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market-farming - Re: HELP w/non-farmers markets...

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Subject: Market Farming

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  • From: Alex McGregor <waldenfarm AT sprintmail.com>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: HELP w/non-farmers markets...
  • Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 11:21:54 -0500


Rose,

I would suggest analyzing your situation before a hit and miss marketing
plan. Ask
yourself some questions and the answers will lead you to the most likely
options:

Am I near a population center? Good for direct marketing through growers'
markets, CSAs,
on-farm sales.

Am I on a main road that commuters use (moderate to high traffic)? Good for
roadside
stand, but not on high speed limit areas- too dangerous and inconvenient.

Am I too far from a population center to attract customers to the farm? You
may need to
go to the customer.

What do I grow? High dollar items like fresh herbs, cut flowers and gourmet
vegetables
command a high enough price to sell wholesale. Potatoes and turnip greens
don't- unless
you grow fingerlings and colored potatoes or add baby greens to a salad mix.

How much of what do I grow? To wholesale, you need a lot of a few items, to
retail you
need just enough of a wide variety to meet demand (let's see somebody achieve
that!) or
you need to sell at a varied growers' market or have an agreement with other
growers to
sell theirs at your stand...

There are a lot of options out there- probably just as many as there are
innovative
growers. Maybe you could answer some of these questions for us so we could
get a bit more
specific. I would be glad to help but hesitate to offer any specific advice
without
knowing more about your situation. What works for one grower in one area
doesn't
necessarily work for all.

Alex McGregor
Walden Farm
Walden Ridge, TN

Rose & Fred Lieberman wrote:

> Well, out of all the farmers markets supposedly available to us, it has
> dwindled down to one. Clearly not enuf.
> Who does business WITHOUT farmers markets? And how do you do it?
> Roadside stand at your own place? A stand at the side of the road?
> I'm definitely going to need some ideas here.





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