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Going from hobby to business savvy.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

Life is sweet when you can turn a hobby into a successful business, and perhaps doubly so when your product tastes good with peanut butter.

That's how it is for several home-based Lane County businesses that make, among other things, jams and jellies from local fruit or who harvest honey from their own hives. These are businesses that have payoffs beyond the bottom line, like no time clock and a dress code that makes casual Fridays seem like a formal ball.

"I don't have to dress a certain way to go to work," said Judy Fuller, co-owner with her husband, Paul, of Sweet Creek Farms near Elmira. "We love a home-based business. It's a lifestyle we've chosen."

Although the number of local growers who sell fruit and produce everywhere from farmers' markets to chain grocery stores are legion, it's a much smaller number who have found a way to turn those local products into prepared foods and sell enough of them to earn a living. It takes an investment in equipment, a willingness to get your hands dirty and a certain amount of business savvy to turn grandma's strawberry jam recipe into a paying proposition.

For one thing, to make it work...

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