of an Eggplant and Shishito Pepper rotation. Please look at last week’s newsletter for a write up of both. This week’s Eggplants are certainly larger as the heat picked up their growth.
Families are getting a bicolor Sweet Corn this week. This is our third year and we’re having more corn worms that we’d like. This is why we cut off the tips. It does mean the tips dry out a little. If we missed a little, sorry. Nothing to do about them outside of really harsh chemicals. This is also why you’ll find most organic corn in markets have their tips cut.
Sean has a corn pasta recipe he cooked last night and loved. I honestly like them plain I do boil but honestly it’s really just a blanch until the color brightens to warm it up.
Although we love Shishito Peppers pan fried with olive oil and salt and just popped in our mouths, it’s great sautéed. Sometimes we chop and throw into our morning eggs. A reminder that only 1 in 20 peppers is hot, they are considered a mild pepper and a reminder that any heat decreases spice of any peppers.
Shishito & Summer Squash Sauté with Basil
1 pint shishito peppers, whole
1 lb summer squash (zucchini, pattypan, or mix), cut into half-moons or bite-sized chunks
2–3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 Tbs olive oil
½ tsp salt (to taste)
Freshly ground black pepper
½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn or sliced
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add shishito peppers and sauté until blistered, 4–5 min
3. Add summer squash and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender-crisp and lightly golden, 6–8 minutes.
4. Stir in garlic, salt, and pepper; cook 1–2 more minutes.
5. Remove from heat and toss with fresh basil. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Variation: Shishito–Squash Pasta Toss
Cook the sauté as above, but before adding basil, toss the vegetables with:
8 oz cooked pasta (penne or spaghetti work well)
2–3 Tbs pasta cooking water
Extra olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice
Top with basil and, optionally, grated Parmesan.
Extra Shares
Flower Share: 🌸 Scabiosa in Focus
Lettuce Share: Reno + Gem Lettuces 🥬
Bunched Greens Share: Red Russian Kale 🌱
Herb Share: Cilantro
Summer Pint Share: Strawberries
Eggs: 🥚