Mesh produce bags for easy batch processing

By Marcia Miquelon, Outreach Specialist
UW Madison Healthy Farmers, Healthy Profits Project

Washing leafy greens, peas, or beans by hand can be back breaking and time consuming for small-scale growers. They must repeatedly stoop, immerse their hands in cold water, lift handfuls of produce from the washbasin or dunk tank, and hold produce to drain. Slow washing can also compromise crop quality, and rough handling can result in produce losses. As an alternative, some growers have turned to batch processing with mesh produce bags.

A mesh produce bag is a woven or knotted polyester or nylon sack. Growers can line harvest containers with mesh bags, then move the bag and its contents into the washbasin. Produce stays in the bag for soaking and rinsing, and then the entire batch is lifted out of the water at once. Light produce may be dried by putting the bag inside a commercial salad spinner or old washing machine set to "spin" cycle, or simply by spinning the bag lasso-style in the air.

"I can move 6 times as many salad greens at a time inside a 22-inch square mesh bag as I can just using my hands," explains Linda Halley of Harmony Valley Farm in Vernon County, WI. "The leaves stay in better shape and so do I. Considering that salad greens are a very important crop for us, that means a lot."

Suitable mesh bags (designed for storage, laundry or harvesting) cost about $2-$6 apiece. They are available from several companies such as the Nylon Net Company, 845 North Main St., Memphis, TN 38107, (800) 238-7529, and Cody Industries, P.O. Box 2087, Memphis, TN 38101, (800) 622-3695.

For more information, contact the Healthy Farmers, Healthy Profits Project at (608)262-1054 or visit their website at http://bse.wisc.edu/hfhp/.

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