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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] web pages

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  • From: "Larry Haftl" <larry AT larryhaftl.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] web pages
  • Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 12:29:29 -0800

Hello Caryl,

> A question I have, however, is that maintaining and improving these web
> pages is expensive (in terms of our time if we are trying to do it
ourselves
> as most of us seem to be or in real dollars if we hire it done). My page
> was a first attempt by me--big learning curve--as seems most of those
here,
> rather than having it done. I would like to make a number of changes, but
> they all take a great deal of time. How much is it really worth to
improve
> things dramatically?

Couple of thoughts/observations...

Perhaps you could find someone more skilled at website creation/maintenance
and barter some of what you do best (grow things?) for what they do best.
Produce for HTML so to speak. I'm fairly competent at developing and
maintaining websites, but the only green in my thumb could probably be cured
by antibiotics, so I got all my seeds for this year's miserable attempt at
growing things in exchange for helping a seed seller with his website. We've
talked about this and figure that we both made out quite well with the deal.

Your last question is incredibly loaded. What are you trying to improve? The
number of visitors to your website or the amount of sales of your produce,
or customer loyalty, or brand recognition, or...? They are not all
necessarily related. Your message got me to thinking of why a market
gardener/farmer would have a website, and to reflect on some that I've
stumbled across. As a consumer of food, the internet is not the place I
would go to look for a local source. But if I found a local source that had
a website then I would probably visit the website and return to it if it
offered useful or interesting information, especially about what is, or will
be, available.

One of the best implementations of this, IMO, is a farm that puts out a
monthly newsletter that has an interesting mixture of what is and will be
available, maybe an historic piece or profile of a given vegetable or herb,
a recipe or two, and perhaps a household tip of the month. Stuff that is
interesting and useful to me, the end consumer, and that makes the source I
buy from more personable and interesting. They print the newsletters, hand
them out at farmers' markets, mail them to their customer base, and post a
copy on their website. Wish they were close enough to buy from but as I
recall they are someplace like Pennsylvania and I'm in Oregon. I'd give you
the link to their site but don't have it handy.


> The bottom-line question is where do we invest our limited advertising $$
> and time? Do we do more demos rather than upgrade the website? Do we
> design a slicker web site or brochure? How do we reach customers that
don't
> frequent the farmers market or the natural foods grocery that we sell in
> (you CSA folks may have some insights there)? Word of mouth has currently
> been our biggest adverstising. That would suggest our limited resources
> should be directed to keeping our current customers connected (perhaps a
> monthly email newsletter).

A website for the seed seller I mentioned makes perfect sense because his
customers can come from anywhere in the world. In fact the first order
through the new system was from the UK. A website for a farm that does not
sell via "mail order" might not be the best way to attract actual customers,
though it would probably be good for keeping good relations and contact with
existing ones. The internet spans the world. How far would your potential
customers travel to get your products, and how many of them search the
internet for a place to actually buy what you sell?

To balance the "marketing" aspect of this message with the "gardening"
part...

Have any of you planted, or even heard of, perennial wheat instead of annual
wheat? Or perennial rye or perennial sorghum? I decided to try some here and
wondered if anyone else had any experience incorporating it into a market
garden/farm operation. The reduced tilling, fertilizing, herbicides seems to
me to be a very compelling arguement in favor of it.

To tie both parts together... the seed seller I mentioned above sells
perennial wheat, rye, and sorghum as well as annual varieties and a bunch of
really great vegetable seeds. If you are interested in roma type tomatoes he
has one that is truly to die for -- up to 2 pounds each with a superb
flavor. His website, which is also another demonstration of my work (no, I
am not offering my web services as you need to find someone close enough to
be able to barter with if you are interested in doing that), is:

http://petersseed.com



Larry Haftl
larry AT larryhaftl.com
http://LarryHaftl.com
http://FukuokaFarmingOL.net




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