Adding Value to Small-farm Produce by Processing and Freezing Vegetables and Fruit

SARE Grant Progress Report

FRG18-102

Adding Value to Small-farm Produce by Processing and Freezing Vegetables and Fruit

Objective 1: Getting Good Ideas for Value-added Products

We used several methods to do our market research to find easy-to-process, high-demand products that would bring more cents of the food dollar back to the farmer.  Because we were already connected to the ten farmers in our cooperative, we thought we would formally interview all our farmers to ask their ideas.  We also had connections with farmers’ markets, grocers, restaurants, corporate, and institutional buyers because of the network developed by our cooperative’s food hub (Kansas City Food Hub hereafter referred to as KCFH).  In the farmer interviews we first asked what experiences each had with preserving food and making value-added products.  We also asked what products they often had trouble selling or had a surplus of which might be preserved and sold at a later time. 

I grouped the interviewed farmers’ ideas into frozen , canned, dehydrated, baked, pressed (oils), and ground (flour).  Canned goods included prepared sauces, jams and jellies, herb butters, salad dressings, and pickled vegetables.  One farmer suggested offering products for juicing.  Another suggested supplying pet food manufacturers.  Most had first-hand experience preserving fruits and vegetables for their own use.  One farmer who had worked in Niger had assisted its people in preserving food for themselves as well as their livestock where they extracted oils, made jerky, peanut butter, gum Arabic and sesame cakes.  Another of our farmers who has eight years in commercial food processing, has had excellent success incorporating a variety of processed foods into her sales.  She has produced jams, jellies, and syrups; relishes, salsas and pickles; dehydrated tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, kale and herbs; baked pies and breads; sold frozen vegetable juices and even made flour from sweet potato pulp.  We found a wealth of experience and resources among our farmer coop members.

Objectives 2 and 3: Pick Five High-demand, Easy-to-Process Vegetables and Two Fruits 

In designing the grant, we set a goal of selecting five vegetables and two fruits for processing this year.  One of the motives we had for making value-added products was to add value to products which might, for various reasons, go to waste and bring no value to its producer. Two of our chosen value-added products, one fruit and one vegetable, were processed for this reason—strawberries and green beans. 

Strawberries: Strawberries picked for market must be picked at prime ripeness for best flavor.  This, however, limits their shelf life.  We worried that those picked on Monday would not last until Saturday market, so we froze them individually, sealed them, and kept them for future.  We actually ended up selling them at the market and to one of our grocery stores.

Market buyers paid a premium price for them and were happy to get them for smoothies and baking.  The grocer was anxious to add locally-grown frozen fruit to her offerings.  One of our coop members sent more strawberries than we could find customers for.  They were not going to last long, so we froze those too.  These went to the grocer. 

Green Beans:  Another coop member who picks green beans with a machine, had a surplus.  Alicia, our wonderful sales manager, asked us to preserve them for a winter CSA.  We blanched and froze the green beans in one pound bags.

Not tomatoes: Though we predicted that tomatoes would be one of the most versatile crops to process this year, we were surprised that there were few tomato surpluses. Last year they were so plentiful that some of our growers left them on the vine without picking them.  The auction house was only paying $4 per box! This year that surplus didn’t exist (maybe they cut back production based on last year’s experience). We  were prepared to make sauces and salsa from the surplus.  One farmer taught us an important secret about slipping the tomato skins in boiling water--whole tomatoes can be frozen and later thawed slowly by sprinkling them with water which accomplishes the same result, skinless tomatoes.  This knowledge effectively eliminates the step of heating them in the hot summer. We did freeze some green tomatoes whole and then chopped them after the frost.  We also pickled some green cherry tomatoes, but we didn't count these for the purposes of the grant.  We do know from our discussions with farmers and observation of markets that salsas and sauces will be pursued as value-added products next year.

Blackberries: The second fruit we processed was blackberries.  These were individually frozen  on trays.  Quite simple to do, and they come out of the freezer like little marbles--separately frozen and easy to portion out what is needed.  During a lull in farming activity, we used the frozen blackberries to make blackberry jam.  We did this with sour cherries too.

Butternut Squash: Though butternut squash and sweet potatoes can be stored without processing, we found these were high-demand products when diced or turned into puree and frozen.  One of our neighboring school districts, Gardner-Edgerton, wanted butternut squash freshly diced, not frozen.  Their nutritionist created a "Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash" recipe (see the link below) so that each of their ten schools could prepare the food. The standardized recipe  including nutritional data can be found by selecting the link below. 

Cinnamon Roasted Butternut recipe from Gardner-Edgerton School District

Many customers at the farmers’ market valued having the frozen, diced product because it saved them the time of peeling, cutting, and deseeding them.  It provided us with another product to sell in our winter market.  Value-added products supplemented our winter sales greatly.  In hindsight, we wish we had kept some frozen strawberries for the winter market, but we sold all we had in two weeks during the summer.  

Sweet Potatoes: Sweet potatoes did not dice as well as the butternut squash.  The cubes split or fractured creating many very small pieces which were hard to bake without the little pieces burning, so we took the advice of a chef friend and baked them in bigger pieces before running them through the food processor to make sweet potato puree.  The advantage here was the raw pureed sweet potato could be used in a variety of recipes.  No sweet potato had to be tossed because it was ugly or too little or too big.  We turned our sweet potato seconds into frozen   puree.

final 2 cup product ready for the freezer

Cucumbers and Okra:  Cucumbers  and Okra didn’t always sell at the market, but they continued to produce, so we canned pickles and pickled okra. When I tasted our first pickled okra, I told Catherine, my farm manager, that they couldn’t be better. I was wrong. She pickled some with chilis which were out of this world! We sold them during market and during winter market. The pickled okra sold out quickly. The pickles, were also a hit. Nearly 30% of our winter sales were value-added products. Next year we will have more to sell.

We set a goal of two fruits and five vegetables for value-added processing.  Blackberries, strawberries, cherries, cucumbers, green beans, okra, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes (which makes three fruits and five vegetables) were turned into value-added products which were in high demand and sold quite well.  Not only did they bring in income we wouldn't have had, but they also allowed us to use products we couldn't have sold fresh.  Value-added products made sense economically.  The extra labor needed for freezing green beans, picking, washing, blanching, cooling, drying, weighing, packaging and freezing taught us that frozen green beans are not as economically profitable as the others.  

Frozen scones:   Though we didn't set out to bake goods, we stumbled across a fact we didn't know.  Baked scones are frozen before they are baked to add a flaky texture to the finished product.  We experimented with this so that during our winter market we could sell both freshly baked scones and a four-pack of frozen, unbaked scones for our customers to take home and bake whenever they desired them. Though they didn't fly off the table, we sold quite a few and found a secondary advantage.  We could make them ahead of time, freeze them, and bake a dozen or so the morning of the market to sell as fresh.  We found recipes for sweet scones with bits of our fruit in them as well as savory scones flavored with our herbs (e.g. basil and tomato scones).

Objectives 4 and 5: Research Kansas and Missouri Food Safety Regulations and Define Processing Means for Each Product

Food safety is important to keep our customers healthy, our products’ quality high, our markets open, and our reputation trustworthy.  As part of this grant, we participated in food safety training presented by Londa Nwadike, a food safety specialist for both University of Missouri and Kansas State University.  Since we live in Kansas near the Kansas/Missouri border and sell in both states, we needed to know food safety regulations from both states.  We also attended an all-day FSMA (the USDA’s Food, Safety, Modernization Act) training as part of our GAP certification process.  We were inspected twice as part of that process.  Every part of the food production process must be carefully observed for possible contamination that could lead to food-borne illness.  Though the regulations are rigorous, the health of our customers and ourselves and the integrity of our products require it.

Readers of this report should follow the food safety regulations for their country, state, and locality.  Meat and poultry are regulated in the United States by the USDA, each state, and local governmental entities.  All other foods in the United States are regulated by the FDA, states, and local governmental entities.  It is beyond the scope of this report to explain the rules and regulations we follow, but an example will provide a glimpse into the complexity of it.  It is easier to follow Kansas regulation because they are the same statewide, however in Missouri regulations may vary by county and from city to city.  If we decided to sell baked goods in KS we don’t need a license, but if we freeze the dough to sell so our buyers can bake it themselves, we do need a license.  If we sell fresh baked goods in Missouri we additionally need to add “not inspected” to the label though no license is necessary.  Frozen dough requires a license in Missouri.  Each county and city may have additional regulations in Missouri.

The most revolutionary concept we learned at our FSMA training had to do with immersing our product in water to wash it after it was harvested.  We learned that water is a very good transmitter of pathogens from one piece of produce to another.  For example, if one piece of lettuce is contaminated, when you immerse several lettuces in water together, you may have contaminated them all. For this reason immersion as a cleaning process requires several steps that one-pass rinsing does not (in rinsing, water is sprayed on the produce and the pathogens are washed away without infecting the rest).  Immersion requires a sanitizer be added to the water.  The sanitizer does not kill the pathogen, it only surrounds it so it can’t infect other produce.  The sanitizer must be maintained at a certain level or it becomes ineffective.  The pH of the water also must be monitored because the pH can decrease the effectiveness of the sanitizer.  Two other things must be monitored, the temperature of the water and the turbidity of the water.  It has been found that if the water and produce temperatures are too different, infusion can occur where the water is drawn into the produce thus potentially drawing in pathogens.  Turbidity (the build up of organic matter in the wash water) must also be monitored so that the wash water doesn’t become too cloudy.  After learning more about the biology and physics of immersion washing, we avoid immersion when possible and use rinsing instead.  More detailed information can be found in Cornell University’s Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training(section 5-2, pt 2, “Postharvest Water”).

Adding processing steps necessitates understanding the added safety risks they might introduce.  This is why many states require additional licensing for processing food.

Once the five vegetables--green beans, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, and okra--and two fruits (actually three--strawberries, blackberries, and cherries) were selected, we needed to establish a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for each finished product that incorporated the food safety and quality standards spoken of above.  Each SOP provided us with a standardized process which employees could follow. Our previous experience processing diced sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, and greens aided us in this process.  The consultants at Kansas State University linked us to valuable resources such as the University of Georgia’s website (https://nchfp.uga.edu) which serves as a reference site for food preservation.  I attach the SOP’s we developed for frozen strawberries, frozen green beans, and fresh, diced butternut squash as examples.

Standard Operating Procedures:  Freezing Strawberries (Individually Frozen)

N.B.  Organic produce cannot be co-mingled with conventional.

• Choose only best berries without discoloration or molding spots.
• Berries should be at optimum ripeness for best flavor. Wash berries by spraying them in a mesh colander (do not immerse).
• Hull green top with paring knife.
• Let berries dry on parchment paper placed on baking sheet in a single layer.
• Place baking sheet in freezer for one hour or more.
• While strawberries are freezing, attach waterproof labels on freezer bags before filling bags.
• After one hour in freezer, weigh the appropriate amount and place in pre-labeled freezer bags.
• Evacuate air before sealing (either manually before zip locking or with vacuum sealer).
• Pack bags flat in boxes before returning to freezer.
• Label box contents.
• Complete Processing form.

Standard Operating Procedures:  Freezing Green Beans

N.B.  Organic produce cannot be co-mingled with conventional.

• Wash beans by spraying them in a mesh colander (do not immerse). Remove any debris stuck to the bean.
• Snap off stem and tip (tip is optional). Break into smaller pieces or leave whole.
• Blanch beans for 3 minutes in boiling water.
• Immediately cool beans in ice water for three minutes.
• Let drip dry for a few minutes.
• Attach waterproof labels on freezer bags before filling bags.
• Weigh the appropriate amount and place in pre-labeled freezer bags.
• Evacuate air before sealing (either manually before zip locking or with vacuum sealer).
• Place labeled bags on each baking sheet until sheet is covered (one layer deep).
• Place baking sheet in freezer.
• Label boxes that will be used to store frozen product.
• After an hour or two in the freezer, pack bags flat into labeled boxes.
• Return promptly to freezer.
• Complete Processing form.

Standard Operating Procedures:  Freezing diced butternut squash

N.B.  Organic produce cannot be co-mingled with conventional.

• Seconds can be used as well as firsts when freezing butternut squash.
• Attach waterproof labels on freezer bags before filling.
• Wash by scrubbing outside with brush while spraying them in a mesh colander (do not immerse).
• Peel outside rind using potato peeler.
• Cut off both ends.
• Split in half with knife.
• Remove seeds and any discolored or soft spots from the squash.
• Run through the Hobart Dicer with the 10mm slicer and 10mm dicing blades installed.
• Weigh the appropriate amount and place in pre-labeled freezer bags.
• Evacuate air before sealing (either manually before zip locking or with vacuum sealer).
• Place labeled bags on each baking sheet one layer deep.
• Place baking sheet in freezer.
• Label boxes that will be used to store frozen product.
• After an hour or two in the freezer, pack bags flat into labeled boxes and return to freezer.
• Complete Processing form.

Objectives 6 and 7: Research & Procure Needed Equipment 

Before we began processing, we did our research  to find high quality, affordable equipment to process these choices.  Since our farm is all-electric and depends upon our solar array for half or more of its energy needs, we selected two Ball FreshTech Electric Water Bath Canners to fulfill the need for blanching vegetables and canning them.  Our Urshel RA-A dicer was bigger than we needed and prohibitive in price for most farmers, so we settled on the Hobart FP 150, commercial food processor to do our slicing and dicing.  We purchased the 3/8” (10mm) slicing blade and dicing grid.  It can dice 300 to 600 lbs per hour if needed.

Our research showed that vacuum sealing frozen vegetables increases their shelf life (up to five times by some studies) by removing most of the air from the bag.  Our pick (which we later regretted because it failed out of the box to remove air from the bags, and we could never get support from its manufacturer) was the Harvest Keeper Commercial Grade Vacuum Sealer.  We did finally discover that we made a mistake because we had ordered vacuum sealer bags designed for internal vacuum sealing machines--ones which the item and its bag are placed inside the vacuum chamber rather than outside it.  The Harvest Keeper and most smaller machines place the item in a bag sitting outside the machine.  These bags have ridges that allow the air to be sucked out of the bag.

It took us quite a long time to understand the variety of thermal printers available and which one fit our needs.  Our experience with processing and selling frozen product told us that we needed waterproof labels that would withstand moisture and a wide range of temperature. There are inexpensive thermal printers (like the ones that print register receipts at the grocery store).  These will work if your needs are not permanent labels (since the paper is light sensitive and "prints" or turns black when heat is applied, the entire paper label darkens to grey or black over time).  The more expensive printers heat-transfer a ribbon of material for  a permanent label (these printers are called thermal-transfer printers).  We picked a thermal transfer printer, the Zebra ZT 410 with 203 dbi print head.  If I had it to do over again, I would have picked the 300 dpi print head for less pixilation when using really small type.  We also selected a polypropylene label not a paper label for its waterproof and freeze proof qualities.  This device allowed us to create and print labels for all our processed products. Though we had a walk-in commercial freezer, we understood most farmers wouldn’t, so we added a Frigidaire 19.8 chest freezer.  Our desire was to make this research practical for as many as possible.  I really valued our thermal transfer printer because the labels were cheaper to make than the former method of printing to a sheet of ten waterproof labels.

Objective 8: Market Products to Farmers' Markets, Grocery Stores, and Foodhub Clients

Our marketing of product was successful at the Farmers' Markets where we able to gauge interest and measure increase in sales.  The frozen product as well as the pickled items and the frozen and baked scones lifted our sales 30%.  We didn't really have a large quantity to sell this year and will increase for next year.  We also had excellent success marketing to a well-established local grocery.  Our frozen diced butternut sold out last year and continues to sell each month this year.  They don't have any other locally-grown frozen product for sale.  Our marketing to KC Foodhub clients was not very robust except for the 350 pounds of fresh butternut squash the KC Foodhub sold to the Gardner-Edgerton Schools. The frozen green beans we produced for the KC Foodhub are still in the freezer and will be part of their CSA offering.  I might point out that that 350 pounds was one menu item sold and consumed in one day.  The potential is great for local farmers to supply local schools. Part of the reason the marketing was not as robust as we hoped, was due to the fact that a KC Foodhub director was let go and continuity suffered because of it.  The KC Food hub did sponsor three pop-up markets with its corporate clients where 33% of the items sold were value-added products.  It is clear that many people are interested in buying processed local foods.

Objective 9: Reporting Findings Through Conferences, Fact Sheets, and Website

One of the unique benefits of SARE projects is the promulgation of the results of the research and experiences of funded grant recipients.  We have used three means for what SARE calls "outreach."  We have presented our findings at the annual meeting on December 7, 2018 of the KC Food Hub , a cooperative of fifteen local farmers who were consulted in the initial interviews for ideas for value-added processing.  All attendees of our annual meeting received the following fact sheet and were encouraged to as questions. 2018-SARE-Grant-FACT-SHEET-for-Annual-Mtg-KCFoodHub1

We applied for and were provided a venue for presenting our SARE research at the Great Plains Growers Conference  held January 10-12, 2019.  The following poster and fact sheet were handed to conference attendees after their questions were answered. 2018-SARE-Grant-FACT-SHEET-for-GREAT-PLAINS-CONF

SARE-Poster-PRG

Both the Pat & Rachels Gardens and the KC Food Hub websites, www.patandrachelsgardens.com and www.thekcfoodhub.com shared the our research and experience.

SARE came to the farm and produced the following video which was posted on youtube:

https://youtu.be/XJNSb-RsFhI