This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 8:10am and is filed under ranch life, Local, Food Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Selling at the three local farmer’s markets is usually a high point of my week. After three years, Wild Type Ranch has a solid customer base. It’s like catching up with friends, as I ask about how the roast turned out that they cooked for visiting family, how the steaks cooked for the hot date, or about someone’s ailing wife who has been absent for a few weeks.
Even though each of my markets (Sun City, Georgetown and the Vineyard at Florence) is only open a few hours, participating in a market day is pretty much a whole-day event. There is the 90 minute drive each way to the market, an hour to set up and 30 minutes to take down, not to mention the packing and unpacking back at the ranch. Even the shortest market is an 7 hour commitment.
Lately, attendance at the markets has been dismal. Not just for me, but for all the vendors. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem, if you’ll pardon the pun. Taking 7 or 8 hours out of a day and $25 worth of gas to sell $75 worth of beef (that probably cost $50 to produce) is not a sustainable business plan. So, fewer vendors show up. Less vendors, less variety and less reason for the customers to show up.
A farmer’s market really is a community function, and it takes the community to make it function. One of the markets in which I participate is a brand-new market. The vendors there attend, knowing that each week will likely be a wash. We do so as an investment in the future of the market.
If you enjoy the occasional visit to the local market, make it a point to become a regular. The benefits reach far beyond your plate.
September 25th, 2009 at 8:44am
Completely agree. we all complain about importing products, yet the local population doesn’t use its own resources.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:51pm
Great point, Sara, and well taken. I need to lead with what you’re saying to my public audience. And I will next week for sure!!
September 25th, 2009 at 3:41pm
As a market manager I work my butt off to ensure that customers keep coming out to make markets worthwhile for vendors and when the market inevitably slows come September / October, I do little extras that make our market pleasant for the vendors: bringing them warm apple cider on cold days, introducing new customers to established vendors etc. We’re fortunate that our food producers average between $1200 and $2000 a day. I think I’d cry if a rancher or farmer turned up with only $75!
September 26th, 2009 at 7:29am
Jenny: On behalf of your vendors, thanks! I know I appreciate the things like that done on our behalf (thanks, Rick!).
The reality of smaller town farmer’s markets is that many of our vendors have $100 days. Because of that, few are full-time farmers, and are less likely to be long-term vendors.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:39pm
I think the answer is we make our markets where we can. In the end I don’t think all of America drives out to the farmer’s market, I think the food will come to us, one way or another.
I can’t make it to the market tomorrow so I’ve asked someone else to pick up some things for me. Meanwhile I have neighbors here in Georgetown who drive to a market in Austin to buy farm food.
Obviously I need to organize my neighborhood so only one person needs to drive to Florence to buy food for all.
And you farmers need to have subscribers - people similar to investors really - who will guarantee a market for your crop, and who will stay with you in good season and bad, in order to keep you in business and to guarantee that they can put wholesome food on their tables.
It’s a matter of re-arranging the economics of how we grow and buy food more than anything else, in my opinion.
October 4th, 2009 at 7:36am
Ross: Excellent points. I do have a subscription program, and those core customers are critical. The markets are a great pickup point, and sometimes I just view them as places to generate additional customers.
Convenience will always be important. I package in small amounts, and constantly try to find what works for the customers. I just made a couple visits to some local-friendly grocery outlets, too, in an effort to get at least some product in the hands of consumers during their regular shopping.