Another BIG Bites
December 15, 2022
Creating opportunities to promote & sell VT products to more buyers in the northeast & beyond
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BIG snow is on the way! Stores up & down the spine of the Greenies are loading up on tons of products for the holiday push. Snow=sales in these parts. Lesser Distribution is racing the clock to pick up product & deliver down
valley & mountain roads from Waitsfield to Stratton. Mehuron's
Bob's Sriracha at every store keeps folks fired up for the long runs on the
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MKT ready-to-ship Vermont product gift boxes bump up sales to their customers |
Local & Regional Gifts
MKT Grafton is one of the many stores with robust gift offering for the holiday season. Curated & custom boxes are a hit for locals & they also ship loads to their loyal, yet distant shoppers. Located in the heart of the village they serve up fabulous, prepared foods along with Vermont products & artisan made treasures.
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MKT Grafton where packing & shipping efficiency matters
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Heavy Cream Season Has Arrived!
Miller Organic Farm in Vernon knows what bakers, cooks & chefs want in December. Heavy Cream. And lots of it! They now sell it in pints & half gallons. YES! Finally, sizes that fit the needs of the season. Heavy cream is the basis of so many fine sauces, desserts, & of course you cannot make a fabulous winter parfait without heavy cream whipped into a frenzy of joy.
The farm is also a notable producer of farm-friendly eggnog. The freshest ingredients go into this New England favorite. It all starts with the healthy soil, well-managed pasture, lovingly tended & cared for cows & chickens. This product is served at many holiday parties & a bit of 'season extending' with production beginning earlier & earlier to satisfy shoppers with sales focused from November into January. Miller Farm is a proud member of the
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Sarah from Red Wagon Plants attended Farm to Plate's Nov 2nd Producer Buyer Forum introducing several their products to buyers, while also
sporting company swag! The event provided an opportunity to get her products in
front of buyers & other food producers to broaden visibility that will lead to increased sales.
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Flavorful Herbs Round Out Meals
Seen around stores in various corners of the state are the expanding line of packaged herbs grown by Red
Wagon Plants. Thanksgiving week is always good for herb sales, RWP is
taking that a step further to provide stores with products throughout the
winter. Herbs of course are fantastic with meat & roasted vegies. Prominent
merchandising position will help drive sales of the dried & limited
selection of fresh herbs.
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Dreamy Dream Dream
Established as a woman-owned & operated working farm in 2003, Dreamwalker Farm has been host to an assortment of animals & Santa! Their farm store is loaded with their pasture-raised pork & rabbit, & locally raised Black Angus beef. They stock a number of Vermont off-farm products including fresh artisan foods, baked goods, cheeses, maple syrup, honey, prints, cards, stuffed animals, & more. Their flavorful fresh eggs are sold wholesale around the state & just down the road at Keeler's Bay Variety.
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The Holidays = Good Food
Brattleboro Coop proudly shares staff recommendations. Here we have the perfect mix of Vermont products. In the "walking display" Scott sold loads of Jasper Hill Farm's Willoughby cheese, washed with Putney MT Winery's & Spirts Simply Cranberry. He loves the delicate bitterness it lends, & greatly prefers it to the more traditional cranberry holiday cheeses. He's also holding one of Tavernier Chocolates Soppressata Picante from their "chocolate charcuterie options". Fabulous combo. Bravo Scott!
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Produce departments have met the recent challenges in gaps of lettuce with local greens. Green Mountain Harvest "Summer Crisp" lettuce is
here & selling fast due in part to its crisp-crunchy texture & every leaf
is perfect. It is the ideal sandwich lettuce for families. This hydroponic-grown crop is clean with no waste making for happy shoppers
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Yup, It's Tough Out There
When working with distributors, there is always a bit of unknowingness. The expectation is that they will handle your product well, uphold the proper temperatures, promote the product in their catalog so visibility is strong, & pay within terms. However, one never can be too sure. When you start out you don’t know if it is a good fit for both vendor & distributor to make sales goals & margin targets. That is one of the
things that makes it tough out there. You can make a lot of investments in
operations & marketing only to find it is not a strong working relationship.
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A hot item on cold days in our mountain towns! Available to stores through Lesser Distribution & online
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Sugar Bob & Lesser Distribution making the margins work in this busy season |
Entwined: It's Tough Out There
With so much emphasis on distributors buying & then adding dollars to the price before it lands at retail stores, it can be frustrating for emerging businesses to understand the margin formulas.
That is true too for long established businesses. In this year of rampant cost increases all along supply chains, food prices are in essence crazy high. Cost increases are at every point of production. Partly due to fuel. Partly due to inefficiencies in labor. Partly because there is an opportunity to raise prices as high as the market will bear.
Every business is a link in the supply chain with their own unique business ethos, culture, value statements & profit driven goals. With prices still unstable, some products are being priced in a way that shoppers have taken to be "higher than the market will bear". In other words, sales goals are not met at stores, by distributors & by food manufacturers. This is deleterious. multiplier effect impacting farm production levels & service businesses such as packaging companies.
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"Farmer as Retailer" Winter Training
Join the online winter session dedicated to on-farm retail operations hosted by VAAFM & F2P. This online training runs Wednesday mornings from January 11 - early April. The series covers a range of topics from permits to payments with outside consultants, farmer input, & lots of F2F sharing. Register here then stay tuned for a zoom link download. Space is limited & dedication to the series is expected. A second session may be added depending on demand.
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Farmers Did You Know?
Yoder Farm in the Mettawee Valley on the western side of Vermont is looking for more outlets for their premium cider vinegar. It sells well in farm stands, add-on CSA’s, coops & independent stores. It is available in quarts, pints, half gallons & bulk buckets. Made exclusively from chemical-free wild apples. The quality is unmatched by anything on the market, with highly competitive pricing. Consistently lower priced than the national brand, Braggs.
They are open to all inquiries for retail or bulk sales & currently ship through
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Act 143: The Ag-Tourism Mandate
This act regulates on-farm accessory businesses. If your business features or sells these products or any other qualifying products, it may be necessary to submit an application to your municipality for a site plan review.
Qualifying products are:
· An agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, or dairy commodity, or maple syrup
· Livestock or cultured fish or a product thereof
· A product of poultry, bees, an orchard, or fiber crops
· A commodity otherwise grown or raised on a farm
· A product manufactured on one or more farms from commodities wholly grown or raised on one or more farms
Different municipalities may have different rules, although they cannot prohibit an accessory on-farm business. Based on the regulations of your municipality, it may be necessary to submit a site plan review. The process begins with an application to the municipality in which the event or business will take place or be established in.
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Are You Ready?
Is it time to refresh your website? Retool your brand? Do you need extra eyes on your business? Consider working with a pro to fine-tune your business’s visibility.
Pam Knights Consulting has over 30 years helping our businesses succeed. Her focus has always been in the wheelhouse of farm-food, ag-tourism, food stores, & wood products. Are you ready for all that 2023 will bring to your business? Pam will help you meet & exceed your goals with her wealth of marketing & PR knowledge. Contact her for all the deets on what she can offer your business.
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In case you didn't know
Vermont Vegetable & Berry Growers Association annual membership drive is underway. Membership runs on the calendar year, the 2023 fee is $70, however if that presents a barrier to joining you can opt for a discounted rate. The fee increases to $80 after the annual meeting on January 24, 2023. Membership & annual meeting details
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Edible VT is a local publication that is part of the 'local edible community". Every issue features farm & food & beverage stories along with a ton of truly amazing businesses advertising. The magazine is available online & as hard copy. It might be a great place to advertise your food-adjacent biz or be featured as a story.
Reminder! Energy Savings
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Attention Food Manufacturers
The Vermont Agency of Ag & the VT Specialty Food Association are hosting "trade show preparation" webinars. This free series with Steve Redmond of Rival Brands teaches ways to freshen up your marketing. Steve has helped many brands grow their sales with his decades of experience. For info on joining this group, contact Erin@vtrga.org
VAAFM invites agricultural & forestry businesses to apply for tradeshow grants to identify, plan, exhibit, out of-state trade shows or virtual shows targeting out-of-state buyers. Matching grants can mitigate the financial risks associated with exhibiting at trade shows. Applicants may include up to five trade shows in their yearly marketing plan, requesting a total of between $2,000 and $5,000 in eligible reimbursements for shows that take place between April 1, 2023 & March 31, 2024. Find details here.
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End the year by thinking ahead!
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This issue is dedicated to Will Raap who passed away this week at his home in Vermont. He was a visionary reclaiming ancient Abenaki farm land & turning into one of the nations' first organic small-farm incubators 'The Intervale'. Along with that success was his creation of Gardener's Supply a company that provides tools & support for home gardeners to grow their own food. He was also instrumental in the creation of VBSR. At the time of his death, he was going full-steam reimagining farmland in Charlotte into another collaborative sustainable ag-enterprise at the former Nordic Farm. Will was a supporter of the Farm to Plate Network through his actions, his advice, mentoring, & his ability as a "big thinker" addressing solutions.
There is a lot of buzz going on this year around inclusivity & marginalized populations in agriculture, food, & businesses of all kinds. One of the issues that has become expressed in Vermont, as well as other states, is payment systems. As mentioned in prior Small Bites, there is an increase in cash-less transactions, self-service, & radio frequency-based contactless payment. Transactions are becoming more & more dependent on smartphone apps, chip-embedded debit & credit cards & away from cash. The pitch is that this provides safer transactions for the shopper & sales reconciliation & data collection by stores. Chip cards have become the norm & they are actually harder to steal info compared with magnetic strip cards because mobile payments & contactless cards don’t transmit name, card number, or the three-digit security code. From the point of view of hygiene, they are safer than handling cash.
But let's back up to inclusivity. Many marginalized people are 'unbanked' making all purchases & payments in cash. They may not be able to obtain credit, debit or utilize other contactless payment systems. Cash has long been associated with domestic abuse survivors’ ability to flee abusers who may monitor bank transactions. Since Covid hit in 2020 more & more stores, farmstands, & vendors are utilizing & requiring non-cash payment systems.
Many in the farm & food space are looking to efficiencies in operation, accounting, sales data & banking. For a fee it can all seem worth it. However, the percentage fee for each transaction (let's say 3%) eat away tight profit margins. When measured against social issues including inclusivity, cash-less transactions are further marginalizing rural populations with less than adequate broadband connectivity, the elderly who are unwilling to engage with cash-less & those who are unbanked.
Other concerns center around extreme climate disruptions, such as tornadoes, hurricanes & floods where entire electric grids & broadband are destroyed.
Though sales may be easier for some shoppers, there are hidden social costs. Some of these issues are being addressed through the lens of inclusivity at distributors, stores & farm stands tied to their mission statements & operating philosophy. A recent editorial shared by Pumpkin Village Foods is worth a read.
“Consumers need an all-American advocacy organization to protect and defend the use of paper cash, checks and money orders for the consumers’ control, freedom and the privacy these payment systems enable.” People interested in helping to create such an organization can write to Protect Cash, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, D.C. 20036, or email: info@csrl.org.
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Small Bites comes to you via USDA & High Meadows grants. Content is created for farmers, food manufacturers, distributors, & grocers to increase VT food sales
Contact: Annie H Harlow
smallbites802@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, photo credits are from company social media, websites or Annie Harlow
All info is subject to change; thank you to all who contributed to this issue
Special thanks to Peter Miller, Eileen Bradley, Seth MacCausland,
Michael Lesser, Matt Landi, & Trevor Lowell
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