Ep. 23 - Selling Products Direct to Consumer & Farmer's Markets

In this episode, Stone County Extension covers the Arkansas Food Freedom Act for selling products direct to consumer off the farm or at Farmer's Markets. Do you know what is allowed to be sold? What products require a license or must be made in an inspected kitchen? Meats, eggs, baked goods, processed goods, plants, or raw milk, can those be sold? 

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Transcript

You ready? 

I'm ready as I can be, I think. 

All right. Yeah, we're recording again. Today we didn't get to record last week and we like, well, today's the only day this week we're going to be able to get to record. So sorry if you're expecting one last week and didn't get one. All right, episode. 

It was a busy week last week. 

Yeah, we. 

Here, there and everywhere. 

Yeah, running. Went to Little Rock. 

Banquet. 

Banquet, yeah. And then week before seemed busy. 

Yeah, that was a busy one too. 

It's that time of year. 

Yeah. 

So. This episode, we thought we'd talk about a little bit about starting a farmer's market, what we did here in Stone County, and kind of, the rules behind the Arkansas Food Freedom Act, which used to be the cottage food law. We'd talk about kind of those rules. So it'd be an interesting episode. I figure if you're into farmer's market or wanting to be able to sell. 

Yeah, beyond a, you know, there's a lot of these little pop-up farm stands showing up. And so this would apply to those areas as well. Those are pretty popular right now. 

Yeah, so there's some things to think about. There's some rules, yeah, things to think about, what you can do, or if you're going to sell, do you, what you might have to have a license or be inspected. We'll talk a little bit about that. But we had some exciting weather also last week. Tornado touched down. kind of hit north of Mountain View here, went down kind of Luber, backside of Luber area, and kind of dropped off to Highway 5. 

Yeah, around the base of Freeze Mountain, and then I think it went over towards Pleasant Grove from there. 

Luckily, no one was hurt. 

Yeah, very fortunate. Either way, thankfully. 

Luckily. 

There's another call for. 

Fortunately. 

Yeah, severe weather tonight, so hopefully. 

Do you get nervous? 

I do like a storm, not gonna lie. Like I think it, I like the thrill of the excitement. But last year when that one was about a mile and a half, 2 miles from my house, I got a little excited. When the power went out and I didn't know exactly where that tornado was and it was my maiden voyage in the safe room. We actually shut the door this time. So that was a little too close to home for me. But I can't help but like the the excitement of a storm, winter storm, thunderstorm. I just, I don't know. 

Yeah, I like storm storm. I just kind of enjoy it. When I was a kid, I was terrified. Like I remember, I think I grew up after this. Like I was like, I can't do that anymore. I embarrassed myself in front of the whole church. But I remember there was like a tornado and it seems like we take them a lot more serious nowadays. Like tornado warnings? 

When I was a kid. 

Maybe if I just didn't pay attention, it's like tornado watch. And I was like, nothing's happened. Tornado warning. 

I remember we took them pretty serious after the one that, you know, affected Martha and them through Red Doors. And I think seven people lost their lives through that one that went down in Sylmore. I remember my family took it pretty serious after that. And then they experienced the one in 08. My parents live on South Bayou and it affected their farm. And we were very fortunate compared to a lot of people in that one, but that was a large tornado. That was one of the, it may have been the one longest on the ground in the state of Arkansas. 

Yeah, come through Atkins, Clinton, and. 

Stone Mountain View and then Melbourne. 

Is it EFU? 

No. No, that's my daughter's telling us this joke. I don't know if you're keeping this in there or not. 

Was she telling a joke? 

She's serious. No, she doesn't think it's a joke. But someone, we don't know who, my mom said, I hope it's a child that told her this. She goes to public school, by the way. And they said, what is the big, she was worried at our banquet the other night about the weather. And Brandon said, it's an EF 12, you know, I'm just messing with her. And she's like, no, actually, the biggest tornado on record is an EFU. And my mom about lost it. And she goes, it's so, they don't, it's so big, they don't even know how big it is. And we've all giggled and she's like, it's not a joke. It's real. And so she's convinced. 

It's a real thing. 

That is the measurement for tornado, the biggest tornado size. And I've laughed and laughed about that. But if you know Whitney, you know she's pretty literal. Yeah. 

When I was a kid, I remember like our babysitter was Rebecca Wilson. Like she'd come over and. 

Rebecca's who I rode last year's tornado. She came to my house for that. 

Well, she'd babysit us during the summer, like during blueberry season, they would be picking. And I was kind of old enough that I could kind of go wherever. I wasn't quite working in the farm yet, but I'd like ride my bike. Yeah, ride my bike over there. And well, like I, or sometimes I'd be at the house. Well, when Becca's watching us, like a thunderstorm would come through and we'd go down to the basement. And that always made me nervous. Well, I remember one time at church, we had to go, it was evening church, and we went across to the parsonage. 

Yeah, at Calvary. 

Yeah, at Calvary. And they had a basement. And I remember being down in there crying like, no. I think I'd left my blanket at the house. I was worried about my, I used to have a special blanket and his name was Blankie. 

Blankie. 

Yeah. And he was like this, he had like jungle cartoon, is like green and like jungle cartoon, like animals and like blue and yellow and red. 

Were you 13 when he had Blankie? 

Oh, I had him from the time I was a kid till. I had debated whether to bring him with me to college. 

Listen, me and Brandon married still slept under this blanket with baseballs and basketballs. It's the only, it was the softest blanket. 

This one, I mean. 

And that's, I mean. 

I'd had it forever. 

Well, you should have kept it till you got married. 

I was still at Mom's. It's hung up. 

Blanky. 

Yeah, that's what we'd used to do. I'd tell him stories. Like on Saturdays, we'd get up and watch cartoons. 

You'd tell blanky a story. 

And I'd tell blanky stories. But during this storm, I was worried about him. 

You thought Blinky was going to get blown away? 

He's at my house and I thought he's going to get blown away. And so I was sitting there crying and I remember Brandon like bringing the cat over, trying to calm me down. 

Well, that's nice of him. 

And then I remember afterwards being like, Tyler, good grief. You're 6, seven years old now. You can't be doing that. You can't be a man now. You can't be scared of these storms. 

Who's cat? 

The preacher at the time. 

I bet that cat loved all them people now. 

I think his brother Alan. Probably. 

Oh, yeah. 

He's the one that baptized me, whatever. But he had like four or five kids. I remember that. But yeah, I used to be scared of storms. 

What changed you other than wanting to? 

I don't know. I was like, well, they're actually kind of cool. I like thunder and lightning. I'd really like to see a tornado off in the distance. 

Yeah. I don't get excited unless it's time to get excited. Unless it's an actual tornado warning, there may be one on the ground. I don't get too thrilled or, you know, I don't get too anxious or anything. But I do keep a really good eye on them. Like I watch and I'll get up in the night and check the weather. 

You get nervous, tummy. Like get sick. Have you ever had that happen? 

Not from a storm. 

From anything. Like, who am I talking to? Do you even know me? 

Yeah. Do you even know me? 

Well, the reason I brought it up was, like, Case and them, they went to Silver Dollar City the other day. And it reminded me of the time when we went on a class trip. And I remember my sisters were there because I had to leave. I had a baseball game. And I remember we got lost in Silver Dollar City. 

All three of you. 

Yeah, me, Taylor, and Tori. And Tori, like, she'd get nervous and get scared. Well, then she starts puking, starts throwing up. Well, we'd lost mom. And my little trick that I'd use when I'd get lost, wasn't working. So when I was a kid, I'd always wonder, and it doesn't seem this way anymore, but like we'd go to Walmart and stuff or JC Penney's, and I'd just wander off and go look at stuff or go hide in the clothes and stuff. And I'd get lost from mom. And sometimes it'd be serious, like couldn't find her. and might have to go up to the front or you just start crying and surely someone will help you. That was my trick. It's like, okay, look for her, can't find her. And does my little trick work? Nope, still can't find her. Start crying. Or then I got brave enough to talk to people and I'd just be like, can you page Bonetta Cass tell her to come up to the front. 

But you can't really do that at Silver Dollar City. 

Yeah, but what I'd do is like I'd spin in a circle. Like I'd just spin on one leg and like point and wherever I pointed, that's the direction they work. 

That's still how he decides things now. 

No, I just did not. I might as well. 60% of the time it worked every time. 

Now that is a way to look at it. 

We were lost. And so I remember like we were kind of up top at Silver Dollar City and Tori just, she's nervous and just puked A lot. Well, I remember like the next day at school, like after we'd found mom and made it home and made it to the ball game, like my friends in the class was like, man, somebody threw up in Silver Dollar City. I mean, it was everywhere. They're like, I was like, where at? Like as you come to the top about to the where you go out. 

Oh, you mean she just puked where that? 

Oh, yeah, because they funnel everybody. Where the gazebo is. 

Oh my gosh. And that's where everybody has to walk. Yeah. 

But they're like, there was puke everywhere. And I was like, that was my sister. 

She'll be so proud. Yeah. 

She also, it also happened one time when, like on a snow day, we were coming back from school when school got canceled. 

Was that when? It was like blizzarding on you. 

Yeah, it's like blizzarding. Like anymore, it seems like they just cancel school. 

There's a chance a flake will fall in. It's like, we got to get these kids home safely. 

Well, I remember like mom was a teacher, so we're driving home from Marshall and I'm like, it's coming down and she's driving and like, I'm kind of nervous because I'm like, she's going real slow and we're kind of sliding. Tori's in the back and she's like, mom, you're in the middle of the road. You're in the middle of the road. She's like, no, Tori, it's okay. I'm, it's, I can got more of the road. It's okay. As long as we don't meet a car. Oh no. Right then a car pops over a hill and Tori just everywhere. Yeah. 

So she's a nervous puker. 

Yeah, she's a nervous puker. 

Oh, man. 

Well, anyways, everybody be safe out there in the weather. Watch the weather. Take it seriously. 

Yeah. And you can sign up for alerts for our county for the warnings too. I need to figure out how you do that. 

Yeah. Well, anyways, so Any programs you've got coming up, I'll talk mine while Anna's looking up the how to sign up. So we do have the final part in our series for the Little Red River Beef and Forage Conference. This last one's going to be May 15th and it'll be at the research, the It's the Livestock and Forestry Research Station in Bethesda or Batesville, Arkansas. They say it's in Batesville, but it's like in Bethesda. But it'll be there at the research station. I believe we'll start around 10 o'clock. And this one's going to be more pertaining to dealing with pests, you know, how to deal with, like, big ones that are on the mind right now is the Asian longhorn tick because they're they can clone themselves essentially and they're so prolific and they can cause also spread Tyleria. We'll be talking that I think new world screw worm and then we're going to get some handling like hands-on with live cattle demonstrations. So knowing where to properly give shots, a little bit of animal health. And that will be the topics for this. What do you got? 

So tomorrow I have my 4-H assignment and we just had our EHC spring council meeting today. Let's see for this. I'll be on the Grow Your Own Grocery series on Thursday, May 7th. So you can sign up for those webinars and watch them later if you're not able to attend the live. And then, you know, next week we've got Orama. I will be out of town. And then on May 18th, Melinda Kaufman and Chelsea Conway from Fulton and Sharp Counties will be coming and they will teach an air fryer and a pressure cooker, like an Instant Pot style class. And that'll be a fun class so you can sign up for that. And it's one of those things where you may have one of those sitting on your counter or in your pantry and you've not really used it and you're not comfortable with it. And it's always great to attend a class and get asked questions and get that hands-on element of using those kitchen accessories that are pretty popular. I've seen a lot. I even saw this one guy that has a Michelin restaurant using a pressure cooker to cook the potatoes. So I thought that was interesting. But anyway, little side note, but that's on May 18th. So please call the office if you're interested in that and then got some 4-H contest coming up. Rice is nice and dairy foods contest. And then I'm going to be attending a Mediterranean cooking school training. I'm super pumped about that and I'm planning on having quite a bit of classes later summer with it. That'd be cool. Yeah, I'm excited about that. 

Yeah, we had, you mentioned the County O'Rama. Next week is the outdoor portion. We'll do like fake casting, BB gun, BB gun, and any of the ID contests. Last night we did our public speaking, our talks, and our performing arts, and we had several kids come play their instrument. A few of them gave a talk. 

It was fun. The mayor came out and he judged instrumental for us and Mayor Roger Gardner and then we have our assessor, Heather Stevens and our treasurer, Kayla Meeker and they judged the talks in public speaking and impromptu. So we appreciate them supporting us and getting to see what all our kids can do. 

Yeah, it was good. When they're up there playing, I'll be thinking of funny stuff. And I'm like, you can't, they're gonna think you're smiling at them. It's like, I did think in one, like, about laugh, because, you know, they're playing the fiddle, and you were timing them to, you know, guess how much they're done. And like, she had gone for like a minute, 15 problem. And that's about average time. 

Yes. 

Around a minute. So it's like, it seemed like she's about done. And it kind of come to like the last note. And Anna went to stop that thing and she fired back up and I almost died laughing. Good thing you didn't. I was like, cause it was just funny. Cause Anna went to do it. 

I was like, it's done. 

And then she. 

Yeah. Well, I. I thought she was done because typically my daughter plays fiddle also and whenever they put on a performance with music roots, I think they have them go through twice. but I think she hit that third rendition and I wasn't expecting it for the third run through. Yeah, I'm glad you didn't laugh and thrown her off. 

I thought I was like, man, it'd be funny. Like, you know, they get a little bit nervous and you, know, you don't realize how long time is when you're nervous. And I was like, it'd be funny if she just sat here and we didn't say anything. And she just kept going for like 15 minutes, thinking, just trying to get to between that time frame of, a minute to 3 minutes. 

I hit the table, but you have a hard time knowing how much time's actually passed. And then sometimes you think not a lot of time's passed. And then you're hanging out till 915 last night talking. 

Yeah, we started at 530 and we got done at about 7. And I was texting, trying to figure out, picking up food and stuff, and I'm like, I'm leaving. And we all went outside and we're sitting there, and then they started telling stories. And they weren't stopping. It was like, you kind of find the break in the lag. And so, I got to go. And that didn't happen. It was just bam, bam, bam. And then finally I was just like, I've had a sonic order in for about 30 minutes. I've got to go. And I left it right at 8, but then y'all stayed. 

About 915, yeah. we had good stories, good times. Good people. We have fun 4-Hers. 

Yeah. anything happened today at the EHC thing? Anything funny? 

Well, yeah. I don't want to tell people. 

Yeah, I guess you'll have to join EHC to find out the funny stuff that goes on. 

No, we had fun. We had a Cinco de Mayo theme and We had the food room, or not we, they, but I mean, I'm a we, but I wasn't. I showed up and helped cut a few vegetables and that was it. But the food room came over and explained a lot about their process and how it works for our county. And one beautiful thing about them is they have food that they can give to anybody that needs it. And so they don't ask a lot of questions. Could you use it? Would it be beneficial for you? they don't push so much need. They push like, would that help you? And that's a wonderful thing. And they rely very heavily on the community and their efforts. And so we have several EHC members that volunteer for them. And we've had multiple food drives for them. And they do such a great job in our county. And so they had talked and then Cassie spoke about a lot more about Cinco de Mayo and I found out it's way more popular in the US. It's only really celebrated in one city in Mexico. So it's kind of like the US to kind of take something and make it our own good or bad. But we learned a lot about it and the traditions with that. And then we ate and had raffles and I think they were going to hit a pinata, but we came back. So they're a fun group. It's good. 

Monsters make me burp. 

Well, Dr. Pepper makes me burp accidentally. 

I've listened to some podcasts and they just do it. 

I could win a burping contest. You don't want the smoke. I mean, my ability is embarrassing. 

Seems like that girls can burp really good because Addie, she burps pretty good. 

I wonder what it is. I don't know, my household's not too impressed with it. It's a shame. I don't have many talents and they can't appreciate any of them. I do have, I can make my eye whistle. Oh yeah, we never showed them at the Olive Garden. Let's see if I can do it. That was my eye. 

Yeah, that was weird. 

Isn't that weird? I can't hear for a short time after I do that. 

Well, yeah. We took the youth leadership kids. We went to Little Rock, toured the Capitol and the Clinton Library, and one girl had never eaten at Olive Garden. 

We were like, we gotta go. 

It's the one place that got suggested that nobody really objected to. 

Yeah. we had the best server too. He was amazing. 

What was his name? Ernest. 

Yeah, we were near McKay Mall. Shout out to Ernest. He was the best. 

Yeah, he was good. 

And he had kids the same age as them. So he really knew how... 

You know, I was that way too. You kind of mess, you know, at the restaurant and it's everything's funny. And they're just giggly. Giggly. I remember one time I got caught, like we'd gone somewhere. with the youth group or something, because I remember, Dean Gamel was there and Ashley and Kristen and maybe Eric, but anyways, I was being a little dork there, turd at somewhere we were eating. Yeah. And Anyways, someone said, I think Ashley said something to me, and I was like, the waitress is flirting with your dad. And she's right there. The waitress? Yeah. But they were acting a fool, and they told them, it was your birthday. 

Yeah. Stinkers. 

And he's funny, like Anna's like, no, And he just. 

He would not look at me. Like he wouldn't. 

He's just like, I got you. 

He knew they were full of it. And he went along with it. And they, I think they might have ended up telling him the one next to me, but she goes, it's not my birthday. 

Yeah, because he brought it back. 

I thought it was for me. 

Because then we all like sang happy birthday and we got to the name and it's kind of like, happy birthday dear Mary. because I didn't know who we were saying because he'd given the cake to. 

The one next to me. Yeah. that was funny. She was like, it is not me. 

Not me. 

Not it. 

We had a good time. Oh, how'd the WEP contest go? 

Oh, yeah. So the WEP contest this year was at the University of Arkansas in Monticello. And I've never been to Monticello until the 24th. And so we have the third. place individual was Aubrey Cannon and the juniors. And then seniors, we had the winning senior team. So Stone County's heading to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the WEP Nationals in the end of July. 

Which is cool. 

Which is cool. We got to get. Got to get some study material going. It's a different eco-region than the one we did this year. 

I think it'll be good that we got to go last year because we kind of know what it is. 

Yeah, you have more of an idea. I didn't get to go. I was at a family reunion, but yeah, y'all, you have an idea of how? 

Well, it sounds like I've never been big on like church camp style or camp style accommodations. 

It's because we've been spoiled. When we go to a few of these nationals, like one of them, we stayed at the hotel and we ate at a Korean hot pot. I mean, like we're spoiled rotten. 

Yeah, because we just kind of, that's, they didn't have lodging. 

Yeah, you were on your own for that. 

So that was, it's kind of cool. You had some freedom, could see what you, know, the cool stuff. 

And 2, we have a, I've always heard we have a great 4-H center. And now that you may have gone to a couple other places, it's really evident. So I appreciate. 

Arkansas, from the few that I've been to, Arkansas is S tier. 

Yeah, you have an individual room instead of 40 people in one room. 

Yeah. 

Like. No, they have some rooms you have multiple or bunk beds, but I mean like it's an actual. 

And we walked into the lodging. I just had like a. 

This was last year's. 

Yeah, PTSD flashback to like church camp and miser. Like that was pure misery to me. 

I had my first. big room church camp experience last year. And thankfully that air conditioning unit was so loud, you couldn't hear anything. But I was sick all week. It was the week of District Al Roma last year. If any of y'all saw me during Ozark District Al Roma last year and I couldn't like not cough and I sounded, my voice was awful. That was church camp week. I was sick and then I passed a kidney stone that weekend. It was rough. 

And the reason it's misery is because I cannot go to sleep. 

With a bunch of people. 

I like I like I have to. it has to be completely silent, completely dark, or there has to be like a fan or something noise. 

Oh, and was there none of that? 

It was snoring. 

I don't like to hear snoring. Snoring. 

Yeah. 

Well, I have this thing where growing up, I didn't trust nobody, so I was typically one of the last to sleep, because I was like, I don't trust y'all, y'all mess with me. 

Yeah. 

I don't want none of that. 

Me neither. 

Yeah, I think we might be, we'll be in the bunkhouse style again. 

Well, as long as I'm prepared for. 

It looks nicer. 

I wouldn't prepare for that. Yeah, no. 

Well, I'm excited too because I'm wondering if everybody's seen the ocean or not. And we'll be right there. It'll be fun. 

Yeah, it'll be good. It'll be fun. we'll have a good time and hopefully we'll do pretty well. 

We've got to get rolling. I was thinking about some study materials. 

All right, we're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and teach you about how you can sell stuff at a farm. All right, we're back. And again, we're talking farmers markets. Food Freedom Act. The reason we brought this up is because we had our small room in it. We've called it the North Central Arkansas Small Ruminant Conference, Multi-County Small Ruminant Conference, and it's several of us ag agents like me and Van Buren County, Cleburne County, Searcy County, and then we bring in, I think, Faulkner County and Conway County, because the Kevins. 

The Kevins. 

The Kevins are, they help us with that. And anyways, I talked how to sell meat. And so we were going to talk it last week because I was like, I kind of want to practice, but we just never got time to it. So, but it's on my mind and I was like, it's that time of year. Our farmer's market here in Stone County has just kind of kicked off. And I drove by the other day and it looks like it's rocking and rolling. 

It was doing really good the last time I stopped by. 

And I've been, I'm sure there's multiple ones at Springfield, but we were in Springfield one time, Springfield, Missouri, and we went over to a farmer's market there on Saturday that was in, I think is in the mall parking lot. And I was like, dang, ours is better than this. And it like they got it, looks like they got about everything. over at ours. I know that y'all are main. He's selling and then we've got farmers that like they raise their own sheep, cut the wool, spin the wool, and she makes yarn. We've got crafts, handmade crafts. So we were kind of involved with starting or revamping the farmers market. Years ago, there was one. But the guy that was kind of in charge, he wasn't really doing it anymore and is over there kind of on Main Street just past the courthouse, bicentennial, that lot there. That's where they used to do it. I remember when dad, I had to go up there a few times like try and sell pumpkins and like hardly anybody had stopped by because it's. 

I remember when they had re-kind of started it before this restart and they were over near, I think they called it the cucumber shed over near Harps. And I sat with my sister a few times when she was selling there for a couple summers. 

Well, it just seemed to go away. But a few years ago, there were, I think, a couple people approached the extension office here about, starting one back and so shoot we host we're just posted an interest meeting and 50 at least 50 people showed up. 

We were expecting tops 30. 

Yeah and we got a talked about it what we wanted to do and then a core group from that we started meeting It was a lot, I remember. And it's kind of. 

Yeah, y'all met quite a bit there for a bit. 

That first year, I think. 

Well, establishing all of your, we were getting kind of rules and things like that. 

Weekly, I think it was, I can't remember if it was, it seems like it was more than monthly. But we were meeting, figuring everything out. And there were a couple of really good volunteers that kind of took it on. Mariah Gaylor and Jamie Larson originally were kind of heading it up now. I think it's just Mariah. She's the one that. 

They still have a group that meets. 

Yeah, they still have a group and Mariah includes me in kind of their stuff. But it kind of worked out exactly like they want extension programs to go. It's like we're there to help educate and it just kind of grows into something naturally. And it's flourished ever since. 

And people can still come here like, we'll have people pop in and they're like, how do you have a farmers market? Who do? And we know where to send them to. 

Yeah, and we work with them like Even like. A lot of their stuff, like you have to apply if you want to sell at the Stone County Farmers Market, they have to have an application on file. And like we've agreed to be kind of a drop-off point for hard copies, but they've got it mostly online now. But we'd still do that for them if they needed. But with our farmers market, like when it started, they really wanted it to be a farmers market. Fruits, vegetables, things that they're raising that they can sell. Didn't want a lot of handmade crafts, but I think they've kind of, it goes hand in hand. They don't want a lot of, I guess, what you'd call flea market type stuff, but they want it to be handmade. 

And it looks like a good balance because last time I was there, was asparagus and some other early season vegetables and there's different kinds of meats. And so there was those goods and then baked goods and coffee and other things like that. So I felt like a really good balance. And plants. 

You can sell plants. So we learned a lot about during that time, what can and can't be sold at a farmer's market. And so if you're interested in starting a farmer's market or, you want to join up to a farmer's market, each farmer's market is going to kind of have their own set of rules. Again, the Stone County Farmer's Market, it's they it's all if you join the farmer's market, you kind of have a say in how you want, but it's also like they all vote for how they want it run. There is a charge to join in the Stone County Farmer's Market. It's not much. It's not much. But anyway, so what can you sell at a farmer's market? So I usually talk like the products that are coming from livestock and then Anna knows a lot more about the food, like if you're selling preservatives. That's just the kid bell. So we got a little bit of time. So if you do want to say sell meat or products like that, we also can now sell milk. That's actually changed, raw milk. But it has to be sold a certain way. It can't be sold at a farmer's market, but now the law has changed that we are, you know, farmers are allowed to sell it. We won't get to the milk right away. But for meat, what do you do if you want to sell the individual cuts? It has to be processed through a USDA certified facility or a state inspected facility. And there's only a few of those. Here in Arkansas, I think there's three or four USDA inspected and they're spread out all through the state. And there's a few more state inspected facilities. So If you get it USDA inspected, you can even sell across state lines. If it's just a state inspected butcher, you can only sell it within Arkansas. With that, let's say you're expanding into the direct consumers what we call it and when you're selling your livestock in that way where you're getting the meat processed and you're selling it. Let's say you do want to take that business route and you can do it with like small ruminants or you know if you're raising cattle. Let's say you don't want to you want to sell the meat but you don't want to sell like the individual cuts. Well then you can do they have a an exemption for just, your mind ever blank? Custom exempt, I think that's what it's called. They have an exemption to where it's not, you're not necessarily selling the meat, but you're selling the animal to an individual. And that's, it's an exemption. So someone's wanting some meat, maybe it's 1/2 or 1/4, or maybe they want the whole thing. If you're getting a beef, a whole is a whole lot of meat. So people typically split it up into quarters, halves, wholes, you know, whatever a family needs. And then they sell that animal to them and then you, if I have the animal, you would buy that animal to me, I'd take it to the butcher for you and then you talk to the butcher how you want it done and then they sell it. Or maybe you and a couple of people, like you buy half and you buy half or you buy 1/4 and three other people buy 1/4. Us as The seller is the farmer. We do want to educate the, our consumers or customers on what they're going to get because, we have a 1200, 1300 pound animal that we sell. There's bones. You hope. Yeah. Sometimes people sell smaller. If we're selling small ruminants around that 150 pounds. Just because it's 150 pounds doesn't mean they're going to get 150 pounds of meat. There's going to be a dress percentage. Just because the hanging weights, you know, it may be, they lose. 

It's going to be quite a bit less. 

Yeah, it'll be a little bit less. It's usually about around 50, 60 percent of the weight in meat. 

Of the live weight. 

Yeah, of the live weight that you're going to get in in meat. And you want to educate your... 

We call that hanging weight. 

Yeah. 

You want to know your terms when you're agreeing. Are you paying live weight price, hanging weight price? Yeah, that's an important step. 

And also what you'll get just because, you know, you buy 1/4, that doesn't mean you're going to get the prime... 

That doesn't mean you get your choice of steaks. 

T-bones, they come from different parts of the animals. You want to educate them in that way. But if you are wanting to sell direct to consumer meat, either for the individual cuts, have to go through a USDA or state inspected facility. Again, you can find that online. I think the Cattlemen's, they have it on their website where all the different USDA are. 

Well, there's not very many, so I'll take that one. 

For each area. Yeah. And okay, so let's say we want to sell the meat or the milk now. A lot of people, and my uncle's gotten into it, my uncle and cousins, The way it reads that it can be sold is through, can't be sold like at a farmer's market in the way you would think. If you're wanting to sell your raw milk, it has to be on farm or through a natural food store. There was one more. You have a... 

Well, when I'm looking at our little fact sheet about the Food Freedom Act, and it just mentions that it can be sold where the milk was produced. It doesn't mention those other items that you're talking about. And there is a limit to the amount per year. 

I think it's, is it? I think that's changed a little bit. 

This was updated last in July of 2025. So if there's something a little more new, which is possible in the raw milk world. 

I know they can sell it off farm. Like it can be at like a natural food store. 

But it wouldn't be a farm stand that wasn't on your farm. 

It can be. 

The farm, really? You need to pull that up so we can be sure. 

All right, you get to talking while I'm doing this. 

So you can go down some literal rabbit holes, I feel, when it comes to the Food Freedom Act and And it's a good idea to always call and ask more specific questions because one thing I found when we first started doing, we had a class, and I found really quickly that there's always some exceptions to the rule. And one of those that I learned through the process was say that you wanted to make a wildflower jelly. You cannot have the wildflower in it, but you could use the juice from it. So little things like that are not easily understood when I read the Food Freedom, when I read the homemade food production guide from the health department. And so this guy probably gets tired of me, but there's a man at the Arkansas Health Department who it seemed like all of my wild questions, like I had a question about selling rabbit and meat and different things. And I always tell everybody when I have this class, if all else fails, Ask for Jeff Jackson at the Arkansas Health Department. So I'm going to start with that. So if I say something that you're like, well, but you can call them. 

There's going to, in your business, there's going to be a lot of individual questions. This is going to be kind of more broad. Yeah, you can sell it at farmer's market raw milk. 

Really? Okay. Well, then that's updated from. 

It does have to be maintained below 40 degrees. 

Okay. 

And how that works with meat is similar. It has to be meat has to be kept frozen and it can't be kept frozen in a like you can't put it in a dry ice cooler. It has to be maintain its temperature like a an electronic or a portable cooler that can maintain that freezing temperature on meat and then But with raw milk, it just, the way it reads is it has to stay below 40 degrees. 

Yeah, so you're not selling it out of the cooler. You're not selling it out of like a. Like an igloo cooler kind of thing. 

The way it reads is I think you could do milk that way. 

And that's where your farmers market rules could vary because they may require you to do something a little. 

Different there. They may require you to do a little bit something different. But the way this new raw milk law reads is that raw milk can be sold or raw milk products off farm, farmers markets or natural food stores. But there's certain things like on your label, you have to have where the farm is. And at the location of where you're selling it, you're like the label you use has to be a certain size sign and it has to say farm name, location. And then it also has a statement on there about how the consumer assumes all risk of consuming. If anything happens, it's all on the consumer. And then I'm pretty sure you have to get them to sign something that says they accept the risk of buying raw milk. But so you can. Maybe it'll be news to several people and they'll be like. 

Yeah, I've not spent as much time in the raw milk rabbit hole as I have the canned food items rabbit hole. That seems to be the bulk of my questions is canned items. But The Arkansas Food Freedom Act, obviously it opened up where you could sell more items than the previous cottage food laws. And what it allows for is the sale of homemade non-temperature or non-time temperature control for safety food. So basically, without being in a certified inspected kitchen. So non-temperature time control for safety food. So harmful bacteria does not grow easily in those types of foods and they don't have to be kept hot or cold like, raw milk has a little different set of instructions. So they call them non-TCS foods. So basically that's like your baked goods, your candies, your jams and jellies. And then you get into pickles and salsa and things like that. But there are some requirements there. So like I said, I'm really more in the canning realm here. So you use a recipe. You're not going to have to follow as much, you're not going to have to test if you're using an approved recipe, which is never a bad idea to test to make sure that the recipe's from, if it's from the Arkansas Health Department or the University of Georgia, you're good there. But if you don't have one, a recipe from that, you're going to have to test your acidity for your canned items. And so it's going to have to be a value of 4.6 or less. And where some people run into mistakes is they think, oh, I can use those little paper pH testers. No, it has to be a certain pH meter. And I actually have one here at the office if anybody is needing to look at it or understand it requires some calibration. And there's a whole, I got a whole set of how to test using that because you're going to have to test your liquid. Then you're going to have to blend your solids and test your solids. Then you're going to have to blend that together and test that. And so each batch that you make, you're going to be giving it a batch number and you're going to be doing those pH tests for each one. And you're going to have to keep up with all that information. So that's where it's a little easier if you're using an approved recipe. So I don't think you're going to have to go as extensive on your pH testing if you're using that approved versus non. And like I said, there's always a little bit of exceptions because I've been talking to Janet out of Van Buren County and we were going over sourdough bread. And so you can sell sourdough bread, but when you start adding inclusions that have a higher moisture content, then you're starting to affect the safety of that item. So there's so there's so many little pieces to this and that's what gets difficult. But But there are some certified labs that you could run your stuff through or processing authorities. And so I have the fact sheet. It's making and selling homemade food and drinks in Arkansas, the Arkansas Food Freedom Act. And it's put out by EU of A Extension Service and the Public Policy Center. And it's from 2021 when the act first came out. And so, it goes over and gives you these links for the pH meter and different things. So say you have grandma's pickle recipe and it's the best, you're going to have to go through that process to sell it. And so that gets tough. But that's some of the stuff you can sell. And that poultry, meat, and those require time temperature control for safety. So that's why they have to be inspected. So I get a lot of questions about dairy. Well, that has to be, that's not a safe at room temperature product. So when you're making something with dairy in it, you know, that's going to have to come from an inspected kitchen. And I get that question a ton. about like cream cheese frosting and things like that. 

I've been asked like, can you sell like mushrooms? And you could if they were like you farmed them, like you raised them. 

Yeah, you're not able to sell wild. 

You can't sell wild. Eggs, you can, I've, what's the rule on eggs? You can sell them for sure. 

They have to be kept at a certain temperature. 

Yeah, that's right. 

It's not out of like a chest cooler. 

Yeah, that's right. I don't know if we should get loopholes. 

Well, I could, I'll tell it. 

Yeah, but anyways, yeah, that's what I was misremembering the eggs because there are, they're another one of them. They have to be kept chilled, cooled. 

Yes. I believe the air temperature is 50, but. 

Unless they're fertilized eggs. for hatching. You can sell those and they don't have to be kept. 

Yeah, hatching eggs. Yeah. Well, one interesting thing too is like, so say you're selling vegetables, but you're selling lettuce. Now you can obviously cut the lettuce at the base and sell it. But if you chop up the lettuce, you're not able to sell that. And that's where we're talking about introducing that bacteria and the time temperature control for safety. So when those vegetables are whole, you can sell that. And then I think. 

You can't sell like sprouts. 

Now that I, but I heard a loophole on that is that you can sell them in the mat form. You can't have picked them, but if they're in the full mat, is what I'm hearing that people, which. 

Well, it makes sense because we'll get it, you know? 

You've not cut it. 

Yeah, you've not cut it, but also you can sell plants. Rules on selling plants is it can't be any natural soil. Like if you're going to be selling like trees or plants that have been grown in natural soil, you cannot sell those. And in fact, you have to have a nursery license. 

Or get each of them inspected, I think, each of your plants. 

Yeah, and it has to be inspected. But you can sell in soilless type media, like if you're using potting mixes, potting mixes, essentially. 

Yeah, and a lot of people don't realize that they think they can't sell like, say, tomato plants. 

Sprouts and they're still in the map. Well, they're sprouts. I'm selling them. I mean. 

Not that we're trying to give out loopholes, but I thought this was American. But I will say the raw seed sprouts are on the list of things you don't feed someone who's high risk. So that's why that's why it's specifically mentioned because it can be a source of harmful bacteria because you're not cooking it, you're not killing that bacteria. So that's why it's a concern. So that's where it goes, you know, being an educated consumer and understanding your risk that you're willing or not willing to take when you purchase these items from a non-inspected facility. But I think it's great that people have the opportunity to make money and make things and sell things. But we just got to have a little little sense of safety or at least understanding why we need to be safe with these things. 

Yeah, I used to be scared to try the raw milk because I just thought it was like the bacteria. Would it be like the bacteria that's naturally in it? Because I thought that's what you wanted from raw milk is the natural probiotic. 

I think the concern is the bacteria from poop. 

That's yeah. 

Because of the general. 

I heard that and then I was like, well, yeah, I'll try it because. 

And that's where too, you know, safety. our dairies are heavily inspected. And I mean, have you been around cows? what they like to do? 

Have you ever seen the back of a cow and what's directly below the back of that cow? 

And so, and it just takes 1 little splatter if that bacteria was present and there's bacterias that are just naturally present in the intestinal system of cattle. That's why ground beef has a higher cooked temp versus, you know, your cuts of meat. So those are just things to consider. And I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying keep that in mind as a consumer. And so if you feel good about that and you feel good about the facility that you're getting from, then rock on. That's something that you get to do and that's allowed is to purchase raw milk now. 

Cool. All right. 

I'm trying to think if there's any major thing. Oh, yeah. Can we hit labeling real quick before you have to get your kiddos? 

Yeah, we got 2 1/2 minutes. 

And another thing too is I've got questions on this. So you can sell at a third party vendor for these non-TCS foods that fall under this act. That just has to be separate. from what's produced there in an inspected facility. So you just have to have it in more of the retail area away from like your restaurant area. So if you're selling sourdough bread, it can't be like where I'm over here and have a deli at. So a lot of people don't realize that. So you can do that. And then we talked about record keeping. So if you're selling homemade food or drink products using acidified vegetables, So that's where I was talking about that testing. You have to have a batch number, the date, recipe used, source of recipe, and your pH testing results. You have to maintain a log of that if like you're selling pickles or a relish. Now, if you're selling other items, you would need the product, the date the item was made, the common name, and the ingredients used. And then all else you seem to have to have, from what I understand, is this product was produced in a private residence that is exempt from state licensing and inspection. This product may contain allergens, which is important because You never know. It's better to state that they have a chance of having an allergen present than to think you don't. But this is a required. 

Similar legal type statement that's written out. You'll have, I don't have the exact word for word, but that also has to be on your raw milk. 

On your raw milk too. And yeah, that's has to be there. And you can also get an ID number if you don't want to have to do some of that. Every time you can have an ID number they follow. And one more thing is this doesn't protect you. Like you've got the statement, but they can still see you. You're not under a liability umbrella, which, you know, that's just something in it. 

With raw milk, that label says, I don't, I'm not a lawyer either, but it's part of that is like they, I think they have to sign something that they assume the liability of the risks involved with consuming raw milk. I do want to mention you like they it can't be resold like it has to be sold. 

Directly through the final with these other non-TCS products. 

And you can't sell the raw milk. It can only be sold farmers markets, natural food stores, and on the farm. And so it's a little bit different than your temperature controlled foods. 

Yeah. And I just think one of the last things that I wanted to mention after making sure you're labeling everything correctly, a great place to go before you even start is the Arkansas Homemade Food Production Guide. And it's put out by the Arkansas Department of Health. And you want to look through there because it'll immediately say like no permit required, permit required. And then you'll go and follow these different things and what's required for each of them. And Like I said, if you have questions, your best, we can direct you, but your best resource is going to be calling the Arkansas Health Department at the state level and getting detailed information. But we definitely can direct you in a lot of areas and give you great fact sheets. But there's always these little tricks and little avenues to go down for each of these different items as they learn more and work through this new act. Well, I guess it's not that new, but it still feels new to me. 

What got us, one time somebody had asked about rabbits and that was? 

Oh man. 

Figuring out if it was, if you could sell rabbits legally or not legally, because they, they're not. processed, inspected. There's nowhere in Arkansas that does that. And so what did we figure out finally? 

Well, we figured out finally, and hopefully nothing has changed since this time, after I spent three weeks sorting this out, and I finally ended up to the individual I mentioned earlier, was that you have to butcher them in an inspected facility. Like, a permit through the Arkansas Department of Health, like a kitchen that they've inspected, not like a inspected butcher. But then even then, it was still kind of odd. There's like a certain amount you can sell per year. And there's some other things with that. And so the person was still kind of like, okay, so that's when you make that call. But it took them a while to get me to the right person. So if it takes them a minute to figure it out, sometimes, these rules are sometimes hard to understand for us, much less the consumers and the producers. 

Yeah, but that's what the Extension's here to do. 

Yeah, if anything, we get a bunch of weird calls and we'll try to send you to the right place. 

Yeah, what's the weirdest call you've ever got? 

I don't know about the weirdest, but one time, like in my first week here, I got asked what size coffee filter did this person need to eat? One time I had somebody say, why doesn't canned food last 20 years like it used to? I thought, I didn't know it ever lasted 20. But, you know, innocent question. 

Like you can eat everything once. 

Yeah. 20 years is pushing it, man. Goodness. 

Yeah, I'm trying to think. I've had some interesting, funny ones. The worst ones are like, where do you get this? Who's selling this? 

Yeah, that's tough. 

Those are hard. 

I had one one time ask how to clean a rock. Like it got stained or something. I didn't have, it doesn't matter. I didn't have an extension resource for that. 

Yeah. 

Fun fact though, I have gone down the rabbit hole myself of how to darken a rock. 

How do you darken one? 

Well, so the best method that I have used in my demos is, let's say I have this orangey rock and we were doing landscaping around our house and I poured cook, used cooking oil on it. And by golly, that turned that rock dark quick. So, but then also acidify, so like vinegar, things like that can help, but my best result has been use cooking oil. So that's random. 

Yeah, random fact. 

I don't like orange rocks, sorry. When all you have is gray rocks, you want them all looking the same. 

Yeah. 

Anyway, Stone County. 

Yeah, Stone County rocks. 

We should have a. 

Like sandstone, orangish colored sandstone. 

We should have like a stone fact each time, like a rock fact. 

A rock, yeah. 

I got a rock fact for you. What is the state rock of Arkansas? We were at the Capitol the other day. Not the gym. State rock. 

I know it. I was there. I see. 

Oh, you remember. 

I'm pretty sure. 

What was it? 

Bauxite. I thought it was quartz. Oh, I thought bauxite is the rocks. The mineral is quartz and the state gym. 

Quartz is a mineral. 

Maybe I got that backwards. Bauxite was one, quartz was another. 

Well, now I'm not feeling very at all. 

And then diamond was the state gym. 

Gym, yeah. Have you ever gone and dug for diamonds? 

No. I've never been to Pike County, I don't believe. 

It was a really interesting experience. It was absolutely not really that much fun as far as the washing goes, but But it was cool. you were right, I was wrong. The state rock of Arkansas is bauxite. Shame on me. 

Bauxite, it's contains aluminum. 

That's what I was about to say. The most common ore of aluminum. So the state rock of Arkansas is bauxite. 

Pretty sure in their bauxite, Arkansas. 

Yeah. 

Where they mined aluminum. I'm pretty sure they were in bauxite. 

The Arkansas State mineral is the quartz crystal. And then I know for a fact the gem is the diamond because we're not going to miss our opportunity there. 

I will say we have a lame state fruit and vegetable. 

When it's a tomato. 

Yeah, and those are gross. 

Oh gosh, in your opinion. Oh man, I bet you made Bradley County mad. What was the state? 

Fruit in Bradley County listening? It gives us. 

Well, if you are, you tell us. Don't talk about my tomatoes. 

Don't talk about my tomatoes. 

Is that how their voice is? 

Yeah, it's not just any tomato. It's Arkansas. 

Oh, that's the state fruit is the tomato. Forgive me. Oh, it's the pink tomato. Yeah. More specifically. 

Pink vine ripe tomato. I know my Arkansas facts. 

My gosh, how do you know these facts so well? 

Because I've got a weird memory that remembers them. 

Okay, so that's the state fruit and vegetable. Why can't they, why can't we have a fruit and a vegetable? 

Do you know what the state flower is? 

Apple blossom. 

Yeah. 

Do you know what the state bird is? 

Yeah, mockingbird. 

Yeah. Do you know what the state instrument is? 

I don't remember. 

Fiddle. 

Oh, I could have guessed that. was my first guess. So I did know it. I'm counting it. We need to do. 

Oh, do you know what the state mammal is? 

Yeah. 

White tail deer. What was left? I feel like we've, I feel like we've memorized that little exhibit. 

We should have done the trivia. 

Oh man, yeah. 

We should have saved it and played trivia. 

That'd be a good trivia, Arkansas facts. We need some Stone County facts too. 

Stone County facts. The White River flows through the north part. 

At what state does the Arkansas River begin? 

In Colorado. 

Yeah, I've seen it. I've seen the ditch where it begins. 

Near Leadville. 

Yes. Leadville, Colorado, yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's in Leadville, Colorado, but it is near it. Yep, I've seen where it starts. It's just a ditch. 

We're just full of knowledge. 

I know, we're ready for a trivia night. A general trivia. 

Yeah. Do you got anything else? 

Not at the moment. 

Well, I think we can wrap it up because this will be right at an hour, maybe a little over. I hope our time's renewed. 

Surely. 

All right. 

Have a good week.