NZFoam – A piping hot chip straight out of the oven – there’s nothing quite like it!

A PIPING HOT CHIP

STRAIGHT OUT OF THE OVEN – THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE IT!

While much precise planning goes into harvesting that perfect potato, maintaining that field freshness can only be achieved through carefully controlled storage temperature and conditions post-harvest.

Spray foam insulation manufacturer and installer NZFoam provided a South Canterbury farm with a controlled environment for its 3500 tonne annual yield of five varieties of the great Kiwi spud. The crop from Crichel Down Potatoes is produced for processors such as Talley’s for their frozen fries. Low temperatures make potatoes too high in sugars, not great for frying,” says Simon Binnie, operations manager for Guy and Jane Slater’s Wakanui farm. “Too hot, and the moisture evaporates causing a wrinkly potato. You need to store them at a constant temperature for the perfect yield.” Three years ago, Simon enlisted NZFoam to insulate the farm’s pole shed. After great success, two concrete tilt slab room extensions with a drive-on drying floor were built in January last year. He then called up the team at NZFoam who were on the job the next month. “They completed it very quickly and were very pleasurable and reliable to work with.”

Blending in well with the rural environment, the outside walls and roof were sprayed with 90mm of foam and 50mm on the inside.

“When storing potatoes you don’t want any condensation, just a consistently dry environment. The foam really improves that. Pump warm air in from outside first to dry the potatoes; about 12 degrees warms them up a bit and stops bruising. Then we hold the temperature at a constant 9–10 degrees for five months of the year, until late September. It could be – 1 to 15 degrees outside, but the temperature won’t change inside. I heard really good reports about NZFoam being the best foam insulation, from Nigel Reith who owns The Rakaia Hub produce storage sheds, and also from Talley’s where I worked for 15 years. We also foamed the shed’s engine room – our fan room, where the three huge fans make a hell of noise – and the foam stopped any sound from annoying the neighbours! Once we move out the potatoes, the inside walls are so easy to waterblast down, then we move in 400 tonnes of grass seed, wheat and barley. So the sheds are in use at least 10 months of the year. Fertilisers and the tractor are stored there too.”

He says they used to outsource all the potato storage, so now having onsite storage sheds is far more economical. “The spray foam certainly pays for itself.” In times like these, we’re all thinking about ways to make our businesses more secure and looking for ways to cut costs. Creating a cool store on your property might be simpler than you thought. NZ Foam has managed new cool store builds and also created cool stores from existing buildings for growers all around New Zealand. And it works for fruit storage, too!