Best Olive Oil On The Market

While you may have a great-tasting farm product, you still have to test it in the marketplace. It's one thing if everyone you know loves your muffins—especially if they're free. For example, did your blueberry muffins sell out in the first hour, but...

Of course, many businesses who provide value-added products also provide services—they are not mutually exclusive. When we think of adding value to our farm business, we tend to think of turning something we grow into something else: Pork becomes sausage,...

Repeat at the top of the box. Cut the images of the vegetables on your grouped seed packets into 2-by-2-inch squares. The figure should look like a triangle, and the holes you punch should meet at the point.

With this material, the site generates a video that can be shared on social media or your farm website. Marketing helps this happen. And you do want that number, because it exempts farm purchases from taxation and makes you eligible to receive certain...

Basil : On each stem, cut off above the new pair of leaves below a decent-sized bunch of more mature leaves. Mints : Take whole stems. This practice stimulates plant growth, causing two stems where there was one.

This is leaf spinach, and it's what most people probably associate with spinach. Of course, all processing of vegetables must be done in a commercial kitchen or with a home processing license, but freezing is generally easier and more easily approved...

This is a grocery store trick, and one that I believe can serve farmers well. Customers like to see that you care, and your booth is a great way to show them before you ever meet them.

Maximize such abilities. You must comply with your state laws as well as the rules of the farmers market where you want to sell. Depending on what you plan to sell, you might also have to look up additional details for the following areas: If you want...

Get creative here—t-shirts, totes, homemade goods, wool … there are so many farm-made items that make great gifts. Always keep a cooler of ice and keep swapping out any rough looking greens, and remember to mist them with clean and fresh tap water...

Follow these tips on pricing and marketing the butternut squash. Over the years, butternut squash has become a fall and winter staple for many farmers. Inquire at Restaurants Restaurants typically order in bulk, and some prefer larger butternut squash...

Either way, the farmers market is a big investment for the farmer—in time, resources and money—so the better the farmer can utilize that time, the more worthwhile this weekly event will be overall.

That is just the nature of the cucumber plant, which can be one of the most prolific crops in the summer garden. A lot of larger growers package their cucumbers individually. So when your crop is out of hand choose small cukes for pickling and sell them...

For that reason I generally recommend pricing them by volume (container) or individually. Figure out what kind of volume they might want and plant accordingly—a plant will give you at least one to three fresh flowers per day in peak season, so plant...

(Most growers of hardneck garlic will cut off the scapes to force growth into the bulbs. Offer some crusty bread with a garlic and Parmesan dipping sauce or garlic-infused oil for dipping.

Both companies believe in small farms and love the collective's produce, Matthews says. Working in an urban environment was a different animal; not the peaceful bucolic scenes of her former farming stops.

Try out 20 plants and see how they do. Think wild foraged when you think of food trends. “Connect with other foragers in your area, and find a mentor who can help you with identification, along with a field guide and an online group where you can post...

It can be a little tricky with the flea beetles, but it's relatively tolerant of disease and heat tolerant—always something we appreciate in our humid Kentucky climate. As with anything, you need to consider your cost of production when pricing arugula.

If you're selling foods you prepared in your home kitchen according to cottage-food regulations or in a commercial kitchen, if you're selling ready-to-eat food, or if you're offering food samples of any kind, you probably need a license from the health...

Countless times over the years, our farm has needed a nice photograph for one thing or another. And when they are beautiful and really professional, all-the-better, right? Sometimes it's a blog post for our shareholders, sometimes it's for announcing...

Stands adjacent to garden plots or orchards are considered more “farm-like,” thus better, because customers expect that country touch. Break up uniform masses of green produce with beds of red and orange using radishes, colored bell peppers, tomatoes...

The contents and styles of fiber club boxes run the gamut: some are sock yarn only while others consist of thematically-dyed rovings (think Harry Potter colorways). Creating an attractive booth is a lot of work, however.

Try kale , spinach or chard. If you plan to bring your packaged juice to market, it will likely need to be produced in a certified commercial kitchen unless you're operating under your state's cottage food law .

Remember, in no way should you be breaking laws to sell raw milk when it's deemed illegal in your state. Promote Other Products Instead of relying exclusively on raw-milk sales, diversify your operation and sell other farm products, such as vegetables,...

Use them to get your farm noticed and attract future customers. For me, marketing is one of the biggest challenges of farming. Facebook is great for this, too. (Obviously, the more specialized video equipment you have, the better the videos will turn...

“Wow! What a great first season.” Chris Pinto, owner of Blue Harvest Farms, put those words on the website of his new 7-acre, agritourism, u-pick blueberry farm in Covington, La. He hadn't initially planned to pursue any form of agritourism; he was...

Nationally, the census identified 12,549 CSA farmers, whereas a count on LocalHarvest is closer to 3,000. The researchers also found that most Central Valley CSA farmers don't depend solely on CSAs for their farm income: They also pursue other direct-marketing...

Ready-To-Cook Dinners There are companies out there who are doing great business sending whole meals to customers—already portioned out, with recipes and ready to cook—and charging per delivery.