Week 1-
Creating QR code for submitting pictures-
In creating this code, I had to figure out two main issues, first was finding a website that people can upload the photos through, second was having all of those pictures go into the same file that can be accessed now and in the future by other farm staff/students. An issue came with finding a website/program to upload the photos through that was accessible, Microsoft Forms would only allow those with an evergreen email to respond, and the same with Google Forms and having a Google account. I want every visitor, Evergreen-related or not, to be able to upload. Through a specific niche, I was able to find the perfect website, weduploader.com, where typically users upload pictures as a wedding guest and put them into a shared drive the couple creates. It allows anybody to upload their photos as long as they have the QR code. I used a Google account that I will share with farm staff but was also used for my next project.
Creating QR code for visitors/students to share recipes-
I created a new Google account to support this so the recipes could be emailed to me. It was the most direct and efficient way to create a spot solely for the recipes, and it kept me from having to give out my personal information. I created copies and hung them throughout the campus to try and solicit as many responses as possible.
Researching Social Media Marketing-
What is social media marketing?
Using social media to promote products/services, interact with your customers, and ultimately drive traffic to your business. Marketing is used differently depending on the type of business, for the farm having genuine, informative posts is important rather than hopping on to some social media trend. To accurately market we need to identify a few goals with what we hope to gain from social media. Which is awareness of our products/market stand, to inform students and community members of our values (organic farming and promoting student learning). Learning the farms’ target audience, and posting quality content often will be the first stepping stones to more brand awareness and gaining that attention. We don’t post to get social media famous, or to reach a large audience, it’s for the local community who want to support us.
Assisting with Land-Based Learning class-
Week one with the class was wonderful, you could see that the students were excited and ready to help with the farm needs. Our big task was to move the yew branches from what was the medicinal herb garden, through that I noticed many students comment on how much quicker the work went when everybody worked together. Large tasks like that where overall participation is needed can be difficult if everybody isn’t on the same page, but the LBL class understood the community aspect and worked together to move the larger branches and dig out the root clumps. I went back and forth to help with loading the branches and answering questions about the farm and our processes. Helping students become familiar with the locations of tools, where to wash them, and answering questions both related to the task and not.
Week 2-
Cookbook-
The “Standard” is typically only the recipe instructions, and amounts of ingredients, and is usually divided into categories like breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, etc. All of which are necessary for accurately making the recipes and navigating the cookbook. I plan to have categories by growing seasons and what is grown during those times. It will be personalized for the farm, including pictures and illustrations, as well as favorite recipes of the farm staff. I aim for about 15-20 recipes per category to have a good variety.
Calendar-
The “standard” for a calendar is just days, days of the week, and holidays/time changes. I also plan to include the moon phases as well. There are plenty of calendar templates online, so it’ll be a matter of which is the best suited for my customization. The monthly pictures will be high-quality ones of the farm relating to the season/month.
Updated Flyer-
Starting Draft for Face-in-the-Hole Board Design-
The Face-in-the-Hole Board is meant to be put out during the market stand or events to encourage more interaction with customers, and to have second-hand marketing through those customers on social media. They will ideally post pictures of themselves/their family with it which could drive more customers to the stand, even if it’s just to check it out, those are plenty more potential customers.
Week 3-
Recipe Template Cards-
The purpose of the recipe template cards is to have information readily available at the market for customers who want to buy, but are intimidated about the idea of finding something to cook with what they buy from us. Often the knowledge of the people attending the market stand is a big factor if people purchase or not, these recipe cards give them the support to make cooking as easy as possible. Also yes, this is a real banana bread recipe (and my personal favorite) so please try this.
Research tea blends-
Nettle, raspberry leaves, mint, blackberry leaves, blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, fig, apple, kiwi berry, rosebud, lavender, lemon balm, catnip, chamomile, are all of the things I’m aware of that are commonly used in tea, that we also have on the farm. Tea blends seem to be somewhat secretive when they are advertised online. The basic description is included but not the exact ingredients. I plan to try different blends in the spring and have students/participants taste them to find the best few blends. Tea blends would be an incredible Value-Added product that many community members would enjoy.
Week 4-
Flower Station Poster-
Silica for Flower Drying Research-
During my research for using silica for flower drying, I found that there were little to no resources online. Eventually, I found a directory for WSDA, and I was able to reach a general help hotline, where I was able to get answers. To comply with organic regulations, we have to have the silica not touch the flowers at all. For example Having a large amount of silica gel packets in a container with the flowers, in which case we can sell as normal and labeled as organic. The other way is to have straight silica gel in a container touching the flowers, but we would have to be very clear in selling them as “non-organic”. So they would have to be separate from the normal flowers and be labeled as nonorganic. I am currently testing at home the gel packet idea, since I only have a small amount is has only dried a bit but we will determine what the best option is for the market stand.
Week 5-
There are a few key strategies most farmers market stands do while setting up to maximize visual interest. Fresh and Beautiful, putting out clean, ripe produce should be the standard, and customers become a lot less interested if you have items that are discolored and rotting with your normal full price product. Having a “half-off” basket or something similar can help in selling that produce and keeping it separate from the better quality product. Bountiful Baskets, having baskets (or whatever container you choose) overflowing with product shows abundance and is more eye catching. In my experience at the market stand, customers feel almost guilty for taking the last of something and it will end up not being sold. Vertical Space, similar to abundance, having a tall basket, or a multi-tiered shelf is very visually interesting, creates more space for abundance to be shown and more room for product. Clear Signage, having the price very obvious is so important, customers tend to skip over an item if they are unsure, and when there is a line full of people waiting, you don’t have time to look up everything individually or answer all of the questions. Overall, having a stand where your brand identity is clear, and you have an organized, abundant display, customers will come. The first thing people do is look at your stand and based of that alone, decide if they want to come shop, so it is very crucial to have good displays.
Marketing for The Evergreen Organic Farm is different than other farms. We already have a customer base built in, students are our biggest customers. Most of the advertising for the market stand is through word of mouth, our social medias, and just having the stand set up and in sight. What I found to be most important is the interactions while at the stand. Having the market helpers be knowledgeable about what we’re selling, and being able to guide customers on how to use our product is the best way to sell. Students especially can get intimidated by the variety and often don’t know how to cook with some of our produce. Giving them ideas that are simple and easy to cook has gotten us hundreds of dollars In sales we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Having special events is important because it introduces potential customers to the farm, and makes it feel personal. The Evergreen Organic Farm’s identity as a business, is that we are a part of the community. Many farmers in the area went through the P.O.F (practice of organic farming) program at evergreen. So continuing to involve our community, and showing them how our produce gets to their table creates a sense of connection. While making money is obviously a priority, we want to give students and community members quality produce at a good price, things like the Clean Energy Committee Grant, which gives students 50% off at the stand helps us do that.
Giving tours and hosting events is important in our outreach. Tours often being primary and secondary schools who are learning something related to the outdoors in their own class. These tours are typically arranged by the teacher of the visiting class, because it Is often dependent on their own course, us reaching out to them is not really worth the time. Usually the teacher reaches out in advance and we plan for their visit depending on the grade level/age. These tours end up being indirect advertising, as the students will go home and tell their family of the tour, and they often want to come and visit for themselves. We always welcome anyone who would like to visit, as I said previously, seeing what we do and how creates a sense of connection to the process, and gets more people to the market stand.
Week 6-
Having dried herbs is a product I see working well for us. Again, students can be intimidated with figuring out what to cook with our ingredients, and being able to use them before they go bad. This would eliminate the second problem, and give the customers more time to use these herbs. Getting the approval through WSDA for a single ingredient product is much easier than a multi ingredient product. The herbs would be quite simple to dry, then it is a matter of weighing the same amount every-time and packaging. I was unable to get the approval this quarter as we did not have enough grown of anything for me to sufficiently harvest and test different amounts. This will reduce our amount of waste, as we can dry the older product so it can still be sold rather than having to be composted. The dried herb I think will bring the most income is dried catnip/cat grass. Students are able to have cats in their dorms, and this is a great advertising opportunity to use Butch on the packaging as he is a big part of the farm.
List of evergreen events we could be at-
Holiday Bazaar
Wellness fair
Harvest fest
Week 7-
Vistaprint has been used by the farm in the past for flyers, business cards, etc. But they have much more than paper products. Vistaprint will be what we use for promotional materials such as stickers, shirts, and even the calendar. While of course having a local printing shop would be ideal, we must take into account the budget, and how much we plan to sell the new products for vs how much they cost to produce.
Throughout the class, I was often tasked by Beth to find something online. This is a simple thing you wouldn’t think about, but it takes much longer than you would think. Like finding small sizes of rubber gloves, or a produce card that she had gotten free with an order which has no branding.
Week 8-
Unfortunately because of the lack of engagement with both the photo upload and the recipe upload, I opted to not do the survey as I expected that it would also get little to no feedback. But In the past at the market stand and with students who have visited before, I talked to them and discovered that the biggest issue people have is difficulty with the labeling/pricing system. We do not have a permanent set of price cards to set out, so they often have to be rewritten almost every day, which can lead to them being unclear because of handwriting, or have the wrong information on them. This makes it difficult to navigate, and when customers have to do too much to know what they want to buy, they just choose to leave instead. Having permanent cards will not only make set up faster for market, but it will remove that problem. We will also have blank cards in case an item needs to be changed for some reason.
While this was not on my list of assignments, I was able to help rehome a cat that had gotten onto the farm. This day specifically showed me that things often happen on the farm that you aren’t expecting but need to deal with. This cat fought with Butch so we couldn’t have kept him there. Thankfully Marriah was in a place where she could take him in and give him a good home!
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