Market Farming

[Joan Vibert <joan AT windwalker-farm.com>]

> What a great internet moment, eh, folks?
Hear! Hear! I agree - what a sight to see Eliot Coleman in your in box.

Seriously though - this gets down to the simple fact that we are trying to
replace the word organic and all its connotations that are bundled into from
35+ years of practice with a "new word".  And it really can't be done.  A
new word (or term) won't have the history behind it for credibility.

I totally agree with Eliot that our relationships should prove our
reputations but I also realize that many of our market customers want to
believe us no matter what we tell them.  At our market I find many customers
who have an almost awe for people who grow food - we are what they secretly
would love to be - and so in some ways they elevate us and want to believe
us.  I keep mentioning the woman at our market who was a peddler and
"self-certified".  She was a great bamboozler and would have continued on
with this farce had other growers not blown the whistle on her.  Her
customers were devastated.

Our customers are the product of our culture and they are bombarded with
advertising constantly - which they are told to believe.  and they are going
to believe the "organish pap" (love it!) from Del Monte and that crowd.  So
we have to be "more real" to them or authentic, to use Eliot's phrase.

Until I wrote that last line I wasn't sure where I was going but I now see
how if fits.  

joan
windwalker farm
ottawa, kansas