Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Tomatoes go from shortage to glut

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Barking Cat Farm <barkingcatfarm AT mindspring.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tomatoes go from shortage to glut
  • Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:27:37 -0500



On Jun 18, 2010, at 11:33 AM, Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net> wrote:

We don't need all the customers -- couldn't handle them all if we tried. What we need is to find those people who care what they're eating. There are enough of them out there, if we can just make the connection.

Could not agree more. We had a bit of a panic attack over all the new local open air markets when they started a couple years back. Then we realized that our worry was for naught. We weren't worried about the actual growers at these markets. We're all for having more growers in our area to help us meet the overwhelming demand. What worried us was the volume resellers charading as growers. Then we decided we had nothing to fear from them. The people who buy from them with or without asking where and how the food was grown were not our target customers. And our customers would not buy from them. Same goes for chef customers. The ones who are always in the photo shoots and talking to reporters about how they work with local farmers we've never been able to connect with very well. On the other hand, the ones who like to sit down and go through the seed catalogs with us and who quietly have been buying from local farms since before it was cool, those are the ones we really can work well with.

As for those who have experienced frustration in competing with resellers at market, seems like signage about your locally grown stuff would at least help the serious foodies have a fighting chance to find you. Sure the resellers can use bogus signs about locally grown just as well, but the serious buyers will ask enough questions to find you authentic local growers.

Best wishes,
Laurie
Barking Cat Farm




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page