New mobile equipment helps farmers preserve crops
By Lisa Rathke

CRAFTSBURY, Vt.—Pete Johnson, owner of Pete's Greens, already extends his vegetable farm's summer bounty by using cold storage.

Now, he'll be able to quick-freeze some of his crop, thanks to a new Vermont Agency of Agriculture mobile freezing unit, allowing him and other farmers to offer customers more through the year.

The cargo trailer will travel around Vermont so processors can freeze berries and produce, at a rate of 600 pounds a minute.

"It brings some access to people that normally wouldn't have it. It gives them another marketing opportunity," said Kevin Schooley, executive director of the North American Strawberry Growers Association

The individual quick freeze equipment, a technology called IQF, hits fields this summer.

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