Meat Display at Farmer’s Market

we did markets for over 20yrs what we would do is take pictures of different cuts unwrapped then laminate the pictures display pictures with a discription and methods of cooking people then chose what they wanted and we retreived from cooler no hands in coolers but our own
Bill

George,

What type of coolers are you using? Just a standard “ice chest” style? Many don’t have much for insulation so I’m wondering about some home built jobs (similar to Andy’s freeze resistant waterer but not so big) for the storage. They do also make an insulated bag (breifcase sized) that comes with a gel pack that is removable and covers the bottom. It’s meant for heating in the microwave and then holding heat to keep food warm but I’m pretty sure it is also approved for freezing. Might that work for an up front sample of your product?

here is the Yeti cooler site:

http://store.yeticoolers.com/?gclid=CO-y5aDDgbUCFWrZQgodZBcAaQ

I would be tempted to make something, but that is always my answer… Plexiglass top, insulated walls, nice paint job. People can see in and you get some advertizing space. Cold air sinks, so you don’t have to worry about sealing the top as tightly as it the stuff inside was hot and it was cold outside. Anyone who has put salt on ice (or made old fashioned ice cream) can see that adding salt lowers the freezing point of water. For meat, salt and other solutes lower the melting temperature of meat a couple degrees. If you are using pure water in a freezer pack, it is going to start melting at 32 degrees. The means your meat is going to melt before your ice melts. Of course, you can prevent some of this with packing things, using really cold ice, mixing, etc so ice and meat thaw at about the same time, but the closeness of the thawing temp of the ice and the meat is always a limitation. Contrast this with those handy-dandy little blue ice packs. They have solutes dissolved that raise the boiling temp and also lower the melting temp. The result is that your cooler is kept at 20-25 degrees F (or similar), which is well below the melting temp of meat. Well insulated, the temp will remain at 20-25 until all the blue ice thaws. Only then does the meat start to thaw. They sell those blue ice packs to people like they are special: regular old table salt does the same thing… You can get that same degree of freezing point depression by adding 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cups salt a gallon of water. Make sure the salt is dissolved and then deep freeze. These will keep a cooler well below the freezing point of meat and have the same heat capacity as any other jug of frozen water. You are still taking advantage of the enormous heat capacity of a phase transition (solid to liquid), just adjusting the temp at which this occures by adding salt. Of course, you can use the jugs over and over again and if they spill or break, it’s just table salt. Just an idea…

PS. I didn’t bore you all with the math for this. If anyone wants to see it, let me know.

When I was in the north west woods of Maine, they had a propane freezer chest that worked very well. I know the Amish use propane appliances. Just a thought.

Not practical but certainly a marketing tool ……. haul your team and one of those HD treadmills to power a freezer. That would bring some more interested parties to your stand!!