Do You Want to Become a Food Entrepreneur?
By Mary Jane Butters

A fully-equipped research kitchen is now available for testing and development of processed food and herbal products by local entrepreneurs. I invite anyone interested in developing and marketing value-added food products to use the kitchen for only five dollars per hour.

Pay Dirt Farm School Apprentice Mick DeLamarter perfects a garlic scape recipe in the new experimental kitchen open to the public at MaryJanesFarm, Moscow, Idaho.

The kitchen equipment, valued at approximately $10,000, is on long-term loan from the Clearwater Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. The kitchen includes a fruit press, food dryer, pressure cookers and food processors.

The council loaned the equipment to the Pay Dirt Farm School, a non-profit organization we created to offer apprenticeships in planting, growing, harvesting, marketing, storing, and preserving wholesome food. The equipment is now installed at MaryJanesFarm, our organic farm about eight miles southeast of Moscow.

“The council originally purchased this equipment, with US Department of Agriculture funding, to provide an incubator for new companies—to give people with good ideas for new herbal and food products an opportunity to perfect recipes and begin marketing. We wanted to help people help themselves,” explained RC&D coordinator Dan Pierce of Moscow. The equipment was purchased by the council for use in an incubator kitchen planned by the Clearwater Sustainable Network at the Elderberry’s store at Clarkston. The store closed in December of 2001. Pierce said that the offer by the Pay Dirt Farm School was the proposal for use of the equipment that best fulfilled the original purpose. The kitchen will be available at low cost, and as time allows, I will share our decade of experience in food development, packaging, and marketing at no charge to entrepreneurs using the facility.

Dan Pierce also encourages future food entrepreneurs to use this kitchen. He said, “We urge people to take advantage of this opportunity. For only five dollars per hour, they can use the kitchen and take advantage of the free consultation Mary Jane is willing to offer. This is certainly a very good deal.”

Our business and operating philosophy focuses on building a local network of suppliers (growers and processors) of organic grains, vegetables, herbs, and other food products. We want to provide reliable sources of income for our suppliers and brainstorm with local farmers their ideas for value-added food products. This kitchen will help us attain those goals.

Anyone interested in reserving time at the kitchen is urged to call me at 208-882-6819 or email at iris@maryjanesfarm.org.

Mary Jane Butters has been developing, testing, and marketing her food products since 1989.