Farmer Karen Pendleton has added another job to her resume — coordinator of Guided Exploration of Value-Added Enterprises in Kansas.

Pendleton and her husband, John, own Pendleton’s Country Market, where they sell fresh asparagus from their farm three miles east of Lawrence. Besides operating the market from April to November every year, the Pendletons grow vegetables and open their popular corn maze every summer. Pendleton also maintains the market’s Web site, www.pendletons.com.

“In the summertime, when our market is open and the maze is open, we get pretty busy around here,” Pendleton said.

Her new job responsibilities include coordinating meetings and giving ideas to other Kansas farmers for making value-added products, putting together a mailing list and assisting with farmers markets around the state.

The Exploration and Value-Added Enterprises program was designed to get Kansas farmers the information they need to process their products more efficiently. Pendleton described it as a mentoring program so farmers would be able to help other farmers make the most of their crops.

The job may sound fancy, but Pendleton insisted it came with its share of stress.

“I travel around to numerous farmers markets all around Kansas trying to educate people about value-added products,” Pendleton said.

A value-added product is one that has been made into something valuable using raw materials that would have otherwise gone to waste. Pendleton uses her farm as an example.

“On our farm, we grow asparagus,” Pendleton said. “If we grow more asparagus than we can sell in one year, we have a problem — all of the leftovers go to a compost pile where they cannot make any money. But if we learn how to pickle the asparagus and sell it, we have made a value-added product.”

Karen Pendleton, who owns Pendleton's Country Market with her husband, John, is coordinator of Guided Exploration of Value-Added Enterprises in Kansas.

Foods that can be preserved, like pickles, wines, salsa, jams and soups, make good value-added products because they stay fresh over months of the year when fresh fruits and vegetables cannot be grown.

The position Pendleton fills is new. It was the idea of Dan Nagengast, executive director of the Kansas Rural Center.

“Dan liked the idea that we could turn something of no value into something that was making profit for farmers in Kansas,” Pendleton said.

Pendleton said she enjoyed coordinating people with the knowledge of how to produce value-added products with farmers who have surplus products and watching them work together.

“This program helps the communication between farmers in Kansas,” Pendleton said.

Nagengast and Pendleton hoped to have at least 30 people participating to make 10 value-added products by this summer.