Farm stands and farmers markets (and more)...a beginners guide

Hi all

Here is some notes on the difference between being a retail farmer and a wholesale farmer....and some things you need to consider when thinking about setting up a farm stand or selling through a farmers market.

http://www.almostafarmer.com/marketing-ii/

It's all part of my series on marketing your farm for beginners. Let me know if you like this sort of information....and provide me feedback.

Cheers

Gaz
www.almostafarmer.com

I have been putting a lot of thought/effort/expense into improving our presentation at the farmers market this season. Feeling really good about the progress. It's still early for a diversified farm in the mountains of colorado, so we dont have our produce just yet. Right now, the focus is on medicinal products, live ferments, eggs, and value added food products.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery? Always looking to get better at what we do, farming the beautiful way....

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

It's not too early for some nice bouquets of wild flowers, or potpourri.

John Polk wrote:

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

It's not too early for some nice bouquets of wild flowers, or potpourri.

Good ideas John. Been so busy it didnt even cross my mind to go pick some wild bouquets. I will have cut flowers from the farm, ready in a few weeks. But I like the efficiency of letting nature grow them for me!

Any tips on potpourri? Never really considered it before, but it would be an eye-and-nose catching addition, for sure.

I think that potpourri is like spaghetti sauce - every family has their own recipe.

I knew a young lady years ago that never had a job - she just sold potpourri bags...
...and some other herb bags...LOL

Adam Klaus wrote:I have been putting a lot of thought/effort/expense into improving our presentation at the farmers market this season. Feeling really good about the progress. It's still early for a diversified farm in the mountains of colorado, so we dont have our produce just yet. Right now, the focus is on medicinal products, live ferments, eggs, and value added food products.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery? Always looking to get better at what we do, farming the beautiful way....

Hi Adam

Looks great! I really like to see the farm 'banner' displayed at markets....I think that is a really important marketing tool to build your 'brand'.

Some people like to see items displayed in a clean professional manner - other like it to seem like the items have just been picked in the field and displayed in the same container that they were collected in. Some its finding the balance between those two end points.

Part of the issue I see at our farmers markets is that for fresh produce its either famine or glut. Tomatoes are either rare or so many that you drown in them. The people who do well are those who can display items slightly out of season, or provide an alternative (canned tomatoes for example) or have greenhouses and can get a few weeks ahead of the glut crops.

Gaz
www.almostafarmer.com