ATF visits Gourmet Gorilla's kitchen

CJA's Agriculture Task Force recently visited Gourmet Gorilla's kitchen to make tomato soup with tomatoes  from Harvest Moon Farms, where one of the driest years on record hurt revenue early in the season.  The ATF jarred the soup, helped design labels, and will sell their product at their farmers' markets, learning about economics and farming, delivering good food to our community, and helping a sustainable family farm all at the same time.

"Gourmet Gorilla was a lot of fun.  We really turned it up this time.  We worked as a team and never gave up, but it was one fun day.  I can't wait to do it again.  Thank you Gourmet Gorilla for helping us."

--Alzario

"When we got there, we walked in and washed our hands.  Then we put on our caps and started talking about the ingredients of our tomato soup.  Then we went to peel the onions."

--Dakota

"Our eyes watered as we watched the tomatoes and onions being cut."

--Dakota

Heirloom tomatoes from Harvest Moon Farms.

The ingredients were tomatoes, onions, bacon, garlic, salt, and sugar.

We help blend the soup.

  "We started to strain the soup."

--Dakota

"Then we grabbed the jars.  We took all the tops off the jars.  Jason explained why the tops of the jars are in two pieces.  The we put them in the oven to get rid of the bacteria that is living in there, and Jason explained why we do that."

"After that, Alzario and I poured the tomato soup into jars."

--Dakota 

Jason used a torch to get rid of bubbles before sealing the jars.  This will help the soup stay fresh longer.

Once the lids were on, they were heated again.  This seals the jars to they will stay fresh without having to be refrigerated, just like soup at the grocery store.

We saw the labels we helped design.  We also used math to calculate how much we should charge for each jar, and predicted how much profit we would make.