Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: wheat
- Fruits: apples, berries (blueberries), berries (brambles), berries (other), berries (strawberries)
- Vegetables: beets, carrots, squash (winter & summer)
- Additional Plants: herbs
- Animal Products: dairy, eggs, honey
- Miscellaneous: syrup
Practices
- Crop Production: food processing
- Education and Training: farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, study circle, technical assistance, workshop
- Farm Business Management: agricultural finance, budgets/cost and returns, business planning, farmers' markets/farm stands, financial management, market study, marketing management, new enterprise development, value added
- Production Systems: organic agriculture
- Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, community development, community services, employment opportunities, ethnic differences/cultural and demographic change, food hubs, leadership development, local and regional food systems, new business opportunities, partnerships, public policy, quality of life, social capital, social networks, social psychological indicators, sustainability measures, urban agriculture, urban/rural integration, values-based supply chains
Summary:
July 2023 Final Report Update
Explanation of the problem addressed and the solution pursued
On behalf of our team, we are very grateful to NCR-SARE for this opportunity to dig into and learn about increasing opportunities for farmers to diversify into cottage food baked products. Cottage food products can prove to be a profitable area for farm diversification, but not many resources and support exist currently. We met our original project's goals to increase resources for farmers and beyond, as everything we created can also support the broader cottage food entrepreneurial community and increase awareness of utilizing local ingredients.
Key highlights include (all on the main website: www.cottagefoodhomebakery.com :
- Development of over 30 non-hazardous, recipes (lab tested at the University of Nebraska Food Processing Center) showcasing local ingredients as well as a pool of needed, tested frosting recipes.
- Pilot rural pop-up cottage food market for increasing attendance and sale and creation of materials and information for others interested in doing this to collaboratively increase sales.
- Three video interviews with experts on both the science of non-hazardous and importance of local grains.
- Multiple outreach workshop presentations, including at the Home-Based Food Entrepreneur National Conference and a main project webinar, all showcasing project goals.
Project's research approach (if conducted), educational approach and farmer learning outcomes
Our research focused on the recipe development and how to best approach this process to enable more local produce be safety used in shelf-stable, cottage food baking. Our research involved working with food science experts such as Dr. Pratik Banerjee at the University of Illinois along with laboratory testing at the University of Nebraska Food Processing Center.
Our recipe research also involved a great deal of experimentation and learning as we went. Interesting to us in working with experts like Dr. Banerjee, we learned there isn't a "set path of science" in food chemistry. While we learned about clear things to stay away from like meat and larger chunks of fruit with high water content, much of this was a "test and see" on the recipes and for some we went through several testing rounds before determining if it met the non-hazardous criteria or not.
Our educational approach involved creating user-friendly, accessible materials for the website as well as several workshops and presentations. We found this approach a great fit as, not being food scientists or academics ourselves, we could synthesize and present the material in a basic and understandable format.
Succinct statement of research conclusions
While we bottom line met our project deliverable goals, our efforts and experiences on this project also highlight the fact that the industrial food system is not built to support small-scale producers. For example, we learned so much about the details of what a non-hazardous product is from a food science perspective; however, there often were situations where either our own skill set (i.e., we are not food scientists!) or the actual process of trying to get answers was way beyond the scope of the average baker. Our project is a start and hopefully sparks some larger scale, most likely university-led efforts to continue to simplify understanding of food safety as it relates to cottage food baking.
Farmer adoption actions that resulted from the education program. A beneficiary outcome story may be included optionally.
The resources and recipes we created in this project are "evergreen" -- and creating a public website with these items enables a longer educational lifecycle. We've received strong support from attendees at the workshops and off the website, as well as farmers who participated in our pilot pop-up market, especially given the fact that we could support and encourage first-time vendors such as:
The Cottage Food Pop-Up Market was the first time I sold my homemade bakery items at a public event and found the resources and support from this project so very helpful. Being recognized as a first-time vendor and being in a collaborative community of other farmers already doing this boosted my confidence as well as provided me with expert advice and support. That experience inspired me to take on other bakery sales opportunities and I'm finding the fact that I use items I grow in my products very appealing from a marketing perspective and give me a unique edge.
Danielle Matson, Hidden Garden Bakery (Monroe, WI)
January 2023 Update for Progress Report
This past year we have focused in detail on research and development of the recipe side of the project, as this proved to be the most challenging aspect of our deliverables as it was needing more food science expertise than we originally planned. Fortunately, thanks to our relationships with the Artisan Grains Collaboration, they were able to connect us with Dr. Pratik Banerjee at the University of Illinois, who has become a vital mentor and ally in our research.
Thanks to this new relationships with Dr. Banerjee, we collaboratively have been working on the possibility to have our recipes tested at his lab at the U of I. This would be a great advantage on multiple levels as it would both enable us to utilize the grant budget allocated to lab testing in other more educational ways and cover the increasing cost of supplies as well as having the support of Dr. Banerjee and his team's scientific expertise in recipe development. Navigating this terrain took longer than planned and we have asked for and gratefully received a project extension from NCR SARE now through 7/31/23. We should have the answer on this U of I lab possibility by mid-February and will then move ahead with the recipe tests either way (working with U of I or back to "Plan A" with the private lab/Deibel).
We also added two more farmers to core team: Two farmers, Heather Lynch of Green Haven Gardens and Ashley Wegmueller of Wegmueller Dairy. Heather brings both an expert growing and baking background along with a science degree and former career in that area. Ashley served on our original grant team and brings that history and her expertise in design. Additionally, we also added two bakers to the core team: Jobea Murray of Jobea Bakes and Shana Cook of Triple C Sweets. These additions really added to the collaborative idea generation, expertise and motivation of our team.
This need for research and understanding non-hazardous products resulted in a focus on meeting and planning in 2023, which proved very helpful and necessary for us to fully understand and create our recipe deliverables. Our core team met ten times virtually in 2022 and one day-long, in-person planning meeting. Dr. Banerjee also attended five of these virtual meetings to answer a list of questions we prepared, which was very helpful and led us to the idea of including a Q&A segment on our project website. Our two lead farmers, Dela Ends & Lisa Kivirist, separately met eight times in 2022 for planning.
Original Grant
While the good news is most states now have a cottage food law allowing bakery products produced in home kitchens to be sold direct to consumer, the problem remains there are not enough resources targeting farmers to diversify their business mix through more tested non-hazardous recipes that use their farm-raised produce and local grains in bakery products along with marketing tools to reach customers.
This project addresses these issues by supporting farmers to successfully add value-added bakery products through a variety of on-online tools including farmer-developed recipes that both use abundant produce and, importantly meet the non-hazardous water activity and are laboratory tested. This allows farmers to legally and safely bring items like pumpkin breads to market, which typical recipes do not meet the non-hazardous criteria. By using produce in baked goods, particularly blemished product that often goes unused, we keep more land in sustainable, ecologically sound production.
This process requires the project leads to develop a deep understanding of the food science behind non-hazardous in order to both develop the recipes and communicate this information in accessible, easy-to-understand fact sheets that will be posted online. We are currently wrapping up this research phase and will be heading in to the recipe testing phase with a particular focus on using our farm's produce once the growing season rolls in.
We are also piloting innovative “pop up cottage food bakery markets” that enable farmers to collaboratively sell these baked goods directly to customers during the prime holiday season. Such transactions enhance social responsibility and farmer quality of life by building healthy community connections as well as the economic viability of their business. Finding an ordering portal that is both accessible and cost-effective is proving to be more of a challenge than we initially realized and are in discussions with some ordering companies (Castiron) to see if we might be able to partner.
We are starting to plan the fall public launch and farmer outreach once the recipes and info sheets are created, with opportunity for educational outreach around these pop-up markets.
Project objectives:
1. Expand Resource Toolkit
July 2023 Final Report Update
The topics in our toolkit are live on line, bringing to life what was outlined in the original grant proposal. We added in an additional section on the pop-up market, including both our learning and materials for someone to set up and run one of these in their community (see below).
We added 33 recipes to the site. This ended up being a little less than our original 40 estimate because, as we described above, the food science process is not always that clear or supportive of individual home bakers. For example, bread is considered by all states non-hazardous and is legal to sell; however, for various foods science reasons too complicated for the average person to understand or frankly need to understand, the water activity lab tests for bread come in over the .85 legal threshold -- even though they are perfectly safe. Rather than confuse users and the fact that these lab tests technically were "unsafe" by a numeric perspective, we did not include new bread recipes in the portfolio. Additionally, we had over 12 recipes come back hazardous, some of which we were able to further tweak and make safe and are included in the mix, including a fabulous Rhubarb Oat Muffin developed by Dela Ends.
Team member Jobea Murray created a very helpful Trello Board to manage the recipes in this project and she trained the team on using this free, collaborative resource that helped us significantly keep the elements organized, accessible and current.
We amplified the local grain resources by including two video interviews with both an organic grain farmer (Halee Wepking of Meadowlark Organics) and a cookbook author (Beth Dooley of The Perennial Kitchen and other books) providing engagement diversity on the website and bringing in direct grower connections.
Note an update from our last progress report: After nearly six months of discussions, we were unfortunately unable to work with the University of Illinois food laboratory to do the recipe lab tests. While amicable and the university wanted to work with us, it proved to be another example of a "square peg trying to fit in a round hole" -- or as in our case "a farmer baker trying to fit into academic complexity." Specifically, U of I would have required many pages of detailed paperwork and documentation for every recipe submitted that would have taken hours for each submission, putting us in the same category as the General Mills of the world doing recipe development. We didn't have the gear or time nor was there a need for that level of detail for our home baking needs. Fortunately, we were able to connect with the University of Nebraska Food Processing Center who had a set-up more friendly to cottage food bakers in which we just needed to send in one small sample for the test, which worked well for us and enabled us to achieve our goal.
We did still include a video interview with Dr. Banerjee on non-hazardous basics. We so appreciate for all his contributions to this project and our learnings; he was an incredible mentor and resource.
January 2023 Update for Progress Report
We are making strong progress on our original deliverables, as well as expanding with additional resources based on our research and feedback.
Our project creates farmer-developed resources to increase sales by adding value-added baked goods through the following:
1. Expand Resource Toolkit
A) 40 new non-hazardous recipes using farm-produce
B) Local grain resources
C) Information sheets on understanding non-hazardous
Jan. 2023 update:
We are on track/in the middle of recipe development, having tested many recipes in 2022 when specific produce was in season and are awaiting next steps with the U of I lab potential relationship. We are also including a series of frosting recipes as safe, tested frosting recipes are in high demand and can get confusing for bakers to navigate as there are no existing resources.
We are also clarifying and expanding the informational sheets on non-hazardous to include a Q&A with Dr. Pratik Banerjee, focusing on key basic questions a farmer-baker would have. This Q&A format gives us the needed food science expertise input and gives the U of I welcomed opportunity to connect with the farmer-baker audience directly, which has been a challenge for them.
2. Test new marketing outlets
A) Pilot “pop up bakery markets” around holiday season
B) Develop software for direct ordering capabilities via an accessible/free portal TBD
July 2023 Final Report Update
Building off the pilot October market described in our January update, we added in an additional section on the pop-up market, including both our learning and materials for someone to set up and run one of these in their community (see below). Team member Ashley Wegmueller created a pool of great informational graphics and examples of booth signage that are part of the informational page and that we are happy to send the links to for anyone interested.
Jan. 2023 update:
After much research and pricing analysis, our original idea of utilizing software for direct ordering capabilities proved to be too complicated and expensive, as they have monthly fees that would need to be absorbed by farmer-vendors, which directly conflicts with our goal of having these markets be "pop up" and intermittent. We found these types of software services are typically used by farmers market like entities with regular events and broader budgets.
However, we decided to experiment in meeting our goal of testing new marketing outlets by partnering with an existing event, Creekside Fall Festival on 10/1/22, and created a "market within a market" to showcase cottage food producers. We were pleased to have nine cottage food vendors at this inaugural event and created signage which each vendor had at their booth that included "badges" identifying if they were a farmer, used locally-sourced ingredients and we even had special signage identifying the two vendors who were selling at their first market ever. This gave a special supportive shout-out which we found helpful as potential customers were keen on supporting first-timers. We partnered with Soil Sisters (another SARE-supported project of women farmer networks) and the Wisconsin Cottage Food Association. Overall, things went well and the weather fortunately was fall perfect. Overall traffic was lighter than expected and vendors ended up with extra product, which exemplifies the quandary with our pop up market concept: We're somewhat dependent on the outreach/advertising efforts of the host organization -- yet at the same time creating our own event from the ground up would have been a challenge. We also organized a photo shoot of the market, which will provide great illustrative visuals for the website update.
We are tweaking the signage templates and will have those on the final updated website as a public resource -- those worked really well!
3. Share learnings & results
A) Create webinar (Midwest & national access)
B) Outreach via partner groups farmer team connected to: Midwest Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Education Services, Renewing the Countryside, Farmers Union, Artisan Grain Collaborative, etc
July 2023 Final Report Update
We successfully completed the two workshops described in the January report, including the public/free webinar that was held on 6/13/23 (the original May date didn't work with our team). This session was edited and now posted on the site.
Here is our overview press release on the project which we sent to our various partner groups to further amplify outreach.
Jan. 2023 update:
Our team will be hosting a public/free webinar on Wed. May 10, 2023 from 12 pm - 1 pm with an overview of this project and the recipes we created. We already have several organizations confirmed as partners and will be adding more: Illinois Stewardship Alliance, Renewing the Countryside, Wisconsin Farmers Union and Artisan Grain Collaborative. We will be in touch with Marie Flanagan for outreach support via NCR SARE once our registration/materials are live into March.
Additionally, Lisa Kivirist will be facilitating a workshop at the upcoming Home-based Food Entrepreneur Virtual National Conference (April 10-13, 2023) on this project. Description below. NCR SARE is also a sponsor of this conference, as they gratefully were for the pilot in 2021 which attracted over 900 attendees. Renewing the Countryside will again be hosting the conference.
Workshop title: Local Ingredient Love: Increase Sales with Fresh & Seasonal Recipes
Tap into the growing consumer interest in supporting local farmers and the “buy local” movement by celebrating seasonal flavors in your products from spring rhubarb to fall pumpkins. Resources for using local grains along with tested non-hazardous recipes will be shared along with creative marketing and sales ideas if you live in a lower-populated rural area.
Original Grant
Our project creates farmer-developed resources to increase sales by adding value-added baked goods through the following:
1. Expand Resource Toolkit
A) 40 new non-hazardous recipes using farm-produce
B) Local grain resources
C) Information sheets on understanding non-hazardous
2. Test new marketing outlets
A) Pilot “pop up bakery markets” around holiday season
B) Develop software for direct ordering capabilities via an accessible/free portal TBD
Longevity: This online ordering software will be available for use after project officially ends.
3. Share learnings & results
A) Create webinar (Midwest & national access)
B) Outreach via partner groups farmer team connected to: Midwest Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Education Services, Renewing the Countryside, Farmers Union, Artisan Grain Collaborative, etc