Local farm receives federal grant

FARMINGTON – Thanks to some local ingenuity and a federal grant, Hotties may be coming to a store near you.

The pastries, containing locally-grown ingredients baked inside homemade bread, are now the primary product of Marble Family Farms, owned by Andy and Sarah Marble. The pair, both of whom have degrees in biology, began farming in 2006 with two greenhouses and a grant from the Kellogg Foundation. They specialized in organic vegetables, and soon added fresh baked bread and other goods.

They sold these products  at local stores, like the Better Living Center and Tranten’s, and at farmers’ markets. However, in 2013 they switched gears and began focusing on the Hotties. The product, which comes in flavors like spinach and feta or broccoli and cheddar, allows the Marbles to add value to their organic vegetables. What they don’t grow themselves, they buy from other local farms.

They introduced them at the weekly farmers’ markets. The customer response took them by surprise.

“I’d show up at 8:30 to start setting up my tent, and already have a line of customers waiting to get a fresh Hottie,” Sarah Marble said, in an interview earlier this year. “I’d bring 20 or 30, sometimes more, and be completely sold out by 9. We realized right then and there that we’d found the unique product we’d been looking for.”

In 2012, Andy Marble said, they became aware of a Value Added grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture that could provide working capital for small farms. Delays in the Farm Bill pushed funding the grant back to 2014, and when February rolled around, the Marbles were hard at work. Andy Marble compared it to cramming for a mid-term in college, studying around the clock to meet the Feb. 8 deadline. Then, just as they sent the application off, they learned the application period had been extended another month and a half.

Still, the application paid off, with Rural Development providing $49,998 in matching federal funds to provide for employees, marketing and delivery services. The Marbles intend to use the funds to expand the sale of Hotties across the state, hitting a benchmark of 20,000 units by the end of the year.

Andy Marble said that among the marketing strategies being considered is a new website and pre-printed packaging. “Marketing is the key to being successful,” he said Friday.

The funding will provide extra labor, which will allow the farm to produce more Hotties for distribution. The Marbles intend to sell their creation at events such as the Farmington Fair out of a “Hottie-mobile,” which will include meat varieties and a dessert version dubbed a “Sweetie.”

Andy Marble said he was “ecstatic” to learn they had received the $50,000 grant. “It’s about differentiation,” he said, “that’s what [USDA is] trying to do. Get small farms to differentiate so they’ll be a success in the long term.”

The USDA grant is part of $24.9 million in total in Value Added Producer Grants awarded this year. The program is targeting 247 businesses in order to “expand their operations and create new products to market,” according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

“The funding we are announcing today will have far-reaching, positive impacts in rural communities across the country,” Vilsack said in a statement released earlier this week. “The investments will help businesses create new products, expand their operations, and support local and regional food systems. The new Farm Bill expands this program to provide even more of these opportunities.”