Starter Kit. Idea 294 of 500. Cluster 14
Wood-apple, passion fruit, jackfruit and jamun as jellies, jams and fruit leathers in jars, the way Britain sells marmalade
The mechanism, from the book
The smallholder sells raw to a collector at the gate and the collector sells to a packer who puts his own name on it. Denmark's farmers got rich the day they owned the creamery.
The first step
Cook a small batch of wood-apple jam and jackfruit leather in a clean kitchen, label the jars with the fruit and the district, and sell them at a weekend market and to one hotel gift shop. Record what sells out, what people say, and what price they accept without haggling. Then send the two best sellers to a Sri Lankan grocery in London with a trade price. A reorder is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A hotel gift shop or a Sri Lankan grocery whose customers want a jar of island fruit to take home or to remember it by.
- What leaves today
- Wood-apple and jamun sell for little in season or go unpicked, while a jar of preserved fruit keeps and travels at a premium.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what a kitchen needs before selling jams and fruit leathers.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which standard applies to jam sold in jars.
Check before you spend
Whether your kitchen has food approval, and how long the jars keep before opening, tested rather than guessed.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a jar of fruit jam sell for in a delicatessen?
- How much fruit goes into one jar?
- Which fruit sells out first at a weekend market?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.