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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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 Posted - Dec 29 2015 : 9:30:51 PM
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As our daughter with special needs crosses the threshold into adulthood, we are looking for opportunities for her to have a small business. I'm thinking it might provide something for her to work for, increased people interaction, and more independence.
Well, today it hit me while she was making butter. What about a very small butter business? She could make butter for a handful of customers each week, even just one or two customers would be enough for her. She would need to buy cream from the farm and then create butter. She could do special molds for different seasons, or just keep it in cubes right at first.
Suggestions? Advice? |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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maryjane
7072 Posts
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Posted - Dec 29 2015 : 11:43:35 PM
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| What a lovely idea, Charlene. I think you're on to something. Hmmm, let's see, Local Handmade Artisan Butter ... with a photo of Cecily's happy smiling face, quart jar in hand. |
MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~ |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Dec 30 2015 : 09:44:09 AM
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She's enjoys shaking the butter, but I think an old-fashioned glass jar with a paddle and crank would be useful for her as well. Local Handmade Artisan Butter ... Cecily's Butter! I have to check out all the legalities of it with us as her guardians and such. I have a feeling it will mean more paperwork, but Cecily was rather excited about it yesterday. I also ordered some butter paddles from Amazon yesterday ... we'll work on a specific routine for Cecily and all the necessary cleanliness guidelines as it is one thing making it for family and quite another for the general public. Gloves and everything else.
It's funny as I've been pondering this question for quite some time ... over six months since I attended a conference about self-employment for disabled adults. At the conference it was suggested that Cecily make cheese, but it just didn't fit. Then, two days ago ... poof! There was the idea! Actually, it was Cecily sitting on the couch shaking away. :-) |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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Ron
4666 Posts
Ronnie
Peever
SD
USA
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Posted - Dec 30 2015 : 3:28:46 PM
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| And if you feed organic and Her sales are under 5k a year I believe she can say it's organic without certifying...correct me if I'm wrong ?. |
With a moo moo here and a moo moo there, here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo. |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Dec 30 2015 : 4:38:41 PM
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| Good thing to check on ... keep the advice coming! |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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chives
313 Posts
Victoria
Shelton
WA
usa
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Posted - Jan 02 2016 : 06:53:06 AM
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| Lehmans has a lamb and rooster butter mold. The lamb would be perfect for Easter butter. Who wouldn't want that at their table. |
A cow is the heart of a farm |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Jan 02 2016 : 09:58:53 AM
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It looks like Lehmans has several beautiful molds, wooden ones made in Germany. Thanks for the idea! I'm even thinking that a butter mold would be a lovely birthday gift for our daughter ... its difficult to find something that she'd like and use.
How hard is it to get the butter out of the wooden molds? I've never used wooden molds before. Right now I use silicon molds to create stick butter and those are especially easy to unmold. |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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txbikergirl
3197 Posts
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Posted - Jan 02 2016 : 1:00:28 PM
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charlene, i think the silicone molds would be much easier than the wooden ones. first, you have to stick the wooden ones into the freezer to get the butter frozen before taking it out - so you can see the expense and amount of wooden molds needed to do that.
also, it is NOT easy to get the wooden molds undone. i messed around a lot with it two years ago. i much prefer natural materials and so was driven to make the wooden molds work, but i came to the silicone side so now just use the wooden ones sparingly for something extra special.
i also like to hand form some of my butter in rounds and squares and then use large cookie stamps to press images into them - that works well also. looks just as cute as the wooden molds in the end.
what i would recommend is get her started with various silicone molds, and then have her test out a few wooden molds to see what she thinks. even if she did 90% in silicone molds and only a few very special wooden molds then she could charge more for those on special holidays, etc.
with all the shaped silicone chocolate molds out there it would give her a good selection.
also consider bundling. four small molded butters might be about half stick each, but you could charge more for four sold together than just the one large butter that was two sticks.
this excites me to no end. she could even around the holidays bundle butter together with a sugar cookie recipe and a cookie cutter as one sale - value added and will appeal to other people. you could come up with a whole selection of this.
also, once she has the dexterity really down for unmolding the butter she could probably make her own cookie cutters. no joke. the only thing to avoid there is sharp edges, but with a few small hand tools i have seen people form cookie cutters and it was wonderful. you may find a whole creative ability here.
i can't wait for you to explore this with her. my business mind is going crazy with this. |
_(199x300)_(66x100).jpg?v 93697001) Firefly Hollow Farm , our little farmstead. Farmgirl living in the green piney woods of East Texas on 23 acres with a few jerseys, too many chickens, a pair of pugs and my Texan hubby (aka "lover boy") |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Jan 02 2016 : 1:49:29 PM
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| Oh Cindy, how I need your business mind! And planning capability!! I do have a problem with speeding ahead without getting everything all set up and ready so this time I'm trying hard to do it right. After your explanation, I think we'll have to go with the silicone molds as we do deal with a small amount of damaged fine motor skills. But the stamps would be right up her alley. The idea of bundling is great! Thanks a million for your ideas ... and keep them coming. |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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txbikergirl
3197 Posts
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Posted - Jan 02 2016 : 3:37:20 PM
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if she had regular butter customers to hone her skills, then perhaps she could do the speciality stuff in the beginning for sale at the farmers market with you on weekends. then the bundling with cookie cutters and stuff might really go as people like that type of thing.
and maybe get a super cute small silicone mold of a flower or smiley face or something. so every sale she makes she includes one of those in butter too - her signature so to speak. if it is small enough the cost is minimal, but a nice little extra special touch. |
Firefly Hollow Farm , our little farmstead. Farmgirl living in the green piney woods of East Texas on 23 acres with a few jerseys, too many chickens, a pair of pugs and my Texan hubby (aka "lover boy") |
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maryjane
7072 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 12:55:40 PM
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Shake it, make it, Cecily! (w/Charlene to help you work it:)
Cecily's Better Butter
(Pure Jersey Gold)
Daub It, Smear It, Slather It On
Fresh! Raw! Blest Bliss!
~Butter Bursting with Health and Vigor~
Fine print:
Processed by hand in select, small batches. Not intended for baking.
Okay, I'll stop now:) Too much fun, Charlene. I think you're totally onto a fantastic idea for Cecily, your friends, and neighbors:) |
MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~ |
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maryjane
7072 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 12:58:54 PM
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| Small wide-mouth 4 oz. canning jars? Gourmet flavors: rosemary, merlot, maple syrup, ... |
MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~ |
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farmlife
1413 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 1:09:00 PM
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| I think when you use a wooden butter mold it is supposed to be soaked in water so that it is able to release the butter. I've never actually done it myself, but read some reviews of wooden butter molds that looked cool. It sounds like they are tricky to use. I like the jar or silicone mold ideas for Cecily. It would be less frustrating I think. :) |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 3:35:38 PM
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Oh, this sounds so much fun! Canning jars are a great idea! That and silicone molds are going to be the ticket with perhaps a butter stamp.
And, MaryJane, you are incredibly creative! I'm in the middle of mountains of paperwork with some other legalities for Cecily but this is all coming together with everyone else's help here on this chat room!
What would I do without all of you? Thank you!
Cecily likes the name: Cecily's Better Butter. She was smiling and giggling just a bit. |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 3:40:14 PM
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| Cecily also just told me to make sure any labels are big enough so they are easy to read! :-) She has some vision issues and wants to be sure she can read it as well as others. Now, I'm going to have to really start working on this as well ... Cecily's getting excited about it, too. |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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txbikergirl
3197 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 4:38:20 PM
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i LOVE janet's canning jar idea. various flavors would be great.
even if it takes a long time to come to fruition, i look forward to seeing it transpire charlene. it would be lovely! |
Firefly Hollow Farm , our little farmstead. Farmgirl living in the green piney woods of East Texas on 23 acres with a few jerseys, too many chickens, a pair of pugs and my Texan hubby (aka "lover boy") |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Jan 03 2016 : 5:25:50 PM
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| I think that this will be another goal for my farm this year ... Cecily's Better Butter business. |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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Mike
1667 Posts
Mike
Argyle
WI
United States of America
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Posted - Jan 04 2016 : 10:55:58 AM
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I've got my grandmother's mold and she didn't have a freezer, or even an ice box. I tried using it but it had not been cleaned in twenty years, so I washed it. Did that butter stick!!!!!!! Never played with it since.
How DID grandmother get the butter out? I have collected several more and not tried to use any of them.
I know the silicone ones work well, watched a lady make butter pats (individual size) like crazy. A friend makes candle molds and said duplicating the carved flat face that presses the butter out is no problem and you can just use a turned wooden cylinder for the body...... or use a can he suggested. |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - Jan 04 2016 : 1:05:39 PM
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| I'm thinking that we will go the easy way so Cecily can succeed. It would cause way too much frustration on her part as well as mine to use wooden molds. Maybe that's way so many are just collected these days?? |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - May 01 2016 : 10:02:21 PM
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Any one ever hear of a Novo Cream Separator? I just stumbled onto their website and facebook site ... looks simple to clean and assemble which would be ideal for Cecily's Better Butter future business.
Suggestions? |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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maryjane
7072 Posts
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Posted - May 02 2016 : 05:12:57 AM
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| I've never heard of Novo, but will look it up. |
MaryJane Butters, author of Milk Cow Kitchen ~ striving for the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain ~ |
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txbikergirl
3197 Posts
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Posted - May 02 2016 : 06:21:53 AM
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charlene, it really isn't any different than the slavic design we got. there is one attribute that seems easier, the side dial to control speed. and it is made in the USA, so that is a positive and should make replacement parts easier.
other than that, it has more plastic than the one we have (cream spout and milk spout are both plastic on the novo) and that is always harder to clean than metal. and what you aren't seeing is the part everyone complains about cleaning, the thousand and one little metal discs. those still exist, they just show them all in one stack - so you aren't getting anything that much easier.
so for USA made and small family made, it might be worth it. but it doesn't look any easier to clean that anything else out there. |
Firefly Hollow Farm , our little farmstead. Farmgirl living in the green piney woods of East Texas on 23 acres with a few jerseys, too many chickens, a pair of pugs and my Texan hubby (aka "lover boy") |
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CloversMum
3486 Posts
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Posted - May 02 2016 : 10:17:55 PM
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| I like the made in the USA part, but not crazy about the plastic parts. More thinking when I've gotten a bit more sleep. Our last goat kidded today ... |
Loving life and family on our Idaho farm, Meadowlark Heritage Farm; A few Jersey cows; a few alpacas; a few more goats, and even more ducks and chickens |
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Farm Business for Children
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