Need Pricing Help

[Laura]

I've always had pretty good farm sales, made enough off eggs and spent hens to pay for feed, replacement pullets, supporting the horses plus extra spending money. When we had goats, we sold the kids and that paid for feeding the goats.

Now we have a cow and she came with her own fan club, so we have all these new people coming to the farm. Of course they buy our eggs because they ARE better than the other farm eggs sold in the area. My chickens are pastured and grain fed instead of penned and fed layer pellets.

Along with these new customers, I am getting a lot of requests for Value Added products and I have no idea how to price these items and I really need advice. We live in an area of the country where grocery store prices are high and I do not shop in them.

So, how much for:

1 quart plain yogurt

1 pound butter

1 pound cottage cheese

2 pound wheel aged panir cheese

2 pound wheel aged cheddar cheese

4 pound wheel aged cheddar cheese

2 pound loaf of bread, made with unbleached white flour, raw wheat germ, wheat germ oil, oat bran, oats, flax seed meal, honey, molasses, eggs, whey or buttermilk and olive oil.

1 quart canned apples

1 pint canned raspberries

1 pint canned blackberries

1 quart canned blackberries

1/2 pint raspberry or blackberry jam
-County and state blue ribbon winners-
1 pint raspberry or blackberry jam

1 pint chicken canned in broth

1 quart chicken canned in broth
(I make an awesome broth I learned from a Cordon Bleu trained chef)

These are only the things that have been requested in the last month.

Also, another pricing question. How much would you charge to can other people's produce for them, water bath and pressure canning?

[BamaSuzy]

Have you checked on the legalities of selling the cheeses and such? Just asking because they are really cracking down in most places and in many states you have to be a Class A Dairy to sell those kind of value added products. People are always asking me about goat cheese, because I sell goat milk soap, but I can't legally sell it....

Also, pressure canned items must be pressure canned in a commercial kitchen a lot of states....

So you may need to be checking with you state Department of Agriculture or your State Health Department....and then watch out for your homeowners insurance because if they found out you have folks coming to your farm to buy stuff you'll have a whole other set of issues...

Best wishes in all this! Small Family Farms CAN SURVIVE but we're all going to have to work our butts off!

[clovis]

laura-
Just curious if you've been able to add the value added products, and how it has turned out.

[blufford]

If you would send me a sample of each of these tastys I will gladly give you an opnion.