Hi I'm a newbie

[peta]

Hi everyone
Im new to all this, have never been part of a forum and quite green about preserving. I have spent hours researching on the net and seem to find conflicting information. I have a small business and sell my fresh home made products weekly at a local farmers market, i'm hoping to start jarring some products to start selling there but as you can imagine I have to be very careful as I'm selling to the public and its not just for home use. I have bought a few books and have worked out there is obviosly two stages. First is to cook the product either by heat or chemically with salt/vinegar then of course it needs to be sealed????? or and heat treated ???? I am buying pre- sterilised jars is it then o.k to hot fill with things like onion or chilli jam and then is that suficient??? I have been told that it is . Is this the principal for jams or veg in oil or vinegar???? ? I also want to make dolmades (not filled with meat) these have a lot of oil and lemon juice added when cooking can I put them in sterlised jars when they are still hot put in jars and top with oil or do they need to be heat treated?????If so how???????as I will be doing large lots so products that are needing to be heat treated will be a lot harder to do, but do these need to be pressure canned????? I know you can buy them in a tin but they are awlful thinking if I can get them in a jar they will be a real seller!!!! I have been told that because I have pre- sterilised jars that this makes a huge difference in the process??????and a lot of things dont need to then be treated after.....is this trure...have so many questions???? really hoping you guys can help and as I learn I can help you too

Thanks so much peta

[minnie]

Hi Peta,

Welcome to the forum, wow lots of questions... great!

I'm looking forward to some answers as well to you questions, I'm sure there's a few here that can answer you.

I've not heard of pre sterilised? Where did they come from, I personally would still sterilise as it's not really difficult. Probably my cynic slant on so many things we buy these days.

Vicki

[Heidi]

Hi Peta,
Welcome to this forum... unfortunately its quite addictive! You will find lots of information here, especially in the commonly asked questions bit. However, we all love to give advice!!!!! I'm relatively new to preserving as well, and have only been doing it for a couple of years at the most. So I have found this forum very useful in getting over my jitters that I'm not going to poison my family! Good on you for branching out to the local markets with your preserves. You find so many preserves these days that really haven't been properly prepared, so I applaud that you are really researching what you need to do to keep the public safe. Only this week I came across jars of home made jam that were for "free" in the tea room, non had been sealed properly at all. I passed, they were "probably" fine, only having been recently made, but I wasn't chancing on "probably"!

I'm sorry, I haven't time at the moment to answer your questions on this thread or your pressure canner thread, but I did want to welcome you!
Bye for now,
Heidi

[Hayhay]

Hello and welcome.

Sound great you are selling at a local stall. And dolmades in a jar sound delish......

For food guidelines you'd probably be best checking out legal requirements - I presume from a governemnt department? I'd assume it'd be available through the net.

Also I think selling food you've made yourself you might need a food handlers certificate? Not sure but may be something to check. Apparently its very easy. Can be done online or I notice alot of community centres run them. And this course might cover alot of your questions.

Hayley

[peta]

Thanks for the warm welcomes xx
Yes you do need to be registered if you are a trading as a food business and I am so that bit is sorted. Have been trading at the market for about 2 1/2 years ...started only doing it fortnightly and about a year and a half ago gave up th day job. It's great but has been challangeing, have been trying to think what the next step will be and feel a shelf life line is the way to go. Think I may have made some progress with contacts yesterday and meeting with my business mentor today so it is all moving forward. You are right the internet is fantastic for sourcing information but there is too much sometimes and a lot of the information is conflicting. Hoping i'm on the right track with the jarred produce ....know all of you appreciate local foods I feel there are probally a lot of people out there that dont have the time to do there own but like me are sick of seeing that almost everything on the shelves is poor quality and imported....let you all know how it goes!

[Hayhay]

I love to see things in jars that are only available in cans in supermarkets (much prefer glass to tins....and definitely preffered over plastic!).....still waiting to see tuna in a jar!

Hmmm...how do you go about getting a business mentor? We're setting up a farm and need to register a business etc but have NO idea how to start or where to go about it!

[peta]

Hi Hay Hay....I have seen Tuna in jar can't for the life of me think where...let you know if I see it again. I dont where you are situated but once you start looking there are a lot of resources out there, I did a small business management course last year and that was very helpful. I think there are a lot of people out there who are happy to share the knowledge they have gained over the years. I'm in Adelaide I know here there is a small business resource centre were the offer advice and mentoring. Other than that I think the farmers markets are great for making contacts and also selling things from your farm, I know a lot of farmers at my market that would have gone under if they did not attend the markets. They are getting the full retail price for there products instead of wholesale. Go and have a chat to some people there, if they are not busy i'm sure they would be happy to help...I dont know too much about farming ha ha who am I kidding I know nothing but I'm sure these days its about not putting all your eggs in one basket, weather its wholesale plus doing a farmers market are another area that will bring the money in..what type of farming are getting into???