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Value-Added Processing Boosts Upstate Growers’ Produce Sales
With a Specialty Crops grant from the New York Farm Viability Institute,
Inc. (NYFVI), collaborating produce farms stretching from Ontario to Albany
County have developed and are selling products made with their farm-produced
ingredients.
The Upstate New York Growers & Packers Cooperative, Inc. was formed through
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County in 2004 with a NYS Department
of Agriculture and Markets Grow NY grant to sell fresh produce from the early
strawberry season through the fall squash harvest. The NYFVI grant helped the
group launch a
processing enterprise.
Golden Butternut Cookies, made with NY butternut squash, apples, and honey,
are the first Upstate New York Growers & Packers’ value-added success. The
product label includes the tagline: “Direct from New York Farmers to New York
Public School Lunch Programs: A healthy nutritional product made at
Morrisville State College’s Nelson Farms Food Kitchen.” Dietetic students
helped develop a recipe that meets school food service managers’ size and
lower sugar content requirements.
The
cookies have been taste-tested and showcased at a 4-H camp, Senator Hillary
Clinton’s New York Farm Day event in Washington, DC, and the School Food
Buyers Show in Buffalo, NY. More than 10 school districts are purchasing the
cookies. In October 2006, after a trial run with 200 frozen and ready-to-bake
cookies, the New Hartford schools joined in with two orders of 7,000 cookies
each.
Also, in fall 2006, the first 50 cases of Upstate New York Growers & Packers
Vegetable Soup were labeled for retail sales at farm markets and supermarkets.
The students at Nelson Farms processed and packaged the soup into 26-ounce
glass jars. The soup is made with NY-grown basil, cabbage, green beans,
potatoes, and tomatoes from five UNYG&P member farms, respectively: North Star
Orchards, Westmoreland; Wilcox Farms, Kirkville; George’s Farm Products,
Clinton; Hopkinson Farms, Williamstown; and Pederson Farms,
Seneca Castle. (Photo: CCE: Oneida County Educator Marty Broccoil
offers farm market visitors a taste of the new UNYG&P Vegetable Soup.)
Pederson Farms, North Star Orchards, and Finster Honey Farms of Frankfort
provided produce for the cookies. As a group, the UNYG&P producers anticipate
additional product development to add sales and profits to their farm
businesses.
For More Info:
Marty Broccoli or Nina Pfaff
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County
315-736-3394 x121, 111