During the busy holiday season, many may already be thinking of gift ideas.
One Mississippi State student organization is providing a unique gift idea: The Bully Box.
Bully Boxes, containing locally-made jellies and preserves, help to support the activities of the Food Science Club in the department of food science and technology. Sold individually or as gift boxes, the student’s products cost between $4 and $25. In addition to the student-produced jellies and preserves, ham from Bellew Hall Meat Lab and cheeses from the MSU Dairy Plant are also provided as part of the gift boxes.
Club President Jelena Stojanovic said the Bully Box project serves as a semester-long fund-raising activity. Students produce several batches of their own white and red muscadine jellies, raw honey and blueberry preserves.
“This involvement teaches students how to work as a team to produce a high-quality, wholesome product. The club’s activities also teach its members how to provide a product from the farm to the consumer,” said Eric Steer, vice president of the club.
Aleksander Podorovic, gift box coordinator, said the club sells approximately 1,500 to 2,000 gift boxes a year, with 90 percent of the club’s sales made during the holiday season.
Members produce the jellies using an elaborate step-by-step process. The Enology Lab at North Farm provides grapes, and students use equipment that crushes the grapes into juice, Steer said.
Most of the production takes place at the Ammerman-Hearnberger Food Processing Plant, located on campus near Ballew Hall and Herzer Building on Stone Boulevard. Members filter and freeze the juice at the plant in order to prevent the enzymes from reacting and forming into a wine. Once frozen, the juice is filtered again and boiled.
Upon reaching a boiling point, members add pectin, a gelling agent, to the juice, boiling the mixture for an additional 10 minutes. Sugar is then calculated and added to the mix; the amount used is important, because the members are legally obligated to maintain between 60-65 bricks-the measure of soluble solids in the product-within the preserves. Once added, the new mixture of sugar, pectin, and juice is boiled at 221 degrees Fahrenheit for a set amount of time.
After completing the cooking process, members leave the batches to cool, with the pectin forming a gel within four to eight hours. Members then package all preserves, made in ten to fifteen-gallon batches, in eight-ounce glass jars. Finally, the jars are labeled and placed in boxes for sale, said Steer.
According to Podorovic, blueberry preserves, another student-produced gift box item, are made using the same steps as when making muscadine jelly, except the fruit is only crushed instead of turned into juice. The crushed fruit is then cooked, with the correct amounts of sugar and pectin being added. The blueberries are provided by a production facility in Hattiesburg.
In addition to its jellies and preserves, the club’s members also process raw honey.
The honey, purchased from an individual producer in Pearl is boiled at 65 degrees Celsius to kill yeast molds that could affect the product’s quality. The non-pasteurized honey preserve is stored and sold as raw honey.
“There are several benefits for the student’s involvement in the production of the gift boxes,” said Steer. “First, it teaches the students before they join the work force about the basic principles of processing, food engineering, and food safety. Second, it allows students to be able to fund students that want to tour food processing plants, present their research at competitions and attend food technology conferences,” Steer said.
Active students gain hands-on experience in production and production, Podorovic. They also learn how organizational food production is performed by companies.
“Many of these students are gaining experiences they will be able to use someday if they get a job working for one of these companies,” Podorovic said.
To place an order, contact the club at 325-8764.