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  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Farmer's Market Success
  • Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 20:12:54 -0500


Although the season is winding down somewhat, we had a good turn out yet
here in the driftless area of SW Wisconsin with both seller's and buyers. We
did not have many high value crops since our raspberries are about at the
end of production, but we way underestimated our pumpkin sales and did not
bring enough to meet demand. Wish that we could sell those Butternut squash
as easily:)

Last Thursday, Judy and I went to a meat marketing workshop that was
sponsored by extension and our DATCP (Wisc Ag, Trade, and Consumer
Protection). The turn out was way better than they expected with over 40
participants from what I could see. There were additional folks there as
presenters and for several panel discussions.

What we found was very heartening for meat sales. Contrary to other
information I have received, we do not have to have NSF7 refrigeration
equipment for our level of storage and transporting. This is a HUGE relief.
In fact, although Wisconsin recently accepted many portions of the federal
CFR's for the model food regulations, they did not accept all of them and
seemed to take a more reasoned approach to things.

In fact, even the rules on having a certified kitchen for preparing foods
to sell retail, does not seem all that difficult.

The most significant new information that we received, was that in
transporting and selling meat we do not absolutely have to have a freezer
and can use a cooler. They also increase the temperature permitted to 10
degrees F rather than the normal storage requirement of zero F or less. This
is a huge help. Also, I checked with my local inspector and he was also very
supportive and you could tell did not want to even push the issue on using
commercial freezers and would be flexible on this as well.

So we brought some representative meats to the market and were able to
maintain fairly decent temperatures. They do want us to continuously monitor
the temps. The sales were almost the same as our produce sales. And when you
consider that we have been telling people for a couple years that we could
not sell at farmer's market (no generators allowed) we now have to explain
the change. But everyone was pretty pleased to be able to buy just a few
steaks or a roast or packages of ground beef. We do charge more per pound
for individual products compared to our special packages.

If you were wondering what kind of volume of sales we have, it was about
$150 total. Normally, we have been averaging $70 for most markets for the
produce with a peak of a little over $100. So I would expect that we might
be able to increase sales quite a bit during next years season. These are
Saturday morning sessions in a small town rural area but we have some
upscale and more health conscious folks in our community.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com




  • Farmer's Market Success, Rick Williams, 09/28/2002

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