FYI, I keep them in a cooler for like 6 hours on the day of sales, they're in the freezer the rest of the time. None are opened after they enter the jar (except my samples, which aren't carried from one week to the next...I eat the balance of the sample jar before the next sale day...;-])

Hi Russ - first I have to tell you that in most states we wouldn't be able to even sell foods such as you list to the public. There are far too many state and federal laws that would prohibit it. So that said, I'm not sure how much help we can be.

I assume that the Canadian laws pose no problems for you doing this? No regulations or permits or kitchen inspections required? If not, lucky you! In my state we even have to have liability insurance.

So here's my question. My scape pesto and Tzatziki both freeze well. But they aren't "preserved". If I keep them in a cooler with sufficient freezer packs to keep them frozen, how many weekends should I risk selling them?

NCHFP gives safe freezer shelf life for garlic scapes. pesto and such as "several months". But I would think that the in and out of the freezer treatment would shorten that substantially. You just can't keep things hard frozen in an ice chest for hours without some bit of thawing even using dry ice. So 2 weeks max would be my guess and that without knowing your exact recipe. Personally I would want this week's batch. :)

The Tzatziki I can't help with as it has so many ingredients that just don't freeze well - depending on your recipe.

Dave

I would not sell to the public unless you have followed all of your guidelines there. Here you would have to prove you had used a commercial kitchen with the proper sanitization sinks, stored the ingredients correctly from garden to selling it. We would have to have a business license.

Then, personal liability insurance. In case someone wanted to say you made them ill with your food, you could go to court and lose everything you own.

Even giving out samples here could be a real liability issue.

You might investigate establishing a CSA for your veggies.

A regular base of customers for your veggies would eliminate many of your problems - it would give you a certain financial security and it would reduce or eliminate the necessity of investing so much time and energy in what so far are unsuccessful farmers' markets.

Here you would have no problem selling those veggies. Farmers' markets and CSAs are very very popular. It can take a while to change a food culture.

Carol

While this is the place to ask about processing food, you can post over on the Market Gardener forum for questions related to growing, selling, regulations, etc. We've got a couple members from Canada.

Here is a link that might be useful: Market Gardening

In Indiana, you would not be able to sell processed foods of any type (except jams/jellies) without the certified kitchen AND a certification for canning.

Sheila, I think he was asking about both growing and processing (but for retail).