Friday Afternoon Preparation

Friday afternoons are usually pretty busy getting things ready for the Market on Saturday.  At this time of year, we have a lot of cool season greens.  These take a lot more time to harvest and prepare for the Market, than most other produce.   So, during the spring, I often take off from work early to come home and help. Here is what it looked like on our back patio this past Friday afternoon.

Tom picks the greens and puts them in tubs of cool water.  We call this "hydro-cooling" and it helps keep them cool and fresh while they are waiting to be bagged.   It is by no means a substitute for washing the greens.  You should always wash greens once you get them home.

The greens are taken out of the water and allowed to "drip dry" on a  framed screen that Tom built out of 2X4s.  It is HEAVY.  I set it on large plastic containers that have been turned upside-down and dump the greens onto it.  In this picture, you see a pile of arugula that is draining on the screen, while a pan of Swiss chard and a pan of beet greens are waiting.

After the greens have drained for a while, I put them in plastic tubs that have towels in the bottom to catch the excess water.  Then, they are taken inside to be bagged or bundled.

Last weekend, my son and daughter-in-law from Dallas were here for Easter.  My little Chinese granddaughter helped me for a while by taking the greens out of the water and putting them on the screen.  Kids always like to play in water, so this was fun for her and helped me out too!

Isn't she adorable!