Jams, jellies and other canned goods are often among the most popular products at local farmers’ markets and farm stands. But it’s not always easy to comply with food safety laws and preserve fresh foods on a larger scale than Grandma used to do on her kitchen stove.
That’s where a new company, Homegrown Virginia Co-packing LLC, can help. The company uses a recently upgraded community cannery in Prince Edward County to preserve fresh fruits, vegetables and other canned goods for their customers.
“What we’re emphasizing is using the fresh fruit, using the fresh tomatoes and peaches. We can process all of it” for a producer, said Allie Hill, Homegrown Virginia owner. “Another niche we are trying to fill is small batches. A lot of farmers don’t have a huge market with a grocery store but they do have a farm stand or a very successful farmers’ market business. But they’re making product on their stove in their own small kitchen, and they want to take it to the next step up and make a couple hundred jars instead of a couple dozen jars at a time.”
This is the second year for the company, which was started with the help of theVirginia Foundation for Agriculture, Innovation and Rural Sustainability, sponsored in part by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation. Hill said VA FAIRS helped her plan how to address a missing piece of the marketing process for many producers.
“What we’ve heard … is that up to 40 percent of a tomato crop or an apple crop can be a second-grade material, perfectly edible but just not beautiful,” Hill said. “And consumers, even people in the local foods movement are still just getting” that such produce is perfectly safe and wholesome, if not pretty. Homegrown Virginia can turn that produce into products with a longer shelf life and greater value, she said.
Ellen Messick, owner of Messick’s Farm Market in Fauquier County, brought more than 100 quarts of freshly picked strawberries to the cannery to be processed into jam with her own label. “I really like the staff here, and the equipment is very impressive,” she said. “And they really know their stuff when it comes to obeying food safety regulations and processing the fruit.”
One of the advantages of using the Prince Edward County Cannery and Commercial Kitchen is the subsidized price for users. Hill says the county has made a commitment to supporting agribusiness, and funds from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification Commission helped to upgrade the facility to a commercial status in 2012.
Homegrown Virginia Co-packing has additional information athomegrownvirginia.com.
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