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market-farming - Value Added (was re: market-farming Working CSA Shares)

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Tetrad <garlicgr AT pond.com>
  • To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Value Added (was re: market-farming Working CSA Shares)
  • Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 07:25:31 -0500


Robert wrote:

>How many of you are moving to - or trying to move to - value-added?

I completely agree with you -- my Excalibur dehydrator is my best friend!
This is why my focus in Seed Savers Exchange is on tomatoes and paprikas
that grow well in SE PA -- you end up with a premium product that keeps
indefinately.

There's a decent market for hardneck garlic because it's not something that
folks can get their hands on easily, but I really concentrate on what my
dehydrator can produce -- dried tomatoes, paprika powder, hot pepper
powders, and garlic powder out of the garlic that's damamged in harvesting.
When Kimberton Hills Camphill Village had a bunch of split canteloupes in
1999, I peeled and sliced them and put them in the dehydrator. You couldn't
keep people's hands out of them -- they were *fantastic*! I took them with
me to the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA)
winter conference last February and you could just see the "ah-ha!" moment
in everyone's eyes.

Personally, I don't know anyone that makes a living from farming alone --
everyone I know has a job on the side, or like myself, has gone
non-profit/educational. It's sad and it rots, but somehow, we all have to
pay our bills and farming alone just doesn't do it. And I don't see it
getting any better under The Shrub.



Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460





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