Theodora Farms is kicking off its inaugural season as we write this, in the strange reality that is Covid-19 Spring 2020. And while Theodora Farms may be the fresh new farm in Godfrey, Illinois, their Farm Manager Kris Larson is celebrating his sixteenth year farming. He got his start in agriculture in college in Northern California and spent time volunteering …
Sugar Hill Produce Uses 3 CoolBots To Grow Year Round Product
Sugar Hill Produce is a very special customer. They’re the proud owners of not one or two but three CoolBot coolers! Rob VanVeld took some time out of his busy farming schedule to chat with us about why CoolBot works so well for Sugar Hill Produce. Read on to find out how this farm came to life and why they’re …
Corey’s Pickles: Chillin’ Thanks to CoolBot
Corey Bellarosa began making pickles as a kiddo with his dad. Making pickles wasn’t a “huge family thing,” according to Corey. It wasn’t like his family had been making pickles for generations. However, all of his family members were huge pickle “fanatics” and they were sick of “buying crap in the store,” tells Corey, spoken like a true New Yorker. …
For the Love of Seeds – ECHO Teaches Sustainable Farming + Provides Crops to Global Network
Holly Sobetski started working with ECHO as an intern in 2005, enrolled in their fourteen month agricultural internship program for recent college graduates. The program is specifically geared towards grads who are interested in becoming development workers overseas, helping small scale farmers in second and third world countries. Holly spent five years working in Cambodia, where she mainly worked with …
Urban Farmer Curtis Stone Upgrades to CoolBot Pro
Curtis Stone has been busy, very busy. His money generating urban farm (one third of an acre equals $75,000 a year!) keeps him busy as does traveling the world teaching other farmers how to streamline their process and produce like his farm does. When we spoke with Curtis two years ago he outlined his three steps to profitable urban farming: …
Introducing the CoolBot Pro: Interview with Store It Cold CEO Brian Murphy
Once upon a time, farmer Ron Kholsa and his college roommate Timothy, an Engineer from Cornell University, tried tinkering around with an A/C unit, attempting to trick it into cooling down to 34 degrees.. Lo and behold, it worked! Now — twelve years and 50K satisfied customers later — Store It Cold has revolutionized the way small business owners, farmers, …
Tiny Farm Duluth: Eddy Gilmore’s Midlife Crisis Success Story
Eddy Gilmore has led a fairly interesting life. In fact, you can read about it in his book The Emancipation of a Buried Man, in which he vividly describes growing up as a child of an extreme hoarder. In a nutshell, Eddy can be described as a part-time writer, a part-time farmer and a full-time father of twins living in …
CoolBot Helps Seeds of Success Bring Fresh Produce to Duluth’s Food Desert At Lincoln Park Farmers Market
Aimee Foster is the Program Manager at Seeds of Success, a program that works with Community Action Duluth to provide additional employment opportunities for young adults who either have a criminal background or lack of job references to gain proper employment — or, in some cases, both. Seeds of Success got its start in 2009, while Community Action Duluth has …
Refrigeration and CoolBot 101
Have you ever considered what a summertime trip to the supermarket would be like without refrigeration? You jump into your air conditioned car, a brief respite from the afternoon’s blistering temperatures. Your hair curls as soon as you step out into the parking lot (thanks humidity!), until you cross the threshold of the supermarket’s automatic sliding doors and — whoosh! …
CoolBot Helps Avoid Fallout With Nuclear Seed Potatoes
Q&A With Jenny Durrin & Matt Roth University of Idaho’s Nuclear Seed Potato Program “Would you like fries with that?” Yes, of course you would. And chances are that those fries came from the pre-nuclear seed potatoes grown in the University of Idaho’s greenhouses. We know what you’re thinking: WTF are nuclear seed potatoes? Were Christopher Walken and Sissy Spacek …