Processing Local Food

Processing is another key component of Kenyon’s local food infrastructure. We source many types of food locally, not only produce. These foods often require some sort of processing before they are ready to be served in the dining hall. Processing ranges from the preservation of foods (by pickling, for example) to the slaughtering and butchering of animals.

Many of our processors are family operations that produce “value-added” products for us. We buy our pickles and applesauce from Wilma Hershberger, an Amish woman who employs neighborhood girls in the cannery in her home. During peak growing season in July and August, we buy cucumbers and beets at auction and drop them off to be pickled. They are usually ready the next day. In the autumn, we bring apples from the local orchard where we buy most of our fruit, and the women make our applesauce. Before Kenyon began purchasing applesauce, these women had no income after cucumbers and beets went out of season. Click to read more about how we process and store local food.