UNL senior owns food production business

Balancing class, homework and a part-time job is stressful enough. Add owning and running your own business. Seem impossible?

Not to Neal Ely.

Ely, a senior agribusiness major, owns and runs Ely Farms Pickled Asparagus Spears, which can be found in 80 stores across Nebraska.

Ely said he was in eighth grade when he realized the fresh wild asparagus that grew on his farm tasted much better than the asparagus shipped to Nebraska from other states.

Starting as a project for Future Farmers of America, Ely grew his own asparagus. In the meantime, his mother, who spent a lot of her time canning, used a family recipe to pickle the asparagus.

The pickled asparagus was shared at family gatherings, and Ely always heard his relatives comment on how his mother should sell it.

"I had finally heard enough," Ely said.

Ely, who was at the time a freshman in high school, contacted the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's food processing department. The department, which has a program for food manufacturing entrepreneurs, helped Ely get his product on the market.

The program, established in 1989, is the only one of its kind in the entire country, said Jill Gifford, the manager of the food entrepreneurship program. Because of this, people from all over the United States come to UNL for entrepreneurial assistance.

Those interested in the program go through a two-phase process. The first phase is a one-day seminar, "From Recipe to Reality," which helps the participants understand the food industry and what decisions need to be made before taking on such a project, Gifford said.

The second phase is for those from the seminar who wish to pursue marketing their product. The program, "From Product to Profit," works with entrepreneurs to get their product on the market, Gifford said.

She said Ely's second phase took about a year to complete.

In that year, the program helped Ely develop his product as well as the label, which had to adhere to the Food and Drug Administration's rules, she said.

Concordia University's art department, where Ely's sister was attending college at the time, helped design an eye-catching label for the asparagus.

Because Ely's product had such a high-acidity level, the asparagus and the process he used to pickle it had to be FDA-approved, Ely said.

He said the recipe had to be changed until it was right for the market.

"It took quite a while to get it right," he said.

Ely converted a building on his parents' farm near Sutton into a government-inspected facility for his operation.

When Ely isn't working with asparagus and making phone calls to potential buyers, he goes to class and does his homework with the goal of graduating in May. Because Ely does not pay himself for the work he does with the business, he also works mornings at the East Campus deli making sandwiches.

His parents help out in any way they can while Ely is at school.

"My parents are really excited for me to graduate, too," he said.