Extending the Harvest Through Partnerships to Scale-up Value-added Local Food

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Crop Production: food processing, food processing facilities/community kitchens, food product quality/safety
• Sustainable Communities: partnerships

Each year thousands of pounds of edible produce goes to waste before it reaches the consumer (Beausang, 2017).  The proposed project aims to reduce waste while increasing the year-round income for farm operations by addressing these factors:

1. Local farmer’s income is limited by seasonal constraints.
2. Much of the produce grown may not meet visual or size standards for sale. This generates waste and results in edible food ending up as compost instead of in the hands of consumers.
3. Small scale operations for preserving excess produce and creating value-added products are limited in our region, the Glass Rooster Cannery notwithstanding. Although our operation has demonstrated its value to the community, our ability to assist farmers is limited by cool storage and commercial equipment.

Our solution is to expand the cannery’s climate-controlled holding area where produce is kept until it is processed.  This will increase the cannery’s operating capacity and raise the number of farmers able to bring imperfect and/or excess produce for processing into value-added products. This will extend the timetable farmers have to drop off produce and will improve the cannery’s flexibility to work with them to reduce waste and increase their income.

We plan to accomplish:

1. Expanding the amount of produce that can be saved and turned into a value-added product.
2. Extending the life and quality of produce from the day it is brought to the cannery through product creation.
3. Reduce waste while providing additional flexibility, finished product and income for farmers.