The biggest challenge small and start-up produce farmers often have is maintaining the quality of their products. Globally, postharvest losses in agriculture can cost farmers up to 50 percent of their crop due to quality degradation caused by lack of cold storage.1
Finding an affordable and convenient way to cool and maintain the quality of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and other locally produced perishable items such as cheeses, meats and beverages is now much easier with an innovative technology called the CoolBot®. This “micro-controller” allows almost any brand of off-the-shelf air conditioner to transform a well-insulated room into a walk-in cooler. The CoolBot was created thanks to the persistence and ingenuity of small farmer Ron Khosla who, with his wife Kate, ran Huguenot Street Farm, a 250-family CSA in New Paltz, New York.
“We invented the CoolBot out of necessity. The idea of spending more than $5,000 for a used walk-in cooler was not appealing. We needed an affordable way to cool our produce in order to maximize its quality and lengthen shelf life both before marketing it and to give our customers more time to enjoy it after taking it home,” Khosla remembers. After several seasons of engineering experiments that still led to spoiled and less-than-fresh produce, the CoolBot was born.
“Before we built our own successful walk-in cooler, our crop losses and the extra labor to harvest and market vegetables cut into our potential profits,” Khosla explains. “The CoolBot offered a more economical upfront alternative to traditional, commercially available walk-in coolers. In addition, the large, less costly cooler allowed us to spread out our harvest, so a smaller staff could harvest and market more produce.
“It is very efficient, so it also saves electricity, reducing operating costs,” Khosla adds.
Results vary depending on the outside environment, the size of the insulated room and the size of the air conditioning unit, but as a general guide, an 18,000 BTU window A/C unit keeps produce in a 7-foot-by-12-foot insulated room at 38 degrees during the summer with plenty of cooling power to spare.
Now commercially available from Store It Cold, LLC, the patented technology of the CoolBot is helping locally grown and small vegetable and fruit producers, as well as brewers, hunters, florists, bars, restaurants, dairies, wineries and other small business owners solve their cooling needs.
Budding flower farmer realizes her dream
In 2014, Mandy Hornick received a special birthday present from her husband Bob. Inside a small box she found what she considers every budding flower farmer’s dream and a key to success: a CoolBot.
“When I worked at Farmhouse Flowers and Plants, I learned the most important thing for success was storage and post-harvest care. Flowers deteriorate quickly after they’re picked if not cooled quickly, and I knew a commercial walk-in cooler was going to be prohibitively expensive for my start-up business,” says the Leicester, North Carolina farmer florist. “Farmhouse Flowers used a CoolBot cooler, so once we decided to start our own farm, building a cooler using a CoolBot became part of the plan.”
In 2007, Mandy Hornick and her husband Bob Smith began plans to own a flower farm. They finally found the perfect homestead in 2015 and started Blue Ridge Blooms flower farm and design studio. In their first year, the couple is growing dahlias, snapdragons, lisianthus, amaranthus, zinnias and other varieties – nearly 50 varieties in all. Mandy sells the arrangements she designs using fresh flowers grown on their farm. Her work can be found as take-home bouquets, restaurant décor, and at weddings and events throughout the Asheville, North Carolina area.
Just this summer, with flowers to harvest, Mandy and Bob finished the 8’ x 16’ x 8’ walk-in cooler inside their barn where they removed one of the stalls. With a 24,000 BTU air conditioner, the CoolBot and building materials, they’ve invested a little more than $5,000 in their cooler. Photos and more details about the construction and operation is available here (Flower Farm Cooler).
A traditional 8’ x 16’ x 8’ walk-in cooler can cost as much as $12,000 (including delivery and installation), and eventually it can require expensive visits from an HVAC repair technician. The CoolBot offers customers up to 83% in upfront cost savings over commercial cooling units ($315 for the CoolBot + $300 - $600 for the A/C unit), and helps reduce monthly operating electricity costs by up to 42%.
At Store It Cold, the retailer of CoolBot, flower farmers like Mandy are some of their favorite customers.
Source : CoolBot