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Vinegar Starts Value-Added Strawberry Farm Enterprise
“My
mother always used the excess strawberries we didn’t sell to make vinegar.
That was our starting point,” says Marone “Ron” Acee of Tassleberry Farm in
Westmoreland, NY (15 miles from Utica). Since he started value-added
processing, Acee estimates he harvests and sells 25 percent more of his berry
crop.
Acee is one of 19 founding members of the Upstate New York Growers and Packers
Cooperative that formed in 2005 to sell more fresh produce. A $10,000 grant
from the New York Farm Viability Institute helped the cooperative develop
value-added products including a butternut squash cookie that is sold to
public elementary schools as a healthy and NY-grown lunchtime dessert. The
growers’ cooperative also developed a vegetable soup made with members’
products and sold in glass jars.
To develop his strawberry-based products, Acee first worked with Morrisville
State College’s Nelson Farms, a processing business incubator and co-packer.
He developed vinegar, Jamaican jerk sauce, and a marinade made with mash left
over from the vinegar processing. He also makes a strawberry-based balsamic
vinegar. Working with the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, NY, Acee fine tuned
his creamy strawberry dressing and dip.
Acee says, “It’s important to have a variety of products. Besides creating a
more interesting display, most shops will take one case of each value-added
product offered. This helps increase the income. The pilot year we sold all
200 cases of the vinegar we made. In 2006 we sold 600 cases. This year we
expect to sell 1,700 cases.”
Acee took over production, packaging and distribution from Nelson Farms in
2006. His two
sisters handle production and packing. He says, “Four to five pounds of
strawberries yield a gallon of vinegar and a 12-jar case of 12-ounce marinade.
The vinegar, sealed in airtight pails, can be stored indefinitely, allowing
aging and production year-round and (sales) when demand is highest.”
Acee and marketer Steven Greenberg formed Tassleberry Gourmet Foods as a
sister company based at the farm, and won the 2007 Mohawk Valley Business Plan
Competition against 21 competitors. The award included $10,000 in cash and
$10,000 in services from banks and professional consulting firms.
Greenberg says, “Today’s farmers need to think outside the box and be creative
to help with expenses.”
Greenberg concentrates on e-commerce markets. Acee enjoys selling direct at
the farm and at events. Their products, which bear the Pride of NY label, sell
for $6.95 for a bottle of vinegar to $21.95 for a gift set. Sales income has
underwritten kitchen enhancements.
“I love to visit with people. You have to sell these products; people don’t
just take them off the shelf. Samples demonstrate how good your product is. At
the Barneveld Barn Festival we sold 55 cases and used that income to purchase
a $4,500 used kettle. We have kept expenses down by purchasing with only our
processing income.”
Acee plans to expand his commercial kitchen to make product on demand as the
business grows. He plans to expand from 14 acres to 24 acres of berries in
2008.
“The marketing of the vinegar products drives extra attention to the u-pick at
the farm. The more we sell online, at the farm and in specialty shops, the
more we grow.”
Acee expects Tassleberry Gourmet Foods to become a profit center for the farm
in 2008. # # #
For More Info on New York Farm Viability Institute-funded value-added
processing assistance:
• Dr. Olga Padilla-Zakour, NYS Food Venture Center,
315-787-2259
• Amanda Hewitt, Nelson Farms Processing Facility,
315-655-8331 ext. 1
For More Info on Tassleberry Farm products:
• Ron Acee, www.tassleberry.com,
800-482-3779
For More Info on the Upstate NY Growers and Packers Cooperative:
• Marty Broccoli, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County,
315-736-3394 ext. 121
This article first appeared in the September 2007 issue of American
Agriculturist