New wash pack facility

What did you do?

We built a new barn that houses a wash pack room, employee restroom, egg washing area and wood shop downstairs, and living space upstairs. The project required a new septic system, driveway, well, excavation, frost wall, and poured foundation. The approximate cost includes all of the site work and building construction, $45,000 to finish the living area, and a $36,000, 52 panel solar array that's on the roof of the building.

Why did you do it?

We had no winterized washing area, and needed to live closer to the farm to keep an eye on things during the winter. We had planned to build two separate buildings, but the cost and convenience led us to solve both needs with one structure.

About how much did it cost?

$360,000 including site work, septic, well, solar array and living space

How did it help?

This building allowed us to increase efficiency, produce quality, shelf life, and overall ability to get product to our customers. The comfort of a large (for us), climate controlled place to work has really improved employee satisfaction, which is hard to quantify. People are working more efficiently, can find things easily, and are more comfortable than in our old setup. More than anything, our own quality of life is vastly improved. In the past we lived about 10 minutes away from the farm. It doesn't sound far, but in the winter we were constantly driving back and forth to plow, monitor tunnels or gather eggs before they froze. It was hard to know if we should pack a lunch, we were constantly forgetting things at one place or the other, and generally had a low level of frustration going at all times. Now that we are on the farm, we can take turns making those quick trips out, and we can monitor the weather from our living room. This building makes it feel like winter farming can actually fit into our life rather than constantly disrupt it.

What are you most pleased with?

Every single thing is designed to be on wheels, so all washing and packing areas are modular and can be changed based on what we're processing. It's also highly insulated, and completely run on solar power, which has had more of a positive impact on me than I expected due to the pleasant temperature year-round and lack of electric bills. I'm also happy that it's nice and bright, and feels nice to be in. We're most surprised that the walk-in, which is powered by a coolbot with the AC located on the exterior wall, still functions normally in the winter months. We expected to need to heat it or bring the AC into an interior wall.

Any mistakes or lessons learned?

We probably should have done more research on trench drains, though we're okay with what we ended up with. We have a drain designed to be in a garage, so it has a plastic trough and metal grate. It works for us and is easy to clean, though you would not be able to get a shovel or trowel into it if you needed to clean out a lot of sediment. In that case you'd probably want to pour a foundation with a cutout that allows a grate to set into it. (See Mighty Food Farm!) We also needed a people sized door alongside the garage door on the "in" or "dirty" side of the building. It's too difficult/we lose too much heat to open the larger door during the winter.