Pasta Enterprise Thrives Thanks To Home-Built Machine SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 27-4-8 Duane Sporleder's part-time business grew out of his family's love for making and eating homemade pasta. "We were given some home-made pasta as a gift 25 years ago. We really enjoyed it so we went out and bought a home pasta machine so we could make our own and also give pasta to others as a gift," says Duane. The Sporleders' pasta was so popular, they were eventually giving away a couple hundred pounds at Christmas time. "Over the years, we bought three more pasta machines and wore them out," Duane says. "The plastic gears wore out and we couldn't get parts for them anymore." He decided to make his own machine. With the help of a couple of talented friends, Sporleder built a machine that makes 15 lbs. of pasta at a time. It's made from food-grade stainless steel. Since his friends refused to let him pay for their labor, Sporleder's machine cost less than $500. He says he would have had to pay thousands of dollars for a commercial European-made machine. Since pasta must be dried on a rack for at least 24 hours before bagging, they asked another friend to make them four large racks from white oak. They hold 15 lbs. each. "We usually make 75 lbs. of pasta at a time. Pasta making is very labor intensive, especially because ours has no hardeners or preservatives in it. It's much more fragile to handle," he says. "The only ingredients we use are semolina flour (made from durum wheat), eggs, oil, water and salt. It's not like what you find in the store. We make different varieties like whole wheat, spinach and spicy - using peppers we grow ourselves. " Sporleder says winter is the peak season for the family's pasta business, and they sell as much as 20 pounds a week during that time. They've been supplying a local store with pasta for the past two years and say that people from 50 miles away come and pick up four to six pounds at a time. They make fettuccine, spaghetti, linguine and vermicelli and charge $2 per pound. "Right now, we're using our pasta making business as a fund-raiser for our daughter's upcoming Girl Scout sponsored trip to Europe," Sporleder says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Duane Sporleder, 909 N. Woodlawn Ave., Lake City, Iowa 51449 (ph 712 464-3784; email: dsporl@prairieinet.net).

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