Beyond Fresh: A Food Processing Guide for Texas Farmers
By Sue Beckwith and Mike Morris
Overview
Taking a “Farmer First Approach,” this workbook helps you decide what products to create, how to make and sell them, and at what scale. It includes chapters on developing products, dealing with regulations and food safety laws, designing labels and packaging, and seeking funding for your new food enterprise.
Please download a copy using the download button at right. Hard copies are available at Lulu.com.
Supplementary Materials
Additional materials developed for the Beyond Fresh project are linked below:
Value-Added Product Cost Calculators
Commercial Kitchen On Your Farm (Excel)
Instructions for On-Your-Farm Calculator (PDF)
Commercial Kitchen Hourly Rental (Excel)
Instructions for Hourly Rental Calculator (PDF)
Commercial Kitchen Long-Term Lease (Excel)
Instructions for Long-Term Lease Calculator (PDF)
Commercial Kitchen Build Operate (Excel)
Instructions for Build-Operate Calculator (PDF)
Data Collection Worksheet (Excel)
Use this handy Excel worksheet in the kitchen while you test products to jot down information you will need later for the calculators above.
Crops Available to Process Calculator (Excel)
This calculator allows you to estimate the pounds of vegetables and herbs (imperfect and unsold #1s) that you have available for processing, and track their availability in each month of the year.
Beyond Fresh: Food Processing Market Opportunities
This April 2016 market research report by Dr. Rodney B. Holcomb and Dr. Timothy Bowser (Food Mech, LLC) includes chapters on Organic Foods; Millennial Shoppers; Fermented and Pickled/Acidified Foods, and Salsa; Vegetables: Canned, Dried, and Otherwise Processed; Fruits: Dried, Jams/Jellies; and Prepared Meals and Sides.
Final Beyond Fresh Project Report
This April 2016 market research report by Dr. Rodney B. Holcomb and Dr. Timothy Bowser (Food Mech, LLC) includes chapters on Organic Foods; Millennial Shoppers; Fermented and Pickled/Acidified Foods, and Salsa; Vegetables: Canned, Dried, and Otherwise Processed; Fruits: Dried, Jams/Jellies; and Prepared Meals and Sides.
Resource Directory
This directory, housed on the Texas Center for Local Food website, includes many resources for value-added food product development in Texas, including potential buyers, commercial kitchens, food manufacturing facilities, food brokers, food distributors, and food analysis labs.
These materials are based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2014-38640-22155 through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LS14-264. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider.
