is it okay to mix homegrown with locally bought?

John,
Welcome to permies! My wife and I met with you at the energy fair in Custer a few weeks ago and I look forward to following your discussions on this topic.
Is it acceptable to mix my homegrown crops with food bought locally and package them together?
Chuck Zinda

Hi Chuck:

Every cottage food operator will have to decide what their product is and their messaging. Few strawberry jam makers will have every ingredient homegrown. The key is to figure out your story and share it on your package and in your product. That's why we devoted so much to the marketing aspects of launching a food business from your home kitchen with HOMEMADE FOR SALE.

So, most cottage food operators will use homegrown when it makes sense. Others will choose the ingredients locally (highest quality, sometimes organic) and go that route. Others have direct relationships with farmers who have "seconds".

Of course, the ingredients are just one element of a great food product. Again, we encourage folks to think through the many facets of the product they're creating...and have fun experimenting. Who knew we'd sell out of our pickled pumpkin! Your customers will often share what they like.

For those in the Midwest, we're offering a more intensive 2 hour workshop based on HOMEMADE FOR SALE at the Soil Sisters event (soilsisterswi.org) July 31 through August 2, 2015. Our on-farm workshop is on Saturday, Aug. 1 and INCLUDES a copy of HOMEMADE FOR SALE; for more, see: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1380893

Best,
Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko
HOMEMADE FOR SALE
homemadeforsale.com

That's a very nice interesting idea, I expected it to be more of a legal thing than strictly messaging. Thanks for sharing that tidbit, cool and great point.

Agreed that it is mostly a messaging thing. It's an opportunity to tell a story about doing the best you can along with resources from your community.

I've been to a restaurant where they had items grown on their farm and others where the mileage was listed how far the ingredients came from.