Where the practitioners are

Spice is a small trade with a large industry attached, and the two barely talk. Knowing which one to approach for which question saves a lot of time.

Who is actually useful

Three distinct groups. Other small producers, who know the practical answers about jars, markets and what actually sells. Suppliers and importers, who know the crop, the origin and what is happening to price. And the industry, which publishes the specifications everybody else quotes.

The trade body

The American Spice Trade Association is the body whose documents you have been relying on: the cleanliness specifications, the ready-to-eat guidance, the volatile oil minimums. Their published material is the reference for the whole trade, and a good deal of it is available without membership.

Membership is oriented to companies considerably larger than a first-year producer, but reading what they publish is free and it is a good way to sound like you know what you are doing in a supplier conversation.

Where the real answers are

For regulatory questions, your state department of agriculture and the extension service in your state, which frequently publishes a plain-language guide to a statute that is otherwise unreadable.

For practical questions, other producers at markets, including ones selling something else entirely, because jar suppliers, label printers, insurance and market fees are shared problems.

For crop and origin questions, your importer. They know things that are not written down anywhere.

What to give back

Small food producers help each other to a degree that surprises people arriving from other industries, and the reason is that you are not really competing. Two spice producers at the same market both do better than one, because the category gets taken seriously.

Share the supplier who was good and the jar that did not work. It comes back.

References