Lately I’ve been thinking about about land use. As we’ve covered in previous articles, NZ is set to fall short of its emissions trading targets by about 218 million tonnes of excess carbon by 2030.
Around 50% of emissions result from agriculture. The farming of beef and lamb products are two of the biggest culprits in carbon emissions with estimates suggesting that a single kilogram of lamb produces as much carbon as a 90 kilometre drive.
Where does overproduction of beef and lamb start? It starts at the level of demand. Where does demand start? It starts in childhood, with the habits we learn around the normalisation of meat products.
Now don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with the traditional Kiwi pork sausage. Pork itself is nowhere near as carbon-inefficient as lamb or beef products.
But that happy Kiwi sausage sizzle can act as a gateway into a lifetime of meat consumption.
Any salesperson worth their salt knows that the question “would you like your sausage with or without onions?” is a particular type of closing question designed to presuppose a sale. No matter which answer you give, you have essentially “bought” a sausage. Whether or not this single sausage leads to a lifetime subscription to Meat magazine is then up to you. But your odds of being a meat consumer are ever-so-slightly higher as a result.
With all that in mind, I started brainstorming some alternatives to the traditional Kiwi sausage sizzle that would not necessarily have as high a potential lifetime carbon footprint. The one I settled on eventually was the omelette stand.
How to Set Up an Omelette Stand
I chose a small regional market to begin with. Levin Uniting Church runs a monthly market on the first Saturday of each month where they sell records and other novelties. I contacted the council a few weeks in advance to see if I could register a Food Plan with them.
The process was mostly uncomplicated, and assisted greatly by the council’s food mentors. There was a lot of paperwork to fill out, and a lot of checks to run and things to understand. But once it was done, it was all pretty straightforward.
I set up at the market at 7am on the morning. A lovely local vendor helped me out with the tent construction and the team at Levin Uniting Church were very helpful and friendly.
Benefits of the Omelette Stand Model
- You can serve omelettes for breakfast as well as lunch, which makes them more suitable for morning markets. Sausage sizzles are more of a lunch thing.
- Omelettes fetch a higher price point – I offered them for $4 each and they still sold like hotcakes
- I sourced local free range fresh eggs. By choosing the “non-supermarket” eggs, ie the ones that aren’t presentable enough to sell on supermarket shelves, I got a price of $5 for a tray of 20, which allowed for about a 75% markup. (My actual cost per unit came to around 74c per omelette plus around 41c for the eco recyclable cutlery, which I bought from Ayrpak in Otaki).
- Omelettes have generally a lower carbon footprint than sausages, particularly beef sausages.
- You’re introducing lots of people, especially kids, to a cuisine where meat is optional, rather than compulsory.
- You can source local produce really easily, direct from the farm if necessary. This is great if you’re based on the Kapiti coast or 15 minutes down the road from the food bowl of the Horowhenua.
Disadvantages of the Omelette Stand Model
- There’s a more complex array of logistics involved in managing the four or five ingredients. You’ve always got to be cooking or chopping something. You can quickly create simple systems to manage this, though.
- You need to register a Food Control Plan with your local council. This is expensive and requires a once off cost of around $180 to register, as well as around $300-500 per year for inspection costs. You also have to fill in a huge blue folder and register with the council, which a Food Mentor can help you do. The Simply Safe and Secure is the best option for one of these low risk businesses. If you go through it with a mentor, they end up ripping out most of the pages, because those pages simply aren’t applicable to such a simple business.
The Omelette Stand Results
We made our first sale, and then some. An hour into it we had whipped out about 15 omelettes.
After that there was a big drift as the crowds gently tapered away. I got talking to the other local vendors and got to hear their stories.
Feedback I Received
Here is some of the feedback I received regarding the omelette stand:
“This is a brilliant idea!”
“The omelettes are delicious!”
“Far better than a sausage sizzle!”
“Great to see something different for once!”
“Will you be back next time?”
“My girlfriend’s going to want one every weekend now!”
“Sausage sizzles are just so last season.” Ok, I added that last one.
Perhaps it was just the friendly people of Levin, but it felt like a winner.
I also got to replace the line “would you like your sausage with or without onions” with the more complete “would you like your omelette with onions, mushrooms, cheese, ham or tomato? You can have two options.”
Interestingly only about 20-25% of people chose to have ham in their omelette. The rest ordered vegetarian or vegan.
Things to Learn for Next Time
Does a whopping load of theory necessarily create a successful business? The answer of course is no.
There is a steep learning curve involved in business, and as I have said many times, nothing happens until you make your first sale. There are things you learn on your first week selling omelettes that will of course lead you to make changes down the line if you want to stay in business. And you always have to be persistent.
One thing was: I remembered just about everything else, but forgot a chopping knife. Luckily the kitchen at the Levin Uniting Church had one, although it was a little small. Plan in advance exactly what you will need and go through it 2 or 3 times. Don’t forget your chopping knife.
If you leave your non-stick frying pan on too long, it can burn, and end up producing a lower quality omelette. Keep your pan off the heat for as long as possible.
I made a number of mistakes on my first day at market – my forecasts were a bit ambitious, and consequently, I overstocked on the number of eggs and onions I would need. Somehow, I also managed to run out of mushrooms!
I nevertheless broke even, and made a small profit, which is not bad considering it was my first try. Having figured all of this out I hope to be a lot more profitable next time.
Where I Hope to go Next
My entire goal in setting up this omelette stand exercise was to convince regional councils to rethink their classification of food cooking for local fundraising events. Currently, the only people allowed to cook food at markets are community groups operating sausage sizzles. To quote the KCDC website:
“No one can prepare and cook food at a market unless they are a charitable or community group fundraising by having a sausage sizzle, or they are a mobile food premises registered in the Kāpiti Coast District selling food in accordance with their registration.”
It seems unfair to me that there is not a widely available vegetarian alternative. Although, to be frank, having run the omelette stand, I can kind of see why. While it is a fairly simple food process, omelettes are still logistically more complex than sausages.
The business is also totally scalable if you want to make a bit more extra pocket money by working at your local farmer’s market each week/month.
