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Value-added products from your farm?
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Posted by gladgrowing 6a (My Page) on Tue, Feb 27, 07 at 13:18
Hi!
I am getting ready to take a micro-processing workshop in our state -to possibly sell some of our produce as value-added products from our gardens. Have any of you gotten into this as an extra offering at markets? Do you think it can be monetarily worthwhile?
Thanks,
Glad |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| I make and sell pies mostly from the fruit I grow. They are good sellers at the farmer’s market and I offer them 6 times a season with our CSA. I charge anywhere from $7-$10 each depending what's in them, which breaks down to about $5-$7 each for my labor. Cherry pies are the most expensive - picking and pitting them moves the cost up. Rhubarb pies are the easiest and cheapest. I make more profit from baked goods than I do produce. Its takes more labor (at least for me) to wash, pack, and transport $7 worth of lettuce. When I have time I will can salsa, jams, jellies, & pickles because Minnesota allows these items to be homemade and sold at farmer’s markets, but not all states do (here in Minnesota it’s called the Pickle Law). |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| Thanks, Loodean. We have similar rules for jams or high acid canning........and i make so much of that sort of thing anyway and see those prices on the jars as looking good! |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| You don't say what state you're in but I have a home based processing license in KY. This allows me to make baked goods as well as jams and jellies. The micro-processing license allows people to sell canned goods and salsa in our state. I stick with the baked goods as it's faster for me to produce a larger amount of product in the time that I have, plus I don't have to deal with restocking jars, lids, etc. Besides, I don't care all that much for canning to begin with. These baked goods are a large amount of my income in the market. I sell small loaves of 15 different kinds of quick bread for $3-4 each and the larger loaves for $8-9. Pies I sell for $12 each with a home made crust. There is a lady at one of the markets that I participate in that sells salsa and she says she does very well. Keep in mind that my defination of very well and her defination and your defination may not match. Janet |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| Good to hear from you Janet - thanks. We are in the same state, and i will take the class next week for microprocessing. Alas, i do not live in anywhere near a metro area, so local sales of anything are extremely limited without marketing/driving quite a ways. But, folk here do so appreciate homemade and old-time recipes. I love to can and bake, so hoping it is worthwhile to some degree. I had heard from a few others that they thought the labor too intense for the profit. I think i will slowly give it a try. |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| I am waiting for my state to pass the new Homesteading License with respect to selling value added items at market. I would agree with Janet, that the baked goods are going to be your more profitable items based on your labor involved and the time it takes to make breads/pies/cookies compared to canning. Last year at our market, it seemed that there were more customers buying muffins and pies than there were those buying the jams and relishes and things. I think people would spend 4-5 dollars on a homemade loaf of cinnamon bread in a second, especially if it was still warm! One lady told me that a couple of years ago, a woman came to the market with a tray of still warm cinnamon rolls to sell and within the first 1/2 hour of the market being open, she was sold out. I think she charged 3$ a piece. I am sure it was a lot of work getting up early to make them though! |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| My Cinnamon rolls sell out fast, too! I make and form the dough the night before, then pop them in the oven about 1.5 hours before I go to the market, and they too, are still warm when I get there. I sell them for $4.50 - and they have nothing to do with my market garden. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing - Farmer's Markets are so often touted as being healthy alternatives and here I am bringing "junk". Homemade, sure, but junk nevertheless... |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| I do dried herbs and garlic powder as value added products from my farm. |
RE: Value-added products from your farm?
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| I know cinnamon rolls are fattening, but they are probably still healthier than those you'd buy at the grocery store or a convenience store because there are no preservatives in them. You could probably make them healthier by using all wheat or oat flour or maybe 1/2 and 1/2 white and wheat. Plus I think another reason people go to markets is to support their local farmers, so it's that in addition to wanting healthier locally grown/made foods. |
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