It was a really random occurrence that I learned what I was really good at: Making creative salads and dressings to go with them. I had new and creative ideas for every season, and everyone always loved what I was making. I would often get requests for my recipes. Agt one family event, someone said to me that I’d probably be a big hit if I bottled my salad dressings. This got my wheels turning.
I decided to give this idea a go as a side hustle. It wasn’t so time consuming that it would take up all of my free time, and it was a relatively cheap endeavor, so why not give it a shot? The only issue was that my salad making process was overly simple. I didn’t go all out making anything too special, or above and beyond most basic salad dressing recipes. They were always less than five ingredients and could be easily whisked together.
Not that any of that is necessarily a problem, but if I wanted to get serious about this, I should probably branch out and learn more about the art of salad dressing making. I started doing my research and found out that a food processor would be the tool to really go all in on this. I went to KitchenWorksUSA, who carry the Cuisinart food processor and Cuisinart DLC-7 parts. I purchased the food processor and blades for shredding and grating. It was a fairly inexpensive investment.
What a difference this made in making my salad dressings! I literally could not get over how easy it was to chop herbs perfectly for going in dressings. The grating blade was amazing for using garlic or citrus zest. And to top it all off, the finished product was the absolute most perfect consistency ever. It dawned on me that I could really make this happen.
I store my dressings in different sized mason jars, which people love, and sell them for different prices based on the amount. I use fresh, local, and organic ingredients and all of my dressings are small batch, which makes it all the more appealing.
At this point in time, I’ve been selling my own salad dressings for approximately four months now, and business is only picking up. I’m at my local farmer’s market regularly on the weekends and attend any local events that are going on and set up a booth. I’ve even started a wholesale contract with a local small grocer. My sales are on track to earn me more than my full time job, and it looks like I will be able to leave that soon to pursue this full time. It’s something that I enjoy more than a desk job, and I get a lot of fulfillment knowing that other people enjoy it so much. I only have my Cuisinart food processor to thank for really growing my passion.