Farmers Markets

[saucisson]

As FB said, it's been great following this thread from its beginnings in March to two fully fledged businesses before year end.

Lance do you have a recipe for the Christmas sausage?, someone was looking for one the other day

Dave

[welsh wizard]

Looking good Lance, looking good.............

IF I can EVER master the photoshop thinggy I will post some pictures but untill daughter comes back from Cardiff Uni I will still be the computer moron I always have been...............

Got to mix and cook 150 game pies now ready for the weekend - cheers WW

[Lance Yeoh]

As FB said, it's been great following this thread from its beginnings in March to two fully fledged businesses before year end.

Lance do you have a recipe for the Christmas sausage?, someone was looking for one the other day

Dave

Hi,
The link for Paul's recipe is :-
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... 93&start=0

LemonD,
I still mix everything by hand. The trick to it is to mix them in small batches at a time. I once tried mixing 15kg at one go and almost got frostbite at the end of it. It's just too hard and requires much more effort. By mixing them in batches of 6-7kg max I can go pretty fast and get it to mix quite well.

WW,
I don't photoshop my pics actually, I just download them from my camera into the PC then upload it into photobucket. Photobucket is free btw. From there you can link it to the forum and the pics can be seen. Pretty simple actually. (I'm also a computer moron, had to ask a friend to show me once how it's done as well)

[welsh wizard]

Hi Lance

How did your Christmas sales go and what did you sell?

I was very fortunate as I made enough (or so I thought) produce to complete my orders as well as sell on Christmas eve and as we have a large hunt meeting in Ludlow on Boxing Day I was going to set up shop and see if I could sell bacon sarnies, game pies etc. Anyway I managed to sell all the produce by 12noon on Christmas Eve which left me wishing I had made more, but of course a bird in the hand..................

Cheers WW

[Lance Yeoh]

Hi WW,
It was just crazy for the 2 weeks before christmas, I've lost count of the amount of sausages I made. I think I'll put the number at about 100kg. Mixing all those by hand is hard work.
Yesterday I cleared about 30kg and I still have a few orders in hand to make and send out in 2 days time.
I didn't made much bacon actually as they tend to take up too much space in my fridge, space that i need to bloom the sausages. Didn't sell too much christmas sausages as well as the people here prefers a savoury sausage more. All in all it was pretty good.

Cheers
Lance Yeoh

[bogoiler]

hi Lance Yeoh and welsh wizard
i put apost up about what i need to start up to be legal etc no one has answered you two may be able to give me some pointers,at the moment my pork and sausage are done by a whole sale butcher but want to do on the farm but what are the rules !

[jpj]

bogoiler, unfortunately there are quite a few rules you have to abide with. are you in the uk? first port of call will be your local environmental health officer (EHO). DEFRA will also be a good source of legal information and possible assistance for funding . . .

[bogoiler]

been look on there web site with no look,talked to local EHO before christmas not a lot of luck with them they said they'd get back to me,looking at doing basic hygene course ,but its things like use by dates etc

[Lance Yeoh]

Bogoiler,
Sorry can't help you in that. I'm half way round the world in Malaysia.

[jpj]

your local EHO will/should hopefully get back to you. the food standards agency will/should be able to provide you with guidelines regarding use-by-dates, packaging and labelling etc. see also food.gov.uk, where you may have to delve quite deep . . .
the EHO will want to come and inspect your existing/proposed premises, will want you to explain to them what you are proposing to do/sell.

[welsh wizard]

I concur with JPJ, the EHO is certainly the place to start. You will need to do a basic hygiene course as well as get product and possibly public liability. You also have to consider where you produce your goods and get the prep rooms checked. If you are selling cooked as well as raw, is there any processing involved? the rules and regs are fairly stringent but they are in place to protect the customer.

Re sell by dayes etc you will have to have your product tested (EH can do this for you) if needs be. For example you could make Crab pate using pasturised crab and long life cream. This you may consider would give you a long sell by date but not necessarially so. The process of making the pate may increase the temprature of the ingredientds which could lessen the shelf life. etc etc

If you are just selling raw meat take advice from EH and get a good chiller.

Cheers WW

[welsh wizard]

Hi Lance

Sounds very good indeed - well done. You need to invest in a hand mixer to cope with that sort of quantity! Have a look on ebay they do get on there from time to time.

Hope you have a good NY and things get even more frenetic

From my stand poingt I have to re evaluate what I do. I am far too busy and I either need to cut a lot of things out that are labour intensive for limited returns, or take people on. I really do not know which way I am going to turn on this as both seem to be attractive.

At the moment I am just starting up a cookery school purely concentrating on game. I have run about 4 courses up to now and although they take up a lot of time, they have been profitable. I know it will get easier the more I do but it is yet one more thing. I have advertised the courses on the market stall and I am amazed at the uptake for Christmas presents, Birthdays etc. So this now has to go into the marketing mix as well as the market, supplying resturants and a little outside catering - aw god

Ah well I suppose it is the right problem to have..................

Cheers WW

[bogoiler]

welsh wizard
just pork sausage and bacon , for now this as been coming to me ready packed but want to make my own ,has for prep room thinking of a fridge body off a wagon ,split down so it will give me a small cold room at one end ! hopefully want to make my own sausage and bacon
tried looking on EHO site to day theres too much stuff on there !
got 8 pig ready to go so will get on to EHO in new year
thanks
steven

[bogoiler]

well tried EHO again not much joy the ladie i spoke to didn't know what i need or who would be able to help tried emailing them got one back saying that they didn't know which department would deal with it and i would be better phoneing them so no luck yet!!!!!!!!!!!!

[welsh wizard]

Hi BG, I am amazed!

Try the food standards agency, possibly they can assist.

Cheers WW