How To Market Your Farm

Davis Farmers Market Pavilion

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Davis, CA, is a college town, specifically an agricultural college town, as the university was recently ranked as the top ag school in the world. It’s only fitting then that the park in the center of town is highlighted by a farmers market.

It’s pretty much a permanent market at that. To enable the market to be open every Saturday of the year, city officials constructed a pavilion, 300-by-55 feet, the only such city-built structure in California, says Davis Farmers Market Manager Randii MacNear.

About 7,000 people come to the market each Saturday, rain or shine, because of the pavilion. In fact, the biggest crowds swarm in December, when the pavilion is dotted by outdoor heaters, the scent of hot cider, and the sound of carolers filling the air.

In an age when many people are staring down at their smart phones, isolated, the market brings them together, says MacNear, who’s managed it for 33 years. Buying fresh, delicious, nutritious fruits and vegetables helps ground a person, and doing so together with many community members builds a satisfying camaraderie. “Once you fall in love with the market,� she says, “you stay in love with the market.�

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Farmers Markets And You

But is the market, any market, for you, the grower? MacNear says a lot of growers look at the high prices they can get for their vegetables — high that is when compared to wholesale — and decide to sell their produce at a farmers market. To aid growers without farmers market experience, last year MacNear and the Davis Farmers Market’s publicist, Shelly Keller, produced “New Farmers’ Guide: Cultivating Success at Farmers Markets.� Funded by USDA, the guide has been posted on the websites of agricultural organizations around the country, including www.davisfarmersmarket.org. The following information comes from the guide as well as an interview with MacNear.

Many growers skip the first step mentioned in the guide — selling — and they really pay for it, says MacNear, because most growers aren’t cut out to be salesmen. “Farmers are farmers for a reason, you know. Farmers are scientists, and I have the utmost respect for farmers because I can’t grow anything. But I can sell anything,� she says. “If you’re going to come to the market you have to be ‘on,’ and you have to like people. You turn into a salesman, which is a whole different skill set than growing things.�

Another potential sticking point for a lot of growers is that they are often individualists who are used to making all the decisions, and they like it that way. But farmers markets have lots of rules and regulations. Not only that, but you’re not your own boss. The market manager is in charge. So not only do you have to follow rules and regulations that you may not agree with, you have to take direction from the market manager.

You’re The Brand

Another area where growers can have difficulty is tooting their own horn. You’re going to have to get over that, and fast. It all starts with the simple step of telling people who you are. It may be simple, but it is critical to building business. “When you do that, you are telling them you have pride in what you’re doing, and when a person hears that, he says to himself, ‘Wow, that’s attractive,’’’ says MacNear. “People like our market because there is pride everywhere you look, and people want to be around that.�

Next you need to brand your business, she says. What you choose for your brand is not critical, though it should be simple and attractive, but whatever you choose, you have to stick with it. She says the Davis Farmers Market, which has had the same watermelon logo for 35 years, is a good example. People love the market and want to be associated with it, so they buy memorabilia — and how. MacNear and
her three part-time employees sell branded T-shirts, hats, aprons, etc. to the tune of $50,000 a year.

Once you’ve branded your business, spread it around. You and your employees, or anyone else helping out in the booth, should be wearing your brand. Use it on signs and on packaging, if possible. “Make sure you always carry that out, every single week. The number one question I get is, ‘I bought this from a person and I can’t find them,’ or ‘I can’t recall the name of the farm,’� she says.

If farmers do a good job of branding, customers will always know where they are, she adds.

 *10 Farm Market Mistakes*

12 Interesting Facts On The Davis Market

Davis Farmers Market

Here are 12 fun facts about Davis Farmers Market:

1. Davis Farmers Market (DFM) was founded in 1976 by four University of California-Davis (UC-Davis) students.

2. Combined average attendance at the Wednesday and Saturday markets exceeds 500,000 visitors annually.

3. DFM’s web site had more than 1.7 million hits in the last 12 months.

4. In the world of social media, DFM has achieved a large following on Facebook with more than 7,000 “likes.�

5. In the past four years, DFM developed new farmers markets at UC-Davis and Sutter Davis Hospital, expanding Davis residents’ access to farm-fresh food.

6. In 2009, DFM was voted “America’s Favorite Farmers Market� by American Farmland Trust.

7. DFM presents for free its 33-week Picnic in the Park concert season, a family-fun event that brings a wide variety of live music – bluegrass, jazz, big band, swing, country, folk and rock ‘n’ roll – to Central Park every Wednesday, 4:30-8:30 p.m., from March through October.

8. DFM holds two signature events annually: Pig Day (first Saturday in March) celebrates local food, local agriculture and pigs; and Fall Festival (the last Saturday in October) celebrating local food, local agriculture and the harvest season. Thousands of people from all over Sacramento attend these free events.

9. DFM also provides a marketing, fund-raising and outreach venue for more than 500 community groups each year, enabling them to raise money, share information and recruit new members.

10. In 2011, DFM began its first Zero Waste program at Picnic in the Park, minimizing the amount of waste sent to the landfill to less than 5% of total waste. The market has continued to maintain that zero waste goal ever since.

11. In 2011, DFM was featured in the documentary, “Farmers Markets: Love at First Bite.� The documentary is now available on YouTube where in the first week of being posted, it was seen by people in New York, Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Puerto Rico, Maldives, Malaysia, Laos, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

12. In 2012, award-winning cookbook author Georgeanne Brennan and food activist and former Davis mayor Ann Evans wrote and published “The Davis Farmers Market Cookbook,� further enhancing the DFM’s image, reach and healthy eating advice.

Source: DFM Publicist Shelly Keller

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