GROWING A SMALL-SCALE BUSINESS

My family began produce farming several years ago. We were so excited to share our beans, tomatoes, corn, and melons with our local community. What we quickly learned is that it’s much easier to grow produce than to sell it. We had a window of only a few days between when we picked the produce and when it had to be sold. If the produce didn’t sell, it spoiled and had to be fed to our farm animals. Although our animals enjoyed our losses, we definitely did not. We had to hustle every single day of the week to fulfill our community-supported agriculture (CSA) orders and sell produce at farmers markets, our own produce stand, and local stores. We were exhausted. While we didn’t mind being extremely busy, we also wanted to see more reward for our efforts.

So, planning for the upcoming season, we brainstormed ideas for a new product to complement our produce. We outlined the following criteria for this new product: It needed to have a longer shelf life than produce, be available to sell during winter months, be easy to store, be packaged based on