Tag: farmers markets

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #8: Wanted: Farmers Market Vendors!

CFA Admin

By Jennifer Weeber, Northfork Local Food Coordinator

Close your eyes and imagine your ideal farmers market. What do you see? How does that differ from your current market? If one of those differences is more vendors who offer a broader range of products, this blog is for you. While there is not a magic formula for vendor recruitment and it is a challenging task, developing a vendor recruitment plan for your market can increase the likelihood that your efforts will be successful. The following are some tips on creating that plan:

Know your market.

Do you need more vendors? Do you need larger quantities of products that are already sold at your market? Do you need different types of products? Do you need all of the above? What do your customers want? With this information in hand, you can figure out your actual gaps and begin to identify the type of vendors you need. Before going to the work of recruiting, though, talk with your current vendors. Are any of them willing and able to expand the quantity or type of their offerings? If so, you are helping your vendors grow their own businesses while you are growing the market.

Anticipate your customers’ buying habits.

In an ideal scenario, everyone you recruit to your market will make money immediately and never leave ever again! BUT that isn’t how this works, is it? When it comes to actively recruiting, you’re going to need to focus your energy on items you know your customers will buy.  Spending your time recruiting a pate vendor for your market, when you know that there are only five or six regulars who might be interested in buying it is not time well spent. Pay attention to what is already there and would be complimentary to that. OR what has long been popular but sells out faster than it can grow!

Get prepared.

Why should a vendor sell at your market? Before attempting to recruit new vendors, you should be able to concisely answer this question. Your answer should be unique to your market and flexible enough to be targeted to the type of vendor you are recruiting (e.g. vegetable farmer, baker, meat producer). It may include information about your market’s mission, what benefits are available to market members, gross sales your market generates, and why you are interested in them and their products (e.g. We have a customer demand for yeasted breads that we cannot currently meet and several people have recommended you as excellent baker.).

What sort of informational materials do you need? A one-page flyer or a rack card which promotes your market to potential vendors may be a powerful tool which can be used in your recruiting efforts. This should provide basic information about the market, why vendors would want to sell at your market, and what they should do if they are interested.

A packet of information should be readily available for potential vendors who indicate an interest in your market. This packet should contain information on the market such as days and times of operation and the set-up process, vendor requirements such as permits, training, and insurance, payment methods and programs such as SNAP and Kentucky Double Dollars, vendor fees, and any other relevant information along with a copy of the market rules and a vendor application.

Find vendors.

Where in your community do the type of vendors you wish to recruit hang out? Who may have access to them? Some ideas to get you started are listed below:

  • Talk with your current vendors
  • County Extension offices (http://extension.ca.uky.edu/)
  • Farm Service Agencies (https://www.fsa.usda.gov/state-offices/Kentucky/index)
  • Kentucky Department of Agriculture (http://www.kyagr.com/)
  • Natural Resources and Conservation Service (https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/ky/home/)
  • Agriculture classes and programs at Big Sandy, Elizabethtown, Henderson, Madisonville, Maysville, Owensboro, and Southcentral Community and Technical Colleges (kctcs.edu)
  • Farm supply stores
  • Winter agricultural workshops
  • High school agriculture and consumer science programs
  • Future Farmers of America
  • Producer organizations (farmer, baker, arts and crafts)
  • Beginning, urban, or refugee farming programs
  • Gardening clubs
  • Churches
  • Roadside stands and restaurants and retailers selling local foods
  • Social media groups
  • Community Farm Alliance’s Farm to Table Team

Figure out the messenger.

Who is the right person to ask a potential vendor about joining your market? Think about who you are trying to recruit and in what setting. It may be the market manager. Or, it could be another vendor, a market volunteer, a board member, or someone else. It could be a tag team effort with a volunteer making the initial contact and then introducing the potential vendor to the market manager for additional information.

Support your vendors.

What help do new vendors need to be successful at your market? New vendors may need help with pricing, setting up their booth to be visually appealing, customer service, or some other skill. There may be language barriers between the vendors and customers. Talk with your new vendors about what they need. Observe how they are doing. Your attention to them will help to create regular vendors for the market as well as to help them grow their own businesses.

How can you support your established vendors so that they remain with your market and continue to be successful? Talk with them about what they need. Observe how they are doing. Match established vendors with new vendors to provide mentoring. This can help established vendors to develop their leadership skills and new vendors to integrate into the social network of the market.

Grow your vendors.

It may be that there is no one in your community who is producing the products at the scale you need for your market. In that case, think about how you can grow some vendors. Are there some gardeners who always have a little excess produce? Is there someone who always makes delicious cookies and breads for the school bake sale? Perhaps they would be willing to try out the market a time or two. If things go well for them, to what resources can you connect them to help them produce enough to regularly sell at the market?

You can also start growing the next generation of vendors by encouraging youth to participate in your market. Consider hosting “youth vendor” days or having a “junior vendor” application. Use of a booth or the annual membership is offered at a reduced price or is even free to give the youth the opportunity to try out the market and gain new skills. Be prepared to spend extra time in helping your young vendors figure out pricing, their display, and other marketing aspects. Pairing each youth with an established vendor can reduce the tensions that can come with new sales competition and provide the youth with mentoring which can help them hone their agriculture and marketing skills.

Dig into additional resources.

A variety of resources exist to help you think more about how you can successfully recruit vendors. Here are few to get you started:

Reach out to CFA.

Please reach out to the CFA Farmers Market Support Team if we can be of further assistance to you. Good luck in your vendor recruiting adventures!

 

 

 

 

 

Market Mindfulness

Market Mindfulness #5: Benefits of Farmers Markets & Community Partnerships

CFA Admin

By Jann Knappage Food System Specialist

University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Nutrition Education Program

While investigating the idea of how farmers markets can create quality community partnerships, I interviewed representatives from three different markets: Berea Farmers Market, Floyd County Farmers Market and Perry County Farmers Market. The following suggestions and ideas come from those conversations, as well as my personal experience selling at farmers markets and working with farmers market producers.

Our Kentucky food system is a dynamic and complex system that effects each of us individually, every single day. Cornell University defines a community food system as, “food production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal to enhance the environmental, economic, social and nutritional health of a particular place.” Our farmers markets are one piece of the food system pie in our communities. At first glance, farmers markets are a place where producers can directly sell their farm products to individuals and families in their community. Farmers markets are also a venue for community development. When farmers markets prioritize community partnership development, they are solidifying the markets place within the community as a space for economic vitality, food access, relationship building and general prosperity.

“Fostering connections with community supporters and utilizing the nutrient-rich market space to seed relationships among community groups intensifies the role of the market within the community.  This partnership building is beneficial to market sustainability, which is necessary for the wellbeing of farmers and consumers.” –Cristina Sandolo, Project Co-Director, Nourishing Neighborhoods for Wholesome Wave

How to Engage a Community Partner:

Good communication is key to beginning any partnership. Expressing hopes, wants and needs is essential to understanding if a partnership between organizations is a good fit for both entities.

Conversations between farmers markets and community partners can start a variety of ways: face-to-face, by phone call, or e-mail. This will vary greatly based on a variety of factors, such as how you were introduced to the partner, accessibility to partner and/or time allotment for these types of conversations. The biggest thing to remember is in order to know if a partnership is possible, you need to ask! Don’t be afraid to start a conversation and see where it leads.

“In thousands of communities across the country this summer, farmers markets are more than simply a place to buy locally grown fruits and vegetables. They are hubs for information and home to thousands of innovative partnerships that teach skills and expand knowledge about food, health, and agriculture.” – Elizabeth Comiskey, Farmers Market Coalition

Things to remember when starting a conversation:

  • Introduce yourself > who are you, how are you associated with the farmers market
  • Introduce the farmers market > share details such as: location, vendor details, times of operation, goals and objectives…etc.
  • How you heard about this particular community partner > through a friend, flyer, social media or other?
  • Propose idea for partnership > What activity or program will happen because of this partnership? What is the time commitment? Will this happen once or be reoccurring?
  • Ask if the potential partner has any questions/concerns/comments
  • Ask if your goals and objectives align
  • If a partnerships seems likely > schedule a time to meet and include other market members to begin planning.

Each of the farmers markets interviewed agreed that many of their successful community partnerships occurred when the community partner approached the market first. This showed to the markets that the potential partner was proactive and interested enough that they initiated a conversation. This made the markets feel secure and created initial trust between the market and potential partner. Without the initial partner enthusiasm, markets were still willing to collaborate, but feared the partnership would end up being one sided and add more work for the market manager and/or market producers.

Markets agreed that the partnerships that felt the most natural were always the most successful. Things that lead to this natural flow were: mission’s aligning, common food access goals, mutualistic promotion, and shared enthusiasm for programming. The interviewed markets agreed that any collaborations that felt forced or one sided were never successful. Members agreed that when this happened, they forfeited their efforts and moved on with no hard feelings, but positive other partnerships can be made.

Listed below are examples of ways community partners are currently being utilized in Kentucky farmers markets.

Educational Programming:

  • Summer Food Service Program site at the farmers market
  • Daycare centers hosting programming (fun for kids & center gets free advertisement)
  • Save the Children Book Donations
  • Children’s authors doing story time at the farmers market

Exercise:

  • Zumba, yoga, etc. gyms doing a demonstration class at the farmers market
  • Having dance groups from around the county perform at the farmers market
  • Kids on the Move– providing Carrot Cash and hosting field day at the farmers market (Perry County)

Extension Involvement:

  • Food sampling
  • Cooking demonstrations
  • Distribution of educational materials
  • Distribution of Plate it Up Kentucky Proud recipe cards
  • Advisement at farmers market meetings
  • Soil sampling for farmers market producers

Faith-based Organizations:

  • Providing grants for double dollar incentive programs for SNAP, WIC & SFMNP

Health Department:

  • WIC farmers market vouchers
  • Grants offered through health department
  • Walking club that has the farmers market on route
  • Distribute special vouchers that promote spending at the farmers market (~$5-10)

Hospitals/Clinics:

  • Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation: Farmacy Program
  • Help provide double dollars for nutrition assistance programs (ex. SNAP, WIC, SFMNP, Kids Bucks, Veggie Bucks…etc.)
  • 1x $5-10 farmers market vouchers for health screenings

Library:

  • Provision of free meeting space for farmer workshops
  • Book mobile
  • Coordination of children’s events on market days

Local Government:

  • Financial support
  • Provision of farmers market permanent structure
  • Space for pop-up markets in town center
  • Advertisement and promotion

Local Musicians:

Several KY farmers markets host local musicians at their markets. This draws people to the market, as well as promotes the musician. It can create a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere for market participants.

Nonprofits:

Rotary:

Has been known to provide fiscal sponsorship to their local farmers market in several Kentucky communities.

Senior Center:

  • Pop-up market at senior centers
  • Provides transportation for seniors to attend the market and use their SFMNP Vouchers

Tourism:

  • Farmers Market promotion in tourism brochures, magazines and social media posts
  • Inviting market vendors to set-up at special city/county events

As emphasized above community partnerships can take many forms and are unique to each farmers market. Community partnerships are essential when the goal is to make the farmers market a vibrant and successful entity that promotes “economic vitality, food access, relationship building and general prosperity.” Get creative and engage a variety or individuals and organizations from healthcare centers to summer feeding sites to fitness groups. When looking for community partnerships, the sky is the limit. I challenge you and your farmers market to make one (if not more) community partnership(s) this market season!

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Breaking Beans Radio Show #28: Local Food in Whitley County

CFA Admin

Aired: May 02, 2018

Sister Kathy Curtis travel to Whitley County to talk with two local food heroes: Anne Bays and Paul Dengel.

Anne, of Moonlight Farms LLC, raises grass fed beef and natural pork. She and her family recently opened Moonlight Meat Processing which is a certified organic meat processing facility located in Williamsburg, Kentucky.
Pictured below: Anne and some of her crew
Pictured below: meat aging in the cooler 
Pictured below: USDA inspector on site.
Paul, of Good Thymes Farm, recently left his job at Extension to be a full time farmer and stay at home dad. His family raises certified organic vegetables including heirloom tomatoes. He also specializes in sustainable agriculture.
Pictured below: Paul and his daughter working in the garden.

Pictured below: the newest high tunnel
Pictured below: Paul’s packing shed location and the start of the foundation
If you are looking for Anne and Paul, you can find them both at the Whitley County Farmers Market on Tuesday evenings in Downtown Corbin.

 

Find other episodes and Breaking Beans stories here:

http://cfaky.org/blog

Download this and other past episodes here:

https://archive.org/details/@breakingbeans

The Breaking Beans Variety Radio Show airs on 88.7 WMMT (online too!) the first Wednesday of every month at 6pm featuring stories, interviews, recipes, and news from the food and farming worlds in the Appalachian region!

Hosted by Breaking Beans Fellow Sister Kathy Curtis.

 

breakingbeansWEBsm

 

Breaking Beans: The Appalachian Food Story Project is an initiative of Community Farm Alliance to tell the story of how local food and farming in Eastern Kentucky can contribute to a bright future in the mountains. Eastern Kentucky is at the point where it can foster a food system that is equitable and accessible to all, provides fresh nutritious food, and serves as an economic generator that builds community wealth. With a rich history of food and farming, stories of how Eastern Kentucky is already growing in that direction – and the challenges along the way – are important for informing people and policy alike.

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Farmers’ Markets Don’t Just Happen

CFA Admin

by Sister Kathy Curtis

I love farmers’ markets. I love the fresh produce and the carnival atmosphere. I love supporting the local economy and meeting and networking with the people I meet at the market. Unfortunately, here in eastern Kentucky, fresh locally grown produce won’t be available for several months yet. But I was able to get some networking and storytelling in recently with my farmers’ market friends when the leadership of three eastern Kentucky farmers’ markets held their first vendor training sessions. Farmers know that if you want to have tomatoes to sell in June, you better seed them in February. And farmers’ markets that want to be successful need to start planning way before opening day too. That’s why, on a slightly sunny Saturday morning in late January, the Perry County Farmers’ Market held their Winter Farmers’ Market Meeting.

The Perry County Farmers’ Market is supervised by the non-profit Northfork Local Foods through the work of Market Manager Emily Whitaker, Board Chair Jennifer Weeber and CFA Farm to Table Associate, Carolyn Davis, each of whom took a workshop focus.

Carolyn started us off with introductions and dreaming. As we went around the room introducing ourselves and where we were from, I knew I was in for a treat. There were farmers there from at least five different counties: Perry, Knott, Letcher, Breathitt and Pulaski. Most of the farmers present have been long time vendors with the Perry County market which has been active for around twenty years in some form or another. So, when Carolyn asked what we thought an “ideal market” would look like, what we liked most about the Perry County market and what we thought would make it even better it didn’t take long to compile a great list

Next, Jennifer led a market business session on fees, location, dates, certifications, that sort of thing. Two issues that have come up frequently over the last couple of years in Perry County are resale, the selling of products not grown by the seller themselves, and smoking at the park shelters where the market is held. As you can imagine, the discussions were lively but, it is exactly these opportunities to bring potential issues to the entire group that make for successful operations.

Emily led the last session, a discussion on who was growing what for the 2018 market season. After writing down everything called out, the group looked for what was not on the list yet and should be. “Mushrooms” someone said to a mummer of agreement and they got added to the list. The session ended with a very long list and several commitments to have spring greens, seeds, veggie starts, crafts and honey available for a May opening date.

After a lovely lunch of fresh, salad greens, soup and bread, the rest of the afternoon was given over to Charles May, agriculture agent for the UK Extension Service, who was leading the Produce Better Practices Training (PBPT) lovingly referred to locally as “the new GAP.”

More and more farmers’ markets are requiring that their vendors become certified in PBPT to assure that the produce that is being sold to customers is healthy and safe. The training teaches farmers and gardeners how to grow, harvest and wash produce to avoid contamination from soil borne pathogens. The training teaches the safe ways to apply fertilizers, chemical and natural, the safe way to clean produce for transport and sale, as well as how to keep washing and packing areas clean. Also, PBPT is required for anyone doing home based processing of any type as well as sampling at markets.

Since I was scheduled to take my PBPT and All Samples training in Pikeville the following weekend, I grabbed another home baked cookie and some locally roasted Windy Hills coffee and headed out to enjoy the rest of the sunny January day.

Bright and early the next Saturday morning, I headed south to the Pike County Extension Office for  another day of learning and relationship building with the Pikeville Farmers Market team. While still a fairly young market, the Pikeville vendors are not afraid to do new and innovative things to grow their businesses. They might have fun with each other cutting up in their new pavilion right off Hwy 23 but, when it comes to why they are there it is to sell a quality product at a reasonable price to their friends and neighbors.

Most of the business of this market is done by an elected board so, this meeting was strictly for training. Jackie Cole, Environmental Director from the Pike County Health Department started off the day talking about the requirements the health department has for selling ready to eat food at the market. The Pikeville Farmers’ Market has several vendors who sell hot meals, everything from BBQ, to Thai, to Cajun-style so this information, which isn’t usually on the roster for an eastern Kentucky farmers’ market, is necessary in Pikeville.

Ready to eat meal vendors are permitted through the health department of each county. Typically, a food vendor who sets up at a carnival or festival can only get a permit for a few days and cannot be issued for that location again for six months. However, in Kentucky, a food vendor who sets up regularly at a farmers’ market can get a permit to sell for two days a week for eight consecutive months. The vendor must pass the food handlers exam with a fee of $25 and then pay $100 for the extended farmers market permit. It is a relatively low charge with potentially high returns for both the vendor and the market.

Yours truly got an opportunity to talk about Community Farm Alliance and how we support and advocate for family farmers across the state in Frankfort and provide assistance programs especially to markets like theirs through the Farmers’ Market Support Program. I invited them all to the Eastern Kentucky Farmer Conference which was being held the end of February and then passed the microphone to agriculture agent Suzanne Stumbo for the main event, the Produce Best Practices Training (PBPT).

Soon we were engrossed in the PBPT lesson. Actually, I’m not joking. Maybe because I am not a farmer, but I hadn’t really thought about the science and health management that goes into growing food. Things like water sources, fencing and even the clothes a farmer wears into the field can have an effect on the final product. Let me just say, we don’t value our farmers enough for all they go through so we can eat safe, healthy food.

The actual class took under two hours. For those of us who wanted the sampling certificate there was a test which would be graded. I found out earlier this week that if I missed any of the questions the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) would contact me to make sure I know the material before they will send out my certificate. Hopefully I will pass with flying colors. If not, I will take it again. Which reminds me, if you have already gotten your PBPT but didn’t do the sampling test and now you think it might be a good thing to have, you can go to KDA’s website, download it, take the test and mail it back in. It’s that simple.

After a lunch of homemade chili and fudge, Melissa Bond from CEDIK gave a session on creating displays and marketing pointers for a table set up guaranteed to increase your sales. Since I was not a vendor, I grabbed another piece of fudge and left. Are you starting to see a pattern here?

A week later, I headed to Letcher County for my third and final market training session, interestingly called: “Love 2 Farm Day”. If you think after two weeks, there would be nothing new to learn, you would be wrong. These three market trainings were as different as the markets they call home.

The successful, nationally known City of Whitesburg/Letcher County Farmers’ Market began as a project of the Grow Appalachia program at Cowan Creek Community Center. Before becoming CFA’s Healthy Communities Initiative Director, Valerie Horn ran the Grow Appalachia program at Cowan. She will tell you that Grow Appalachia’s suggestion that families grow “a little extra to sell” became the impetus for starting a farmers’ market in nearby Whitesburg. So it was no surprise that the Love 2 Farm event was a mix of those two programs. And with Valerie’s style of teaching through interaction, it was full of food, fun and a little bit of paperwork.

When I got there the pancakes and bacon were just being served (timing is everything) so, I grabbed some bacon and some coffee and found a seat. I’m not a big fan of maple syrup so I passed on the pancakes but later had to eat my words (with a little bit of maple syrup on them) when I took a small taste and found the syrup had a most delightful woodsy flavor. Try some SouthDown Farm maple syrup and find out what I mean. 

 

While we ate, Valerie told us what was happening in Whitesburg. Ends up there’s a lot. She talked about the UK walking program and the Farmacy program both of which add direct income into the pockets of farmers in and around Letcher County. She told us about the commercial kitchen in the old high school and that when it opened it would be providing ready to eat meals using produce purchased directly from Letcher County farmers. And then she started introducing her guest speakers.

First up was Chris McKenzie from Grow Appalachia who talked about the new EKY DIGS program. DIGS (Direct Integrated Grower Support) is designed to bring one on one support to the small scale farmer in Eastern Kentucky.   The program includes soil testing, on-farm consulting, an individualized production and more.

Then came David Tyler who owns the Plant Place, a seasonal greenhouse where he grows vegetables, bedding plants,hanging baskets, “and much more!” All of his vegetable plants are seeded in house and his flyer says to ask him about his Turkey Creek tomato. David shared what he had available and ready to go in the ground and the different varieties his customers have requested for this year. It was a real pleasure to meet David and know that his small business was being so well supported by the community. If you are in Letcher County this spring stop by the greenhouse on HWY 3401 beside the Mountain Vendors Mall. Don’t worry if he’s open. Just pull up out front and he will see you “and come right out.” He lives next door.

The pre-lunch presentations wrapped up with Brett Wolff from UK’s Center for Crop Diversification. He told us about what the Center does to help farmers set their prices and plan what they are going to grow. His office has several years of data about the availability and market price of most fruits and vegetables typically offered at Kentucky farmers’ markets. He has graphs that can tell you the high and low prices of tomatoes the last couple of years, when there were no beans at local farmers’ markets and when there was a glut and we even found out that it is Brett’s office that lists the suggested going rate on produce for farmers’ markets in Eastern Kentucky on their website every week.

While standing in line for a lunch of soup, cheese, bread and cake, I figured out that an Eastern Kentucky farmer could have Chris come out to see what crops would do best on their farm, check in with Brett on when and how much to grow and then go to David to pick up the vegetable starts.

After lunch, we separated into four groups for the last activity of the day: planning market events. Most successful farmers’ markets have more than good food. They invite the community to come and play too. The City of Whitesburg/Letcher County Farmers’ Market offers the summer feeding program for kids which is very popular. They also have lots of fun theme days which need to be planned in advance. To get a jump on that planning, Valerie added it right into her training sessions.

Each group was given a page from a large calendar and told to plan special events for the months the market was open. My group got August, so we googled August holidays for some different ideas. We came up with International Underwear day—collecting new underwear for the school resource centers; Bad Poetry Day—with a “content appropriate” poetry slam at the market; and National Storybook Day where the vendors will dress as their favorite story book character. Needless to say, I will be sure to be in Whitesburg at least a couple days in August.

I ended up breaking my pattern in Whitesburg by staying to the very end of the training (although I did get another piece of cake.) And as I headed home, thinking about these three planning/training opportunities for our eastern Kentucky farmers and farmers’ markets, I was excited about the diversity and uniqueness that each community celebrated in their markets. There is no such thing as one size fits all in Appalachia. From the multi-county vendor base in Perry County to Pikeville’s metropolitan atmosphere to fun and games on a Saturday in Whitesburg, each Eastern Kentucky farmers market has its own personality.

As we work to build healthy and thriving communities in central Appalachia, I can’t help but think that small family farms and the farmers’ markets where they sell that are popping up like mushrooms on hillsides in spring are a real opportunity toward wholeness. Our farmers are dedicated to growing real food for us, our children and our grandchildren. We need to be dedicated to supporting their work. This market season, support your local farmers’ market and be glad to pay full price if you can. Farming is not a job. It is a vocation and we should honor those folks who grow our food with our praise, our thanks and our money.

For more information on Grow Appalachia and UK’s Center for Crop Diversification, please visit their websites. You can find all of these farmers markets and David Tyler’s Plant Place on Facebook here.

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From Market Vendor to Entrepreneur

CFA Admin

Written by Sister Kathy Curtis, Edited by Maggie Smith

My first experience with a farmers’ market was in 2011 in Floyd County, Kentucky where I volunteered to help the farmers get set up, run errands, and put out about a million signs. I decided I wanted to help them because I am interested in anything that can bring income into our region and who doesn’t like fresh food. In my six years working with the market vendors I came to realize that farmers’ markets are not just a place to buy fresh food straight from the farmer but also an incubator for small businesses.

Over the years, I have had the privilege to make friends with several women who started out at a farmers’ market and have expanded their business beyond summer afternoons.

Before I tell you their stories, I wanted to share that Community Farm Alliance was a driving force behind the passing of Kentucky House Bill 391 (which was signed into law November 1, 2003) It opened a lot of doors for farmers like Benette who grow a product and then “add value” to it by canning, preserving or baking it into something that can be sold for a higher price. Limits for home processors, like Benette, is that their products can only be sold at farmers’ markets, certified Farm Bureau roadside stands or from the farmer’s home. Commercial licenses don’t have those limitations. And two local women have used their local farmers market as an entry into retail sales with their commercially processed products.

Here are their stories, and the on the ground results of how CFA has supported the farmer:

Benette Howard is definitely a farmer. She and her husband own one farm in Johnson County and she inherited two others. For her, farming was a way of life, raising everything, even beef, pork, and chickens. “You didn’t go to the store every time you wanted something. If you didn’t have it, you did without” said Bennette. She also told me working in the garden was instilled in her as a kid. She remembered when she first started helping her uncle, he set her to pulling weeds in the onions. “I guess they were easy to tell from the weeds.”

Benette first set up at the Floyd County Farmers’ Market towards the end of 2012 market season bringing pumpkins, gourds and colored corn. She did well enough to plan on setting up the entire 2013 season. However, the cool wet spring of 2013 put her behind and that’s when she heard about home based processing. Home based processors may produce and sell low risk products such as fruit jams, jellies and syrups, fruit butters, baked goods, prepackaged mixed greens or herbs, and dried fruits, vegetables, nuts or herbs. She started making Bea’s Jams & Jellies and they went over so well she added baked goods. “When I wouldn’t sell all my fresh stuff, I brought it home and canned it to resell at market” this was Benette’s strategy.

Benette now sells her canned goods during season at both the Floyd County and Pikeville farmers markets. And once the markets close down she still has “a lot of people that call wanting canned stuff and baked goods”.

What goes better with baked goods than jams, jellies, and syrups? The Pikeville Market has helped other young entrepreneurs become thriving businesses.  Such as Whitney Whaley, of Whaley Canning Co., started her business just this year after a whirlwind tour of classes and certifications. Whitney was looking for a cottage industry she could do soon after moving to Pikeville and hit upon canning and selling fruit sauces and syrups using old family recipes, like Grandma Strick’s Apple Sauce.

After attending UK’s Food Innovation Center’s Better Process Control School, offered this past spring at the Eastern Kentucky Farmer Conference, Whitney was able to commercially process her products using the commercial kitchen at the Floyd County Extension Office. She met up with Joyce Pinson of the Pikeville Farmers Market who convinced her to sell her products at the market. Business was so good that now, less than one year from starting, Whitney has her products in several local retail stores as well as on her own online store.

A little closer to I-75, in Hazard, you will find Emily Whitaker who like most of us, loves coffee. She loves it so much that when offered a coffee roaster with all the trimmings, she remodeled half of her basement to install a manufacturing kitchen so she could sell locally roasted coffee. Windy Hills Coffee, roasted in Viper, Kentucky made its debut at events in and around Hazard including creating a special blend for an event in Hazard called A Seat at The Table-India where community members can come together and share a meal from a different culture. The reception was so good that Windy Hills coffee can now be found in retail outlets in Hazard and soon to be found in Prestonsburg and Whitesburg too. As market manager for the Perry County Farmers’ Market, Emily’s connection with farmers opened another avenue when farmer friends started adding Windy Hills coffee as a specialty item to their CSA shares.

As noted earlier, farmers’ markets have been entry level opportunities for farmers to sell their products. Most market vendors expand their businesses, like Benette, by having customers come to the farm or like Whitney and Emily through retail markets. But, a few vendors make the scary leap to brick and mortar establishments.

Kristin Smith raises heritage beef and pastured pork in Whitley County on Falkner Bent Farm. She started selling her premium meat products at the Whitley County Farmers Market but sales were slow. “I couldn’t drop my prices so I decided to make tacos so people could taste the difference in my product and buy it. Pork belly tacos. Brisket tacos. Whatever cut wasn’t moving. And it worked. I sold out every week”, she told me in an interview earlier this year.

The Whitley County market vendors became a really tight group and it wasn’t long before they decided they had all they needed, bread, produce and meat, to open a brick and mortar restaurant. And soon the popular Wrigley Taproom and Eatery, a farm to table restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, was established.

 

 

The newest entrepreneurs to using a farmers’ markets as a springboard into business are Lisa and Amy Bourque of Acres of Grace Farm and Bakery in Clay County. Lisa and Amy have been farming on Acres of Grace for about eight years. They believe in being as self-sustaining as possible, so gardening was an easy choice for them

They started selling at the Clay County Community Market about four years ago but what’s interesting is that they did not start by selling produce but instead entered the market to sell Lisa’s artwork, “with a small tray of baked apple hand pies” Lisa told me. Once she saw how much the community loved homegrown and homemade food, she decided to pursue her passion for baking.

The Acres of Grace Bakery, located on Big Creek in Clay County opened this past November. When asked why open a restaurant in such a rural area? Lisa replied “because we really wanted to be a part of the community on a larger scale than what we could produce for farmers’ market. People were asking for our food during the market off season as well so we felt like it was time to take the plunge and fulfill my dreams of opening a small place and do some farm to table for our small area.”

Like Kristin Smith at the Wrigley Taproom and Eatery, the Bourques’ use as much locally sourced food as possible in their meals. When asked why they would open a restaurant on a two-lane road in the middle of one of the poorest counties in the United States, Lisa replied, “Feeding people makes us happy and working side by side makes us even happier. Providing a healthier alternative to our small community is a bonus.”

“Putting your money, where your zip code is” has really been a game changer for folks interested in doing farm to table. Most of the farmers that I worked with at the Floyd County Farmers’ Market, six years ago, grew produce, brought it to the market to sell and went home to get ready for their off-farm job because there wasn’t enough interest in purchasing locally grown food, to make a living.

But farmers’ markets have increased in number and size in the last several years across the Commonwealth. And thanks to the agriculture departments at the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University, their extension agents, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s Kentucky Proud program, and the Farmers Market Support Program of Community Farm Alliance, more and more vendors are becoming entrepreneurs.

Are you a vendor at a Kentucky farmers market? Are you interested in growing your market and your business? Why not check out the Farmers Market Support Program page on our website. Or look into attending the 2018 Eastern Kentucky Farmer Conference February 23rd and 24th. We are Community Farm Alliance where Farm is Foundation.