Archive for Technology
Kentucky Farm Bureau visits Eckert’s Country Store
This past week, I was pleased to speak to 44 farmers from Kentucky on an ag tour through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. Chris Eckert, 7th generation, spoke to the group and led them on a behind the scenes tour of the new farm market, restaurant and peach packing plant.
The Kentucky Farm Bureau has an agritourism initiative and has over 100 certified roadside markets that are part of their group.
The best way to learn about what other farms are doing is to take tours. Farmers are always open to sharing their back doors with other out-of-state operators. While summer and harvest seasons are a hard time to get away, most of these Kentucky farmers acknowledged that it is exactly the time to be visiting other farms.
At the conclusion of the tour, I spoke to the group briefly about, “Getting On Board the Internet Superhighway” and other marketing strategies they could use to grow their business.
The Kentucky Farm Bureau did a great job in organizing this trip and stopping at a variety of locations. While the farmers were at Eckert’s Country Store in Belleville, IL, I asked them a couple questions to produce a video. To view the clip, click HERE.
Vote for America’s Favorite Farmers Market
Farmers markets are an important part of our communities and they help keep local farms thriving. Voting for your favorite farmers market in the America’s Favorite Farmers Markets contest is one great way to support local farms and homegrown products.
The process is simple. To vote for our market, all you have to do is:
1.) Go to www.farmland.org/vote
2.) Type in [Your Market Name]; and,
3.) Click “Vote”
That’s it. That’s all it takes to bring your local market one step closer to being America’s favorite farmers market!
So don’t forget to vote for your local market at www.farmland.org/vote and spread the word! Big thanks to everyone who has already voted!
Eckert’s Celebrates 100 Years in Retail
I’m proud to tell you that our 7th generation family farm business, Eckert’s Country Store just outside Belleville, IL, has recently opened a new 22,000 square foot market. Our old building built in 1927, was just too small and outdated to accommodate our current customer base. The new store features wider aisles, larger displays and plenty of family photos and memorabilia to maintain the country look that customers expect of Eckert’s.
The store features a large center island bakery with an oven to spread the wonderful baking aroma for the shoppers to enjoy as they browse the many new products. In addition, we feature a deli, prepared foods, fudge, wine, and specialty foods section. The homegrown produce department now offers everything in season from local farms. Of course, this time of the year is when our tree-ripened peaches are in good supply. Eckert’s has ready picked peaches to make shopping easy or also available is pick-your-own out in the orchards.
Now that the old store has been vacated, that space is under renovation so we can expand the restaurant by another 160 seats.
The family is proud to share our farm with you and invite you to come celebrate our 100 year farming tradition. If you would like to take a sneak peak at the new market, just CLICK HERE to view a video produced by my summer intern, Kristen Bereswill.
Minnesota Family Farms Take on the Law.
Recently Eckert AgriMarketing discovered a disturbing lawsuit in Lake Elmo, Minnesota that is hurting several small family farms. Currently farmers in Lake Elmo can only sell the products they grow at their farm. If they do not grow the crops inside the city limits, they cannot sell it.
This law goes as far as saying even if the farmer owns a parcel of land just outside Lake Elmo, they cannot sell the crop within the city limits. If you disobey and sell agricultural products that are not grown in Lake Elmo, you could spend 90 days in jail and fined $1,000.
Institute for Justice is teaming up with the farmers affected by this law to help bring on a federal lawsuit which the small farms couldn’t bring about themselves. Institute for Justice believes this law violates a protection Americans receive in the U.S. Constitution: Right to free trade. Meaning Lake Elmo does not have the right to restrict the sales of agricultural products because they were grown outside the city limits.
City officials say they support this law because it will make farmers grow the products that they sell, keeping Lake Elmo a rural area and keeping out products grown elsewhere. But actually this law could end up hurting many small farmers here and everywhere and has potential to put these farmers out of business. Because when farmers in Lake Elmo have a bad season, they rely on small farmers in other states to grow products they would want to sell at their farm markets. This law ends up hurting not only local farmers, but out-of-state farmers who rely on selling crops to the small farms in Lake Elmo.
Is this law fair? Should farmers in Lake Elmo be restricted to sell only what they grow in the city limits? Or does Institute for Justice make a valid point by saying this violates our constitutional right? I welcome your comments.
Watch this video clip to learn more.
NAFDMA in Lancaster, PA
Hello all,
We’re here in Lancaster PA at the NAFDMA convention, and outside there is a blizzard!
We’re learning all about how easy it is to manage and update blogs and other forms of social media.
More to come later!
Agritourism Operators are “Going Green”
One of the most current and talked about consumer and tourism initiatives that has all of us getting more involved is “Going Green,” or as one farm calls it, “Growing Green.” Consumers today are beginning to better understand that if we don’t begin to conserve our environment and reduce our carbon footprint, we won’t be leaving this world a better place for our grandchildren.
On a recent farm survey I asked several questions related to green-friendly practices being used on agritourism farms today. An overwhelming 47.5% of the farms are recycling their plastic bottles and soda cans from their food concessions. In addition, many farms recycle cardboard and are making intentional reduction of energy usage.
As would be expected, as stewards of the land, our farming practices include everything from organic to composting to reduced tillage as ways to improve the environment.
Farms have also joined the grocery stores in selling cloth and vinyl bags for re-use of product. In fact, one farm will even give their customers 10% off of products purchased at the farmers’ market everytime they use their bag and make a purchase. The Wittamore farm in Ontario created a very attractive vinyl bag with farm graphics and intentionally sought a Canadian provider.
I recently posted an article about this survey and you can Click Here to read the full article.
Great Lakes Expo Exceed Planners Expectation
Over 4,000 farmers are now in Grand Rapids, MI attending the
Great Lakes Expo. The farm conference this week featured six multi track programs.
I am here today showing this blog as an example.
Family Farm Co-op Sells Directly to Charlotte Restaurants
I recently came across an article in the Charlotte Observer telling about the Farmers Fresh Market that was established by the North Carolina Economic Development Center. The farm co-op is selling their products directly to chefs in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Chefs can simply log onto the co-op website to find out what is fresh and have the produce delivered direct to their kitchens within 24 hours of harvest.
This initiative is now in the third year and both the small farmer and the chefs say it’s a WIN-WIN for everyone. The small farmer is growing and delivering a broad variety of fresh produce that would not always be available and can do so on a frequent basis. Many of these farmers are even growing crops they had never heard of until they started working with the local chefs.
The chefs are excited because they are able to source local foods and some exotic offerings regularly and plan their menus based on the co-op supply of product. Many of these are high-end products that also provide a very good return for the small farmer. The program is showing these farmers that you don’t always need large acreage to produce a reasonable income.
There is no doubt that alternative marketing channels can benefit the small farmer. The Farmers Fresh Market Co-op is doing a great job of putting local fresh fruits and vegetables in the hands of local restaurants.
Corn Mazes, Pumpkin Patches & More on Family Farms!
The first day of October and time to plan your trip to the local pumpkin patch. I have recently spent time in both Alberta and Ontario and pleased to report that fall season offerings have grown across North America to become a favorite family weekend activity. Of course, there are many agritourism farms that still have plenty of apples ripe for picking.
Corn mazes, pig races and pumpkin cannons continue to dominate fall festivals on agritourism farms. It appears that farmers today are truly enjoying coming up with new attractions to delight their guests. Other activities that I have seen on farms this year include: duck races, tube swing, maze in an orange grove, jumping pillow, zip line, underground slide, parrot feeding, animal shows, barrrel rides, gem mining, silo climbing, kids karaoke, evening haunted hayrides, flashlight mazes, bonfires and many more.
It is time to plan your trip now to go apple picking and pumpkin picking before time gets away from you. For a listing of farms in your area that offer great fall season experiences just go to www.ruralbounty.com to find farms near you.
