BLUE RIDGE FOOD VENTURES COURSE
Is grandpa’s secret salsa recipe the key to your financial future?

Learn the basics of food entrepreneurship at a five-week course starting Oct. 19, called “Starting Your Specialty Food Business.” Sessions will be Wednesday evenings through Nov. 16, from 6-9 p.m., in the Haynes Conference Center, Room 128, at the Enka campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, located at 1459 Sand Hill Rd., in Candler. Cost for the course is $50.

The class is for anyone considering the idea of packaging, bottling, labeling and selling a favorite recipe, as well as for those would-be business-owners who want to study the market first to determine what the “next big thing” will be. Classes are conducted by Blue Ridge Food Ventures, an initiative of AdvantageWest, the regional economic development partnership for the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina.

Session topics will include: studying the market and developing your product; legal and insurance issues; labeling requirements; and branding and marketing. The series will conclude with a “taste test” at the final session and feature a successful North Carolina food entrepreneur telling her story and sharing her passion and lessons learned. Participants will also tour Blue Ridge Food Ventures and learn about the 11,000- square-foot, FDA-inspected facility's equipment and capabilities.

Register online at the A-B Tech Small Business Center website at www.abtech.edu/sbc, then click “Class Schedules.” Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find Course #SEF-2041-100, or call (828) 254-1921, ext. 5849.

Blue Ridge Food Ventures is North Carolina’s first business incubator for artisan food entrepreneurs, natural products manufacturers, farmers, chefs, caterers and bakers. More than 200 food product-makers, farmers and caterers have started and grown their businesses at Blue Ridge Food Ventures since it launched in 2005, with reported total sales exceeding $3.5 million. Products made at BRFV can be found in stores from California to Florida, and have received recognition from Cooking Light, NY Times, The Huffington Report, AOL News, Our State, UNC Public Television and countless other media outlets. In addition, natural products such as tinctures, herbal cosmetics and dietary supplements can be made at the Blue Ridge Food Ventures natural products manufacturing facility. Blue Ridge Food Ventures also operates the region’s only wintertime community-supported agriculture program, Winter Sun Farms, offering local produce prepared and frozen at the peak of freshness. For more information, visit www.blueridgefoodventures.org.Read the full article