Failures

Failure. Ouch! We don’t like to use that word to describe our endeavors or any facet of our lives. In New Age lingo we prefer things like: missed possibilities, unfortunate circumstances, unplanned learning opportunities, new challenges, etc.

What failure?  Sandhill’s tempeh business. In our 35 years on the land here, we have experimented with various crops and products to earn income: (beginning with highest total income) sorghum syrup, honey, mustard, horseradish, condiments (salsa, relish, etc), seeds, and occasionally, fresh vegetables & fruit. For the last five years, tempeh was in the #2 spot. What happened?

First: what is tempeh? It is a cultured soybean product – originally from Indonesia. Some call it a meat substitute due to it’s high protein levels – so it is popular with vegetarians. We make it by from soybeans that we grow on the farm: the beans are cracked in half, soaked, and then boiled until soft (but not mushy), cooled and inoculated with rhizopus oligosporus (a spore, which we buy). The inoculated beans are put in one-half pound ziplock bags, flattened (like a hamburger patty), and placed in racks inside of a homemade box that maintains it at 90 – 100 degrees F for about 24 hours. During this time, the spores develop and grow throughout the soybeans making them more digestible for humans (like yogurt is to milk). We then freeze it and sell it  frozen. There are many ways to prepare it: marinate it in soy sauce, herbs & spices, or simply fry, bake, broil, etc. Tempeh ruben sandwiches are popular in restaurants.

We have been making tempeh for about 20 years – at first, just for ourselves. Other folks tried it and loved it -  so we began to sell it and it grew into a business. We sold it mostly in University towns – Columbia MO & Iowa City IA. It is  a niche market – most mid-westerners have not heard of it. It was good for us in that we could make it throughout the year – in contrast to most of our other products, which are harvested & processed mostly during the summer and fall of the year. It was a  steady income.

About a year ago, we began having  production problems. Previously our failure rate averaged 3-5%: these were pieces  in which the spores failed to develop evenly – resulting in spots that remained as  cooked soybeans – but not tempeh. We kept these for home use and simply cut out & discarded those spots when preparing it. Now, the failure rate was 60 – 100%. At first we were undaunted – here was another challenge. We cleaned and sanitized the equipment, purchased new innoculant, were extra careful about cleanliness, etc – but the problem persisted. Friends and customers had different ideas & suggestions – we tried most of them, including lab tests. Nothing made a difference.

Finally – we admitted defeat – FAILURE. We have suspended tempeh production: telling our customers was difficult. Admitting defeat was even harder. Besides the sting  of FAILURE, there were additional factors. First, value added products have always been our specialty & niche – all our products are in this category. Tempeh was our shining example of this: conventional soybeans sell for about $10/bushel; organic soybeans about $20; however, when we made them into tempeh – we received about 10 times that ($200/bu) for our beans – there’s adding value!

Secondly, the biggest challenge in making an income from a small/organic/sustainable farm is marketing. I am often queried about the challenges of growing crops organically. My stock answer is that production is not the issue – marketing is. This has been true for us: for example, we used to make and sell pesto and garlic but due to marketing challenges, we no longer do (markets for pesto were too distant & prices for garlic were too low). For most other products, we continue to put a lot of energy into marketing. Tempeh was the exception. The demand was higher than we could keep up with – we occasionally hired folks to help with production. We hated to give up a product that sold itself but, we’ve tried everything we know to do.

Various one-liners/saying come to mind:  Nay Nay, our 12 year old, is fond of saying: “this is the exception that proves the rule.”