- Today on Oklahoma Gardening, we look back as we plant, harvest and process our field grown basil, turning it into a product with the help of the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Product Center.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing.

Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, shape your future, provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

We're back here at the Student Farm.

I wanna share with you a tropical plant that you might find in some Oklahoma landscapes.

It's important to know which plants we are dealing with so that we can continue to maintain them successfully for years to come.

Today we're here at the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Product Center.

And joining me is Dr. Roy Escobas, who is the director of the facility here, also known as FAPC, right?

Yes.

Can we shorten it to FAPC for this conversation?

Absolutely.

Terrific.

So let's talk a little bit about what all you guys, you've been here for 25 years and you've provided a lot of products to Oklahoma.

Let's talk about some of the services that y'all provide here.

- Well, first of all, we are a completely economic development.

So our services are to help people in their plants help them troubleshoot a problem that they have to help in their product development in the plant.

Maybe it's fine tuning their equipment so they get the best out of it at any moment in time.

But oftentimes it's, it's either product development here or it's training and education.

We do a broad range of services, and it's focused completely on the people of Oklahoma - Because there, there's so many different times where I've, you know, met with people and I'm like, you should turn this into a product.

Right?

But that can be a big road to go from a recipe or a food product into a shelf stable, marketable product, right?

Yes.

And that's where you guys are here to help.

- We, we are for people who are involved with startup businesses, that's usually where it starts.

Usually in those kinds of family recipes that people thought so well about, they want to make a ton of money on them.

So they come here and get our help to do that.

And if they were to go to the Department of of Health thinking that they would start there, well, the Department of Health would point them to us, okay.

And say, they'll come here to us and then we'll work with them.

The first thing we do is make them go through our basic training, short - Course.

Okay.

- So that they know exactly what their liabilities are, what the hurdles they face, the difficulties, the funding, all the things that relate to food safety.

And by the time they finish that one day's class, they make a decision that this isn't for me.

Okay.

And so we usually probably, about one 10% of the people who come to basic training.

- Okay.

- Well, they take another step forward.

- So that's an eyeopening training.

It's, - It's a wonderfully eyeopening experience for them because it teaches them all the difficulties of moving into the food industry.

Right.

It's a highly competitive, very difficult business.

Okay?

So you can be a farmer or a baker or a, a producer of beef cattle, but taking it to that next level, you gotta be a marketer and an economist and all these different, you know, skills, right?

- Yeah.

And most people are so good at their products.

- They're - Terrible at marketing, okay.

Because they don't know how to go about it.

- Right.

It's - A different, they know how to make their product, but they don't know how to sell their product.

Right.

And so it really is a difficult thing.

- You provide a lot of training, right?

Food safety labels and all of that stuff.

I mean, all the nutritional stuff that goes on to that label.

There's, there's certain things that have to be on there.

And you help people with that as well?

- We do.

We, we go through the full gauntlet with 'em.

- Okay.

- And we'll take 'em step by step by step.

- Okay.

- And so if they have, if they can be really good at one thing, they know nothing about something else, and we'll step 'em in.

And so if we were to receive a request from our large business, they'll schedule, come in, do their work, and be out in a day or two.

Okay.

And we won't see 'em again until they need it again.

- Right.

- But with a small business, they come in and we're with 'em for months and months and months and years.

And sometimes they're still with us after three and four years because they're, they're learning step by step and we have to take 'em step by - Step.

So you really walk 'em through that process, - The whole bit of life, you - Know.

Okay.

Well, I think it's fascinating to see some of the products that you guys have had a hand in for 25 years you've been here helping Yeah.

The people in Oklahoma.

So I've heard that you guys are a very popular tour also, just for anybody who might wanna visit.

- We, we are, in fact, as I understand it's, we've had these, these tours scheduled and maybe as, maybe it's 4,000 people a year Wow.

Have come through here.

- Okay.

- And it's just a matter of walking in and doing that.

But we prefer someone schedule it ahead so that we can have a tour leader and we can bring 'em through the, the, the lower level and even our second floor where we have all the action of food processing - So people can find out more information on your website.

I'm sure about that.

Yes.

Yeah.

And it's, it's, the entry here is open to people if they wanna come in and see some of the products.

But you've got a lot behind the scenes for people to visit.

Tell us a little bit about the equipment that you have to offer different producers.

- One of the things that people don't realize in this building is that we operate under a USDA grant of inspection.

So we have USDA inspected facility here for slaughter and dressing of livestock, beef, pork and lamb.

Okay.

And so, we'll, we'll slaughter and process maybe it's 300, 400 head of, of of livestock a year.

Okay.

And we'll move it through our retail shop, which we have on Dock four.

- Right.

Every Friday.

You, - Every Friday afternoon.

- Delicious.

Fresh meat here.

- So, - All right.

So everything from beef to bread you guys are providing and supplying to Oklahomans.

'cause one of the big things is we are obviously a big wheat producing state here, and a lot of it was leaving, right?

Yeah.

So why don't we make our own baked goods right here, right.

- Yeah.

And why not?

- Right.

- You know, and we have two mills, two grain mills in our shop on the west side of second floor.

And between us and the Wheat Quality Lab, we we're milling oftentimes during the week.

Okay.

And so we can mill grain.

Great.

Mostly wheat.

Mostly wheat.

And we bake bread and do all kinds of things in that shop.

And we offer technical assistance to people, to bakeries in the field through at, through our bakery shop upstairs.

- Okay.

And you also offer workshops too, right?

For people that are wanting to learn about different types of baking?

- We do a lot of workshops.

We do baking workshops.

We do meat slaughter and processing workshops.

We do basic training workshops for entrepreneurial business.

We do food safety workshops to talk about food safety, the requirements for the USDA, the FDA, and even home bakery businesses.

We do a lot of workshops here and at various places around the state for small businesses, startup businesses, home processing businesses.

- Thank you so much for sharing this information with us.

And if you wanna find out more about the Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Product Center, check out their website.

Today we're out here at the OSU Student Farm to plant our basil transplants.

You might remember that earlier.

We planted some basil seeds in the greenhouse and we've taken them, we've hardened them off, and we have them ready to plant out here.

You can see we've got nice transplants, a couple inches tall.

We've got some true leaves coming on there.

And we've got a good root system as well.

Now you'll see that as they were hardening off, they did get a little frost damage, but they're gonna grow right out of that.

Basil loves warm temperatures, so I know as soon as we get these in the ground, they're gonna take off.

Our bed behind us here is also prepped.

We've got a nice raised bed that's covered with plastic culture, plastic mulch underneath.

There is a drip tape.

And so the plastic is really nice to help with weed suppression.

So that's a lot of times one of the biggest problems with field grown crops is that weed competition.

It robs a crop of its resources, its nutrients, it's water.

And so that'll help suppress some of those weeds.

Now we're gonna plant these on an 18 inch spacing, two rows down a single row.

So it's gonna alternate back and forth.

And today I'm excited because we are out here with some of the student workers, Sam and Parker, who are gonna be helping us.

So Parker's our driver.

Right.

I think we're ready to get started.

And Sam, you're gonna show me how we use this transplanter thing, right?

- Yep.

- So it's kind of an awkward seat a little bit.

Yes.

So what are, we're gonna just be riding back here a little bit, right?

And what's the first thing that we need to know about when we're on here?

- So basically when Parker starts the tractor, we will turn on the water and get a plant ready in our hand.

And once he moves, when the hole is created, we'll just put the plant in there and cover it up.

Okay.

- So it just makes it a nice hole for us.

So we don't have to do any digging.

- Yes.

- We got a nice ride here.

Air cushioned ride.

We've got our gloves on.

- Yeah.

And then the water comes down, so it reduces some of the shock for the plant.

- So how do we give him the cue to get going?

- Parker, you're good.

So how fast are we gonna be - Going?

Like, do I need to really be ready?

Or is - So thanks to the Hydrostat tractor that we have, it actually allows us to go then less than half a mile per hour.

So we will be crawling pretty slow.

Give us time to put the plants in.

- So obviously we can turn the water down a little bit.

I think we finally got that regulated right?

Yes.

Can you also change the spacing on these things?

- Yeah.

So you, we have different spacing wheels depending on the type of plant.

So for these, we're doing 18, like you said, for the aeration and just to get a bigger bushier plant.

- So I feel like I'm, I might be missing a few Izzy, but I, I suspect it's a little bit easier to fix some mistakes rather than having to do all this by hand yourself.

- Yeah.

So, so even if you miss one or two, we have people in the back usually that are helping us.

- Oh, is that why?

- Yeah.

So they can fill in those blanks for us.

And then, yeah, it obviously is a big time saver.

'cause if we were on our hands and knees right now doing all this work, it would take hours for sure.

So that's it, Sam?

Yep.

Doesn't take very long.

Oh, I think that was like 10 minutes or 10 15 minutes per road typically.

Yeah.

It doesn't take very long.

- May maybe me a little longer.

Yeah.

So we might go back and kind of check some of 'em at this point just by hand.

But we - Have - Our helpers back there.

- That's typically how, why we have them so they can just make sure that we have them all planted.

Right.

And don't have to go back and do it again.

- Okay.

- So I did notice there's a bit of a twist when you're - Doing this, right?

- Yes.

Do you guys rotate seats - So that you can twist the - Other direction?

You know, I, we have talked about doing that.

We always joke about like, oh, we're gonna get abs on one side.

So we always like joke about doing it.

I typically don't switch sides, but you can if it does hurt your back.

All right.

Well definitely a time - Saver.

And it's easier on your back all around - Rather than bending over doing all that It is.

So yeah, - Thank you so much for having me out today to do this of.

Yeah.

And we look forward to seeing our basil grow.

- Me too.

- We are back out here at the OSU Student Farm and we're checking in on our basal crop.

And as you can see, it's definitely taken off.

And in fact, we're starting to get some flower buds.

So at this point, we wanna make sure that we go ahead and harvest.

You can see in front of me, we have harvested some of it already.

However, I wanted to kind of review how we go about harvesting our basil.

So basil has opposite leaves.

You can see that out of every stem you'll have a leaf that comes out on opposite sides of that stem.

So what we're gonna do on these mature plants, we're gonna take it back to about this six to eight inch height.

So basically what we're taking is the upper growth, that is the fresher, newer growth, and also doesn't have as much maybe dirt on it that maybe that lower growth does.

So we're simply gonna go in here and like I said, take it back significantly.

And the nice thing about basil is it's actually gonna continue to regrow.

So even though it looks like I'm taking a fair amount right now, you can see that on some of that that we've actually pruned earlier on just a week ago, has recovered quite nicely from that.

So we've got a few of 'em trimmed.

As you can see, we've got a fair amount to do still ahead of us.

But at this point, we wanna go ahead and get this inside before it starts wilting down.

Now you do have a little bit of time with basil.

Commercially, this is done with specialized equipment where they actually just have sort of a mower that's at that raised height that goes along and cuts it.

So they're not necessarily being as selective about where it's being cut at.

But again, that's on a commercial production.

We are doing this on a smaller scale.

So now we're just gonna go ahead and get this processed.

Now that we've got some of our basal harvested, we're back here at And joining me is Dr. William McGlynn, who is a food scientist who's actually in the horticulture department, but he mainly deals with processing of fruit and vegetable crops.

Thank you for joining us today.

- Well, thank you, Casey.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

So - It's a beautiful looking bunch of basil.

- Yeah.

We were out early harvesting to get it cut fresh.

So what's the next step we need to do with it?

- So the next step we are going to take it, we are going to pick the leaves off the stem.

'cause we don't want to waste time and effort drying the stems.

- Okay.

- And we're gonna load it up into these trays and then we're gonna wash it.

And the reason we wash it is just to get any loose dirt, any bugs out, that sort of thing.

And then it'll go into the dryer.

- Okay.

So let's talk a little bit about just the washing process.

Is there a standard way to wash it?

Could we just do it in a bath?

Or do we need to have running water?

- So there are a couple of options.

Yeah.

You could do it in a, some kind of basin or bath, and that would save water.

The potential concern there though, is food safety.

- Okay.

- So if you have any kind of contamination, if you're using that same water to rinse all the leaves, there's a potential of spreading that contamination to all of the crop.

So the safest way to do it is to use just running water.

- Okay.

All right.

- So that's what we're gonna do today.

- Okay.

And then dehydrating, let's talk about that process.

It's not just a matter of cranking up the oven, right?

- Well, you can do that, but the goal is to dry it and preserve as many of those flavor compounds, those aroma compounds as we can.

And so the way to do that is to dry it as gently as possible.

So we're gonna be drying it at a relatively low temperature, about a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

And it's a process that's gonna take about a day, maybe a little bit longer, day and a half.

It's that trade off between time and temperature.

If you dry it at a higher temperature, it's gonna take less time, but the quality's not gonna be as good.

Okay.

So we're trying to maximize the quality.

- So when you talk about those oils and those volatiles, that's what gives basil it's flavor.

Right?

- Exactly.

Right.

- That's what we're wanting to hold on to.

- That's what makes basil basil.

- Okay.

So it looks like we've got some of our dehydrated basil here.

- Yes.

Casey.

This is the stuff as it comes outta the dehydrator, our beautiful basil, all nice and dry.

And so the next step will be to go ahead and commercially, you'd run it through a size reduction machine, a flaker that would basically grind it up just very gently and get it down to that small particle size that you would typically see for sale.

- Okay.

Now there are some sims on this, and we did kind of de-stem the big stems prior to going in.

Is that what you would normally see in a commercial operation or - No, in a commercial operation, you would usually de-stem it after it's dried.

Okay.

Just because you can run it through a piece of equipment that will do that automatically.

But we don't have that equipment and it's more efficient just to dry the leaves rather than drying the stems as well.

So that's why we did that.

- Okay.

So in that flaking process though, we're gonna get rid of some of this woodier material and - Leaves - There.

Exactly.

We'll just - Put it through a screen to get rid of some of these larger pieces of stem.

- Okay.

All right.

Well, so next step is basically after flaking is packaging and labeling.

- That's right.

And then it's ready to go.

- All right.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

We have come full circle as we've taken the basil out of the field into a product that we can use in the kitchen.

And joining me today is Darren Scott with FAPC, who's gonna tell us about the finishing steps of getting our basil into a product.

So we've gotta put some labeling on it.

Correct.

We're, we're gonna talk about the nutritional labeling first.

- Sure, sure.

You know, the nutritional label kind of represents sort of a snapshot in time of the nutritional content of the product that's in the package.

You know, sometimes people might get confused and think that it's some sort of a certificate of analysis.

So really it is meant to represent sort of a range of values for that particular product.

There are different formats based off of the size of the container.

There are different formats based off of the actual nutritional content of the product.

Okay.

So just to kind of keep it simple, today we kind of are focusing on, we have the two different formats, which known as the full vertical format is actually the preferred format of the FDA based on the size of the package.

And there are two types that you typically see in the grocery store.

One is the single column and the other is the dual column.

Single column is going to be typically for those products that have multiple ingredients in them that are nutritionally significant.

Okay.

For the basil, since it's a single ingredient product and is not nutritionally significant, it actually doesn't actually require a nutritional label.

- Okay.

So there's not much nutritional difference in the basil that we're adding in a, so - That's correct.

- But never if it was a single ingredient saying like sugar.

- Exactly.

Right.

You know, some, yes.

Something like sugar has lots of calories in there.

So for a product like that, would definitely require a nutritional label.

- Okay.

Okay.

So it's not just about the number of ingredients, but it's that nutritional - Significance.

Right?

Yes.

Yes.

That's exactly right.

- Okay.

Well, sometimes I see things that have like two columns, like a prepared and unprepared.

Can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Sure.

You know, and that's gonna be the dual column format.

And sometimes the dual column format for prepared versus unprepared or prepared versus prepackaged is actually not mandatory.

But it is if the manufacturer wants to provide you with a little bit of more information, nutritional information about the product inside the package.

So you would have the product in per package would be the first column or the middle column, depending upon how you look at it.

And the second column immediately to the right would be as prepared.

And so, for example, a bowl of cereal, or you might have as packaged for just the plain cereal that's in the box.

And then as prepared would be the addition of milk.

Or you know, there are two different ways that you can actually put together a nutritional label.

One, a person can do wet analysis or chemistry to extract out all of the nutrients and measure them.

Or what's more common is to use nutritional labeling software, which is a nutritional database that has basically the information from all of that chemistry has been entered into this software.

So that I can say, for example, put in 10 pounds of sugar and it will spit out how many calories are in that 10 pounds of sugar.

Okay.

So that's gonna be a lot more efficient, a lot faster, certainly much more convenient than trying to do a, a full chemical analysis every time that you need a nutritional label.

So - Obviously it can be very involved depending on which label you're gonna use and that can affect your packaging, correct?

- Oh, that's exactly right.

And you know, that's why my colleague and Andrea Graves is available to help with answering questions, designing different types of packaging for our clients at FAPC.

- Okay.

We'll chat with her as well.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you.

Well, Andrea, thank you for joining us.

I know it's packaging can be quite complicated.

Tell us a little bit about what's involved here.

- Oh my gosh.

There's, there's so much more.

I, it's, it's, it's, I never thought about this until I got into food business, but there's so much that you need to think about.

You know, talking about the basil product that you have.

There's, there's function, there's costs, there's the look of it.

There's all these different factors.

You have to think of the food safety about it.

Like your, your basil.

You know, you have different spices that you have.

Well, do you, what kind of budget do you have?

You can put it in something simple like a plain plastic bag, but at the same time, how's it gonna go on the shelf?

Do you want some presents?

I think I would get irritated a little bit if it didn't have a shaker in it, because that's what we kind of expect on spices.

So one might be more for farmer's market versus one might be what you would buy at a store and expect to see on a shelf present.

It could be, or also, how is it fillable?

Okay.

You know, does, it's, it might be easier to fill this versus something like in this very small bottle, the time it takes to, to do that for the manufacturing process.

Yeah.

So there's so many things that you have to think about.

Same with what type of packaging is it?

There's, we think of plastics and things.

There's so many different layers that can help with shelf life.

That can help with, with the, with the texture, with the, the size.

You know, you have to price point.

It's fun.

It's awesome.

So this is one of the favorite things for your, your clients to go through is the packaging.

Right.

Why don't they like it?

I enjoy it, but it, it's kind of a puzzle.

You have to be a little different on the shelf.

Again, all these things you have to have to think about colors, you know.

So this sort of represents you and your - Brand when you're putting it out there, right?

- Absolutely.

We tell our clients that you've gotta have some kind of logo.

Like Della Terra does a nice job.

There's about four to five basic things that have to be on the package that are mandatory.

Okay.

The first one is the statement of identity.

So that we understand what is actually in the, in the package like we have here.

You know, it's pasta.

Yours is real easy.

Basil is the, is the statement of identity.

And this very front panel's called the primary display panel.

That is what goes, that we see on the shelf when we're shopping.

That has to be on the primary display panel as well as the net quantity contents.

Okay.

So that we are, we understand how much we're buying.

It's whatever's in that product minus the packaging.

- Okay.

So you always need it, what it is and how much you're getting of it.

- Yes.

And then the nutritional label if appropriate.

Right.

Well then you, when you take a package, and I am gonna pick something up, even though some of these directly to the right of the display panel is called the information panel typically.

Okay.

And on the information panel, actually, let's go to the basal one.

That's a good one.

Example.

'cause we've talked about yours.

This is called the information panel.

You need the ingredient statement comes first and then the manufacturer statement, so that you can, if you need to contact that particular manufacturer, you can find them.

Now the nutrition fact panel, actually it's the rule of Nim NIM.

The nutrition fact panel goes first, but if it doesn't fit on on the panel, then it goes on any other panel.

Oh, okay.

But those are the five things that need to be on the label, typically.

- Okay.

Okay.

- And - Of course, we don't need that because there's no nutritional - Variable really - With basil.

Right.

- And also sometimes you'll, you won't see it on small producers because there's also an exemption.

- Oh, okay.

- If you have $50,000 or less in sales of that product, you don't have to have it.

- Okay.

Well, the packaging and the labeling is always exciting because it's kind of seeing your product come to fruition.

Yes.

Here.

And you're got it ready to go to the customer at that point.

- And it's, it's so important because if it's not eye catching and pretty and beautiful, people won't pick it up.

So it's, don't underestimate the packaging.

- Right.

But of course you gotta keep that budget in mind.

True.

Absolutely.

And I, and I know you guys are here to walk people through all of these decisions, right?

Yes.

And, and again, this has kind of been fun to see this process over our season, but for more information, people can always check out your website as they might want to follow this process.

Also call us, we're here to help.

Yes.

Well, thank you so much, Andrea.

Thank you.

There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week on Oklahoma Gardening as we talk about the foundation of every good garden, the soil.

I need some pictures for my talk.

I have to do Thursday To find out more information about show topics as well as recipes, videos, articles, fact sheets, and other resources, including a directory of local extension offices.

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Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University.

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We would like to thank our generous underwriters, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, food and Forestry, and Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Additional support is also provided by Greenleaf Nursery and the Garden Debut Plants, the Oklahoma Horticulture Society, the Tulsa Garden Club, and the Tulsa Garden Center.