I wish I had taken a photo of our approach to loading and transporting CSA boxes last year, the first year of Vanessa’s and my new farm business. It was a shit show. We spent a lot of time diving into the cardboard dumpster of our local organic grocer last year to get recycled cardboard boxes that, owing to their miscellany of sizes, couldn’t be stacked. This limited us to cramming no more than 18 at a time in Tiny Tim, our dinky red Mazda pickup.

Delivery to local residents would start at 5pm, and in the height of summer we were usually dealing with 30 C temperatures. Most of the boxes were open on top, so wilt was always a problem. Our solution was to hang a clean bedsheet on the clothesline, spray it down, then drape it over the whole shebang. We knew the system sucked and vowed to fix it going into season 2.

We did! To a large extent, anyway. I still want to tweak the system, but here’s what we figured out for this season:

So our first big change was to figure out something better than recycled boxes, the regular supply of and predictable sizing of which cannot be counted on. We settled on these shopping bags, which measure 12″ high by 18″ long by 7″ wide, I think. They’re called Kraft bags and can be got at many commercial packaging suppliers. We used Uline. We’ve found that the bags recycle very well, and our customers are pretty good about returning them.  I think it worked out to 20 cents a bag or something, less if you subtract the value of the free John Oates compact disc we received for giving Uline our business. Overall the bags have been awesome except when the produce going in is pretty wet. Usually only a problem with beet greens that haven’t been sufficiently drained.

Before the bags are placed in Rubbermaid bins the bins are lined with an icepack and then this mesh-topped riser. The former to keep things cooler during un-air-conditioned transport and the latter to keep any veggies from directly contacting the icepack, and to keep the condensation on the pack off the shopping bags. This combo is also used before loading bins with veggies bound for the root cellar. This idea sort of worked but I’m going to change approach next year. More below. And if you want to know where I got those shorts or how I pull off wearing them with a black socks/brown loafers combo with such poise you’re out of luck. I keep my fashion secrets pretty close to my chest.

Next, two bags go into the bin.

The third bag is placed in the bin if it’s not a bulky-veggie week (beets with greens make it a bulky-veggie week).

Tiny Tim, stuffed to the gills. Max capacity is 54 veggie bags if each bin can hold 3 bags; 36 if it’s a bulky veggie week. At $20/bag that’s over a thousand bucks worth of produce in one of the tiniest pickups around.

Ok, so we like the system a lot but found that the icepack deal on the bottom of each bin isn’t very effective at keeping veggies cool in high heat. I think it’s because the sun is beating down from above combined with, you know, the tendency of heat to rise in the bin. After a 30 minute drive in the heat I’ll pull off a bin lid and feel a little puff of warm air blasting out. Next year I think I’ll put the ‘riser’ on top, place the icepack on top of that,  and replace the mesh with something that will prevent condensation from leaking down onto the veggie bags.

I anticipate questions about why we’re not just using cloth bags. Mainly it’s because I’ve found customers too unreliable about consistently returning them each week (this was the case with the cardboard boxes last year). Another thing I like about the paper shopping bags is that you don’t have to hold them open while loading them.

Any of you got ideas for improving this system or for another one altogether? Please share a comment, or send me photos of yours.