Market Farming

[lucy Owsley <boulderbelt AT voyager.net>]

Education makes a HUGE difference. i live in a rural town of around 12K (county seat, so it's the "big" city) and there is about zero interest in what i grow. i have maybe 20 customers from this county. but the county south of me has a university town where Ph.D.'s are pretty much a dime a dozen and these people want well grown sustainable local food sold to them by the people who grew the food. And they are willing to pay more. There is a much larger city to the west of me and I have tried marketing in that town but the education level just is not there so few people find local/organic food to be important or worth the extra money. hell, most of these people do not find produce to be important unless it is a red hybrid tomato and sweet corn, maybe green beans.

So even though there are towns closer to me than Oxford, it has by far the best educated population in the area and that translates into a very good customer base for me.

Lynn you may have to find a market a few hours away and drive to it to make your farm work for you since it sounds like your area is stagnant. I see on the map you are in the middle of nowhere (it must be beautiful, though). The best town I can see near you is Ithaca NY which has Cornell U as well as the Culinary Institute of America and I would think would be an incredible market for local foods and very much worth the drive up there. In Ithaca people would not think twice about paying $4 a dozen for pastured eggs.

On Mar 27, 2008, at 8:28 AM, Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:

We do live in an area with a college town nearby and that has made

all the difference for our business. We started trying to make a

living in the town nearest to us (and where my husband's alma mater

is located). Not enough interest in local foods I believe because the

education level was pretty low other than the few folks' from Earlham

that supported us. When a market opened up in the college town where

i grew up and where my alma mater is located things Things started

getting a lot better for us and we were able to quit our part time

day jobs and focus on the farm. A second farmers market opened up in

this town (which I was involved in creating and sat on the board for

2.5 years) on Saturdays that is a great market with tons of support,

good management and exceptional growth.

I wonder what make a good area for local food? Why are some areas

supportive and others not? I live in a rural area (my town, the county

seat, has about 3,000 people), and there isn't much interest in local

food. Some friends and I formed a group to support and educate about local

food, but it was always the same small group of people who showed

interest.The vendors in my county's Farmers Markets are lucky to make $50

on market day...there were days when some vendors didn't make enough to

cover the $5 vendors' fee. Clearly something is wrong, but I don't know

how to fix it.

Lynn Wigglesworth

Peasant Farmer

Tioga County, PA

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Lucy Goodman

Boulder Belt Eco-Farm

Eaton, OH

http://boulderbelt.blogspot.com