A new project called the Crop Cart is bringing innovative, mobile food processing equipment and hands-on education to several Iowa communities.
The cart is a pilot project through Iowa State University Extension and Outreach and it’s now available in Cass, Washington and Winneshiek counties.
The extension’s Lisa Bates says it’s an effort to close the gap in how local food businesses add value to fresh fruits and vegetables, and to help improve profitability and shelf-life.
“This isn’t a full processing facility, but it’s a small step toward that,” Bates says, “to really start to think about consumers using fresh fruits and vegetables more in their daily diets, to think about taste testing, maybe doing some value-added product development, even food safety training.”
Bates says the program is so producers can get their products out to the public, without a substantial outlay.
“To put in a full business kitchen, that’s quite an investment to just try something,” Bates says, “so this is a more readily available choice for those that want to trial and maybe not make that first large investment, but maybe figure out, is this the next best step for us?”
Intended audiences for the Crop Cart include aspiring food entrepreneurs, local farmers and producers, community organizations, event coordinators and others. The cart is not fully enclosed, but it allows fresh fruits and vegetables to be transported in a van or truck to venues like a farmer’s market to offer taste-testing, for example.
“It is all-inclusive with your fruit and vegetable processor. It also has some additional equipment,” Bates says. “All you would need to bring with you are any fresh fruits and vegetables you want to try out, any of your ingredients, and some packaging, and you would be all set to go to try your processing and see what you can create.”
The Crop Cart is designed to support farmers’ and small businesses’ efforts to create new products, offer opportunities for event and educational taste-testing, and to strengthen Iowa’s food system.
