Waitsfield, Vermont - January 17, 2012
Joe Buley owns the Screamin' Ridge Farm in East Montpelier where they grow vegetables. From the farm fields to the kitchen, he turns his produce into products.
"We're making soups, salad dressings, salsa, pesto, marinara," Buley said.
He outgrew his farm facility, so then he used a church kitchen. But now Buley has found a new place to cook.
"I couldn't get any larger. I couldn't expand production any more. This facility allows me to rapidly grow my business now," Buley said.
He now uses the Mad River Food Hub in Waitsfield; a facility where people can come in and have everything they need to create, make and ship out food products and add to their bottom line.
"Instead of selling someone a tomato I turn it into sauce or fresh salsa," Buley said.
"Food hubs are many different things to lots of different people. What we are is a storage, processing and distribution hub within the Mad River Valley," said Robin Morris, the founder of the Mad River Food Hub.
The new 4,000-square-foot facility includes meat processing rooms, a smoker room and a kitchen. Using the new hub ranges in price depending on what service you need and how often you need it. For example the kitchen costs $200 a day to use by yourself. If you share the kitchen it's half as much-- $100. The hub can house up to 70 local producers.
"It's really a person who has a dream about a food product they want to make and we fit into that dream in some way," Morris said.
And for Buley that dream is coming true. He started using the hub in October and business is booming.
"Coming into this facility allows me the opportunity to really expand the business. It could conceivably get ramped up 200-300% in the next three months," Buley said.
A facility helping the agriculture community grow.
The Mad River Food Hub is still looking for other producers. Click here for more information about the hub.
