New Kind of Cold Storage

The Debadts family knows how to keep it cool!
As a customer, you want your Red Delicious or Cortland apple to taste as fresh in February as the day it was picked, months, perhaps even a year earlier. Sure, cold storage, using ammonia as a coolant extends the shelf life for a vast variety of apples, fruits and vegetables. Cold storage has its drawbacks. Workers and nearby residents can be exposed to the dangerous fumes in a cold storage accident, or release. An accident in the Town of Williamson left one worker dead and the intersection of Lake Road and Route 104 closed for a day when a forklift broke through the floor, rupturing sensitive ammonia filled pipes. The entire area around the storage facility was cordoned off as rescuers attempted to enter the building and control the leak.
In addition, cold storage tends to remove precious moisture out of fruits as time passes.
The DeBadts family got into cold storage in 1993. In 2004 they added the service as a place where fruit and empty box sorting could take place.
Science and farming have advanced to the point where cold storage is only a part of the solution. Modern storage, some taking up the length of a football field, are now called CAs (Controlled Atmosphere) facilities.
Using a brine solution and sophisticated, computer temperature and pressure controlled carbon dioxide and oxygen rooms, storing fruits and vegetables has been taken to the next level.
When Bob DeBadts studied the new procedures and costs, he thought ahead to the future for the family fruit farm, started in 1911. Yes, the family variety of apples and other fruits would remain a staple on the 1100 acre farms on Lake Road in Sodus, but the 4th and fifth generations now working and eventually taking the reins, would need a more solid guarantee to keep them down on the farm.
In 2011, the DeBadts took the first step in building the first of two CA buildings the first taking up 51,000 square feet of space. By the 2014 season, the facility became so successful another, even more advanced building went online. “Yes, technology has jumped that much in three years,” said Bob.
Huge rooms, storing high stacked crates of various varieties of apples, all sized and checked for defects, are kept in separate atmospheric conditions. Each variety has its own temperatures, gas mix, pressure, determined to be just right for maximum fruit health and storage. Each crate has a designated tracking slip with pertinent information, including the orchard, field and date picked.
The current six working Debadts family members are divided between controlled atmosphere operations, shipping and actual fruit growing and harvesting.
One of Bob’s twin sons, Zachary DeBadts, has immersed himself into the logistics and controls of the CA buildings. He is responsible for putting the fruit in a state of “coma’ to be awakened only when the customer need arises. Zach now has the operating procedures down to where he can check each room and control the plant from a home computer, or cell phone.
The other twin, Ben, handles the complex shipping operations. His cousin, Brian is the chief mechanic for all the operations equipment. Bob’s brothers, Alan and Jeff run the actual farming operation.
In addition to all control conditions, the DeBadts operation has motion cameras and 24 hour recorded monitoring of the full facility. It also has the latest technology for employee safety. To unlock specific rooms within the building, a green light flashes on a panel next to the door. Each worker entering the rooms wears an oxygen monitor and when one employee enters, a second must stand back to ensure safety.
Combined with energy efficiency and well-insulated, air-tight walls, a power outage would not effect room conditions for up to a week.
The DeBadts facility has succeeded beyond expectations. It now serves 80 farmers and has 13 buying customers across five states. Up to 100 trucks per day are filled, unloaded, weighed and inspected each day.
Inspections give the facility that extra check to ensure all procedures meet, or exceed government standards.
Bob DeBadts admits that storage of fresh fruits does account for about half the cost of that apple you bite down on, but you get that bite, regardless of the time of year.