MSU Extension Agrifood Safety

Landen Tetil, Produce Safety Technician

Michigan Produce Safety Technician Landen Tetil caught up with Laura Brosius, the owner of Full Plate Farm, to learn more about her unique and low cost wash pack design.  Laura built a wash pack that is affordable, functional, and addresses some key food safety risks that are commonly found in produce “wash-packs.” 

Landen:

Hi, everyone. I am here today at Full Plate Farm with Laura, and we are currently in her wash pack station. This farm started out as a vacant piece of land, and so there was no existing infrastructure when she built this wash pack station.  She came up with a really affordable and cool design to meet the needs of the farm and be efficient in terms of food safety as well.  We're basically under a carport, a low cost awning structure. We've got some utility sinks for washing and some foldable tables and things like that.  This space serves as an efficient wash pack area, and it also serves as a clean storage space for all of the harvest bins and lugs when they're not currently in use. Laura, can you tell me why you chose to build a design like this?

Laura:

Yeah! As you mentioned, this was a vacant piece of property when the farm began, so there wasn't any existing infrastructure.  We also didn't start out with a lot of capital, so we were looking for something that was affordable, kind of first and foremost, but then also met food safety standards.  I would love to say I came up with it on my own, but this style of structure is actually the exact structure that was in use by another business.  A friend of my sister's was shifting gears, so my sister found out that this was available and she pulled some strings.  She asked if I wanted it, and it ended up coming up here and becoming my wash pack station for actually $0.I!  Of course we added the pallet floor, which helps keep everything up off of the ground, prevents pooling water, and allows us to spray down the deck surface.  We added a few other accoutrements such as the shelf over here, and some of the magstrips that hold our harvest tools and stuff.  The roll up side also was an addition that I made.  We get some pretty intense breezes out of the Northwest, especially in the fall when we're washing, and I wanted some protection for our hands when we are washing during that time of year.

Landen:

Yeah, that's a great backstory. Another thing you didn't mention, too, was that you installed some homemade hose hooks out of wire clothes hangers to keep the hoses off of the ground and so they're not dragging any potential bacterial contamination that way.  And I especially love your pallet floor, too, because it's not allowing any sort of water to pool directly underneath your feet. You're up off of it a little bit, and so you're not standing in any puddles.  Also, that water is not breeding listeria and other bacteria that we often see in solid floor pack sheds.

I'm wondering - what are the main benefits that you see out of a style like this?

Laura:

I would say affordability is the main one.  I do actually like the fact that it's open air most of the time. As you can see, Landen and I may be swatting a bit.  We've got some bugs here today, but most of the time, I like the fresh air!  It does provide shade, which is super important, as opposed to being out in the field trying to have some really hodgepodge wash station, which I started with my first year.  So, yeah, shade, fresh air, and then affordability, I would say!

Landen:

Those are all great things, and you can't really see, but it's a gorgeous view of the entire vegetable field, or at least one of the main ones.  It's a good view out of your kitchen window here! 

Is there anything that you would change or wish you had built differently -or planned in your dream pack shed of the future- that you would change?

Laura:

Let's see, the pallet floor is functional, but I would say make sure you go after some high quality pallets, or if you can get a hold of them, use the plastic style or plastic decking.  We've had some problems with pallets that didn't start out in great shape, becoming sort of hazardous as we move around the space.  We've had to patch a few ankle-twisting holes, so that's not great.  An alternative to that would be to actually build a platform, which is something we're kicking around the idea of doing.

Landen:

Like an actual deck?

Laura:

Yes, right, but with your carport or awnings at the top.  So maybe we would change that (the decking).  I'm still trying to come up with a few other storage solutions for things like wax boxes that we pack produce in. Yeah, there’s not a lot of storage space, but we do have storage elsewhere for some of our consumables.

Landen:

All right, well, thank you so much for your time today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your busy season.

Laura:

Thanks, Landen!