MENTONE, Ind. — “Looks like there’s more than one way to burn the bean,” a member of a local club exclaimed as she poured melted wax into a glass jar as a final step in creating a soy candle. Kim and Kerry Goshert nodded enthusiastically.

“Indeed there is more than one way to burn the bean,” Kerry said while explaining that when a soybean goes through a processing plant, the bulk is solvent-extracted for vegetable oil while defatted soy meal is used for animal feed.

A small portion of the bean is consumed by humans with soybean products appearing in a large variety of processed foods. But he and Kim know something else. If the processing continues until the bean is partly hydrogenated, it creates a soft, flaky wax that can be melted and turned into candles.

Operating out of a renovated chicken house they dubbed “The Candle Coop,” this young farm couple has developed a niche business known as K & K Soy Products where they manufacture candles with the earthy smell of patchouli, the down-on-the-farm aroma of freshly baked pumpkin pie or any of more than 80 other scents in addition to marketing lotions, shampoos, lip balms, plaque bases and hand soap, all made from farm-grown soybeans. It is a business that enables them to be the seventh generation of Kerry’s family to till their 500-acre farm.

“I’m a ninth-generation farmer,” Kerry said proudly. “It’s our heritage. However, our farm is so small we don’t have the scale to keep up with the trends agriculture is taking. This is a good way to augment our income.”

It wasn’t something they planned on or even looked for - it just happened after their minister held up a handful of $50 bills and challenged everyone in the congregation to take one, provided they invested the money and returned the proceeds to the church. The Gosherts took one of the bills, but they had no idea what to do with it. “Some members rented power washers and cleaned houses and driveways,” Kim recalled. “Others had craft shows. We kept praying for guidance, but we were getting down to the wire when we hit on the idea of making soy candles. We’d used them and liked them - and we needed to do something. We invested our $50 in supplies and made candles that sold so well we were able to give $150 back to the church.”

They might have stopped there, but customers demanded more, and what began as a hobby turned into a full-fledged business based on mail orders, fundraisers, festivals, crafts shows, party demonstrations and trade shows. They’ve had home-school groups tour their shop and may respond to requests for other tours. “We’ve come to understand the significance of the Prayer of Jabez that tells us to attempt something large enough that failure is guaranteed … unless God steps in,” Kim said.

“We definitely feel God led us to this as a means of supplementing our traditional farm,” Kerry added. “It also provides us a means of educating consumers that agriculture is in everyday life.”

“Best of all,” said Kim, “is being able to work together.”

And work together they do. Theirs has become a family operation with Kim’s parents, Carol and Dale Bing, and Kerry’s sisters, Faith and Kay, occasionally helping.

“We’ve come a long way since I made that first batch of candles,” Kim said. “I melted all the wax in our kitchen and poured the candles there. Talk about a mess! When Kerry came in, I asked him where he wanted to go for supper because I knew we weren’t going to cook at home.”

After that initiation, the couple quickly renovated half the chicken house on the farm once owned by Kerry’s grandfather, tossing out generations of items saved for another day but salvaging the laying nests to use as storage bins.

After insulating and relining the space, they installed a corn burner and industrial strength shelving, along with work areas where they literally can candles as they pour melted soy wax into jelly jars and other glass containers. In addition, Kim spends much of her time “baptizing” teddy bears, their term for the stuffed bears she dips in wax.

“They’ve been very popular,” she said, “but I have to remind customers that they aren’t candles. They’re strictly decorative.”

During the open house at the Louis Dreyfus biodiesel plant at nearby Claypool, the couple and the Bings passed out more than 900 tea lights. The promotion paid off with increased orders from people interested in seeing soy taken to a new form.

“We’re a small business,” Kerry said, “but we’re growing at a good, steady speed.”

As a farmer, he is pleased that their candles are 100 percent soy. “Not all soy waxes are the same,” he explained. “Many have additives - and some candle makers don’t use proper wicks. We don’t use any paraffin or carbon. You need a proper wick to burn properly.”

Because of this, their candles burn evenly, leaving no raised rim around the edge once the wax cools.

Although the Gosherts are active outside the farm - Kerry is treasurer of the Kosciusko County Pork Producers and a member of the state board of the Indiana Farm Bureau while Kim works part-time for Real Services - the business has stretched their horizons. “It’s taken me out of my comfort zone,” Kerry said. “It’s been good for both of us.”

He designed the couple’s website, www.kksoyproducts.com and continues to devise new marketing ideas.

“We don’t know what the future holds,” the couple said. “We’ve toyed with the idea of having a soy store and we’re always testing different fragrances. Who knows where this will go?”