Chris Callahan, UVM Extension Ag Engineer, has been fielding a lot of questions recently about CoolBots(TM), a DIY system for cooling farm products.  He compiled his information into a blog post which you can access here– http://blog.uvm.edu/cwcallah/2013/03/20/coolbotstm-inexpensive-cold-storage/.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest engineering innovations for VT scale and diversified farms, subscribe to the UVM Extension Ag Engineering Blog!  Check out other Ag Engineering resources and links on the UVM Extension Ag Engineering webpage.

Here is a short list of the projects underway. By fall 2013, UVM Extension will be coordinating workshops and webinars to show-and-tell how these projects went and what other interested farm owners can learn.

1.     A diversified farm is setting up their Quick Books accounting system to organize the income and expenses for the 3 core enterprises on the farm: beef, honey and maple. When the project is done, in addition to producing the regular whole farm profit and loss statement, they will be able to click a button and see how all 3 enterprises performed side by side. This will tell them which enterprise is making the most money and how it compares to the others.

2.     A beef farm is working with a processor to set up the  scale system at the processing facility to create an inventory sheet of the specific amounts and cuts that were produced, packed and labeled there at the facility. This project will provide detailed information on carcass yields and it is going to greatly simplify inventory management of all that beef.

Follow this link to the UVM Extension Farm Viability Blog, it takes you to the full length audio clip from a local radio broadcast about this grant program.

http://blog.uvm.edu/mcannell/resource-library/

WAgN and the Vermont New Farmer Project provide excellent resource materials and training opportunities that can help you to assess various market opportunities and to price and promote your products in venues such as farmers markets.

In addition to pricing and promotion of your products, you also need to follow food safety best practices and produce and process your food products according to the rules and regulations set by the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. Not only will this guarantee that products are as safe as possible, it also will assure your customers that your business, as well as the entire farmers market, has product quality and safety in mind.

UVM Extension has published a series of “Food Safety for Farmers Market Vendors” factsheets, which help to clarify the various regulatory requirements, and also list the recommended best practices to ensure the safety of the various types of food offered at farmers markets. A webinar presenting much of this information, as well as additional resources is also available.

Some of the key best practices for food vendors selling at farmers markets include the following:

–Cook, transport and hold foods at the proper temperatures to prevent rapid bacterial growth. Hot prepared foods must be held at 135 F or higher, cold perishable foods from 32 to 40 F and frozen foods at less than 15 F.

–Reduce possible cross-contamination, which can transfer bacteria from one food to another. For example, be sure that raw meat does not contact ready-to-eat food or fresh produce.

–Practice good personal hygiene such as clean clothes and hands to prevent transferring bacteria to your food.

Vermont does not currently have any regulations for offering product samples. However, if you do hand out samples, be sure to do so in a sanitary manner. Only put out small amounts at a time and always keep perishable foods hot or cold, as appropriate.

In addition to following the practices listed above, farmers market vendors must comply with certain key regulations including that all products sold must follow proper labeling and temperature requirements. In addition, ingredients or foods used to prepare food for market must be from safe sources.

You also might be required to have a license, depending on the products you plan to sell, your annual sales or where you prepare the food.

Following these best practices and recommendations will help to protect this valuable outlet for Vermont’s local products and ensure that everyone has a pleasant and safe farmers market season.

Information on upcoming food safety training courses, webinars, fact sheets and resources on this and other food safety topics is available from the UVM Extension Food Safety website.

Enjoy Farmers Market season!

While some customers are very good at communicating, most of us prefer to avoid awkward, uncomfortable and/or confrontational situations whenever possible. So you might find yourself in the position of having to read minds.

Here are 5 things customers might be reluctant to share:

• 

  If a customer is unfamiliar with a product they may be reluctant to buy it.

  I don’t know what this is! No one wants to appear ignorant so most customers will never bring the celeriac (or kohlrabi or blood sausage or ??) over and say ‘what in the world is this?’ If you want to sell these items you need to have a label stating the name clearly (a guide to pronunciation helps too) and a short description of what to use it for, what it tastes like and what other foods pair well with it.

• I found a better product somewhere else. Quality always matters and customers generally do not like to give you bad news. What you are likely to observe is reduced repeat sales. What can you do? Post a ‘money-back guarantee prominently so customers know that you want to hear when a product is not meeting their expectations. Remind customers that you want to hear feedback. And when you do get feedback resist the temptation to be defensive. Provide a suggestion box so people can comment anonymously.
• Your product tasted/smelled/looked funny when I finally got around to trying it.
  

  The more you communicate about what a product should look, smell and taste like the more likely they will be to have a positive experience.

This is another tricky situation. Some customers will return a product and try to get a refund but other customers will just throw the product away and say nothing. You may never know there was a problem. A bad experience could be the result of spoilage or it could be that the customer was not prepared for what to expect.  The best strategy is to provide use and care instructions. Have a binder available that provides basic information like how to store the product, what parts are edible and how long it will keep.

• I can’t spend money on an expensive item for just one recipe. Many people are living on reduced incomes and they may have less disposable income to spend on food. If they perceive that an item is a specialty item they may choose to pass it by. As the vendor it will serve you well to try to promote multiple uses for your products. For example if you are selling sausage, a package may contain more servings than the customer needs so it’s a good idea to offer some tips on how to use leftovers. For example, ‘after breakfast brown up the remainder and freeze as a pizza topping or add to pasta sauce’.

• My financial situation has changed and I’m embarrassed. Be tactful and observant. If a regular customer suddenly changes their buying habits it is fine to ask if they have experienced some problem with the product. If their answer is vague or they don’t respond just let it go. You provided an opportunity and the rest is up to them. Chances are that if sales stay strong among other customers it is not a product issue.

Any start-up costs that you cannot deduct in your first year of business, you must amortize. IRS tells us (in Chapter 7 of Pub 225, page 47) ‘amortization is a method of recovering (deducting) certain capital costs over a fixed period of time. It is similar to the straight line method of depreciation.’ IRS says that start-up costs must be amortized over 180 months, 15 years. So you would divide your total by 15, and add this amount onto your depreciation using Form 4562.

Please study these 2 sections of the Farmer’s Tax Guide in order to account for these costs properly. IRS Publication 535, Business Expenses, Chapter 8 Amortization, describes this in further detail.

The Tax Topic article, Start-Up Costs, on www.ruraltax.org goes into the unusual question of ‘when did your farm actually begin?’ This sounds obvious, until you start to think about it some. An easy date to pick is the date you registered with the Secretary of State, or received an Employer Identification Number. But it is not always quite that easy.

From Greece to Grains.

My initial work has been focused on energy considerations in covered growing (e.g. greenhouses and high tunnels) and post-harvest processing and storage. In both cases, I have had many inquiries from new farmers (and many seasoned farmers as well.)

COVERED GROWING – Many of the folks I talk with are building their first greenhouse or high tunnel or are adding to their existing set of houses. Vern Grubinger and I compiled a report on biomass heating in greenhouses several years back which may be helpful.  Also, it is a great time of year to assess on your houses using a greenhouse audit checklist. Lastly, stay tuned for news of NOFA-VT’s upcoming greenhouse tour which I’ll be assisting with (March 13,  March 20, March 27 & April 3).

COLD STORAGE – I have had lots of inquiries about options for cool and cold storage for vegetables. I had the pleasure of joining the Vermont Vegetable and Berry Grower’s Association last month for their annual meeting.  This event was packed with presentations ranging from the latest pests to farmer outreach in distant lands. My presentation covered cold storage and some best practices. I’ll be teaming up with ACoRN and Ginger Nickerson from the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Middlebury on April 2 for a workshop on cold storage and in Monkton on April 11 for a Practical Produce Safety workshop. Ginger has a great list of resources on food safety as well.

GENERAL ENGINEERING SUPPORT – I also have recently received several questions about livestock and poultry ventilation needs and have been guiding farmers through sizing ventilation fans and sorting out controls. Another area of interesting work has been in the nascent food hub sector related to a variety of processing needs.

ENERGY IN THE FOOD SYSTEM - I’ll write more on this in a future post, but another area of research relates to how we fuel our food systems and how effectively we operate them. Some initial thoughts on this topic can be found on my blog, and I welcome input on this topic. As part of the Farm to Plate Energy Cross Cutting Team I’m very interested in what producers think about energy and waste.

In summary, I look forward to meeting more of you and hearing about the challenges you face that extension work may help resolve. Feel free to phone (802-773-3349), email: chris.callahan@uvm.edu, and/or signup for my eNewsletter to stay in touch, but I’d also really like to meet you in person on your farm or at a future event.

Do you have a balance sheet? Trick question….everyone has a balance sheet really, but not everyone has it written down. If you are in business, then you should be preparing an annual Farm Balance Sheet. If you are just a normal individual then you can prepare a Personal Financial Statement. These are essential statements required by lenders for farm loans (or personal loans like a home mortgage or car loan). They are just as essential to farm owners who are serious about improving their financial position over time.

Balance Sheets are easy to prepare and they are very powerful tools for farm management. An accurate balance sheet will answer important questions like:

• Is the owner increasing or decreasing their wealth by running this business?
• Is the business in a position to borrow money for purchasing land, buildings, equipment and livestock?
• Is their a viable exit plan for the business?
• Is there too much money tied up in equipment or resources that are not being fully utilized, can we sell some of that stuff to put some cash in our pocket?

Most new farms focus their energy on cash budgets. Don’t forget that you will also need to prepare and UNDERSTAND your balance sheet. In March and April, UVM Farm Business Specialists will be setting up one on one  “budget clinic’s” or “farm finance office hours” to help managers prepare these statements.

Here is a link to the UVM Extension Calendar:

http://www.uvm.edu/extension/?Page=Calendar&agenda=extension,UVM,4-H,,COPE,seminar,vermont,OMK&label=Extension+Programs&intro=calendarintro.html

Give it a try yourself. The VT Farm Viability Program has developed a series of financial statements. Find the “financial workbooks” at the bottom of this page. There is an inventory sheet that you can use to list your assets and a balance sheet that you can fill in:

http://www.vhcb.org/viability.html#ffw

The Act itself was signed into law in January 2011.  The proposed rules for two of the main mandates of the law were released in January 2013, including Preventative Controls for Human Food (which affects the value-added processing of foods) and Produce Safety (which affects sales of fresh whole fruits and vegetables).  Here is some introductory information on the proposed rules and how you can make comments.

1) FDA maintains an updated website with a great deal of information on FSMA, including a link for individuals to get FSMA updates by email. The website also includes the following useful information:

1. an overview of the proposed rules
2. FDA fact sheets on proposed rules (Preventative Controls and Produce Safety)
3. information on public meetings that will be held across the US concerning the proposed rules
4. more information on other aspects of the FSMA mandate

2) UVM Extension has prepared some fact sheets to help Vermont produce growers and value-added food processors understand if and how the proposed rules may apply to them, which are available from the Vermont Food Safety Task Force website.

3) It is very important to know that these two rules are only in the proposal stage and are NOT final regulations at this point.  They are open to public comment and requests for clarification. The 120 day comment period ends on May 16, 2013.  There are a number of ways that you can comment:

1. Submit your comments online
2. Submit written comments to FDA by fax or mail
3. Join the Vermont Food Safety Task Force sub-group on FSMA to work together to submit comments.

4) The Vermont Food Safety Task Force just formed a sub-group further discuss and address the FSMA proposed rules and how they will impact stakeholders in Vermont. If you are interested in being part of this group, please contact me at londa.nwadike@uvm.edu

I also wanted to let you know that as part of the Vermont New Farmer Project, UVM Extension is holding a number of upcoming workshops that you can sign up for in various aspects of food safety for food producers and processors, including food labeling, food safety regulations, and both a 3 hour and a 3day HACCP course for food processors and meat processors.

Please feel free to email me at londa.nwadike@uvm.edu if you have questions on this information or any other areas of food safety.