agriculture

Lots of Summer Ramblings Here: Strawberry Moon to Strawberry Festivals

Several years ago the bulb in our yard light burned out. It was one of those dawn-to-dusk lights set high on a line pole and even though my husband’s job is to regularly climb such poles, he just never got around to climbing ours.

At first, when I’d go out at night it seemed unnervingly dark. We don’t have immediate neighbors so nothing but the celestial sky lit our yard. Oh, but let me tell you, there’s no going back. The event of that burned-out bulb has totally heightened my appreciation of the night sky and I’m now a moon-gazing habitué.

Given that, here’s to a happy Strawberry Moon (Tuesday night) and upcoming Summer Solstice (Friday night). I love them both. With the full days of summer ahead, it’s a wonderful time of festivity and adventure.

Speaking of Strawberries…

They’re finally here! We live on a windy hill and it seems my patch is always a bit behind. But they’re here now and as delicious as ever. Just look at how red and juicy they are, unlike those so-called “strawberries” you find in the grocery store.

Hey folks, shop your local farmers! Eat real food!

Strawberry Festivals and More

One of my tastiest childhood memories is of a strawberry festival we attended while camping in northern Michigan. If I recall, it was a community church serving shortcake piled mile-high with strawberries and cream. Oh, so good!

Quite often such festivals are benefits for a specific cause (like these upcoming festivals here and here). Joining the celebration not only creates fun memories but also supports grassroots working together at its finest.

Food festivals have become one of the fastest growing forms of tourism and there’s a good reason why. They offer a sensory overload of the landscape, ethnicities, history, and food cultures of their given community.

Food lovers love food festivals; ask me how I know!

Which Leads Me To…

When it comes to festivals, I’m proud to help promote two Wisconsin biggies: The Soil Sisters in August and Fermentation Fest in October. These are annual celebrations that each draw thousands of people and have great social and economic impacts on their rural communities. Needless to say, a lot of organizing and marketing goes into these events.

Do you know of a festival looking to grow in its success? I’d love to help. Let’s talk about what makes a good festival and how to get the word out to all those fun-loving, destination travelers!

Earth Day and Double Duty Composting

Today, on Earth Day 2019, I’m thinking back to the roundtable discussion I was honored to lead at the MOSES Organic Conference. It was on marketing and it overflowed with interesting conversation. Today though, two particular points come to mind: composting and responsibility.

As we discussed innovative ideas to promote our farms, a woman whose name I missed (someone help me, please, I’d love to contact her) mentioned the composting campaign they’re doing for their CSA farm. They give buckets to their members and encourage them to bring food scrap compost to the farm each week where it will help to create fertile ground for next years’ crops. And I, whose marketing brain spins 24/7, suggested she be sure to put her farm name and website on the buckets.

Seriously though, isn’t a composting campaign a great idea in so many ways?

Full Circle of Sustainability

This year’s Earth Day theme is Protect Our Species and from bees to trees, good soil is vital for sustaining all of God’s creation. Composting is a small way to make a big impact on the enrichment of our soil. When we return scraps of food to the very soil from which it was taken, we complete a full circle of sustainability.

How cool is that for CSA members to participate in this full circle!

Responsibility + Ownership = Good Marketing

Marketing gurus tell us that allowing customers a sense of “ownership” is proven for building customer loyalty. We discussed this in our roundtable and how responsibility enables that sense of ownership.

The CSA farm’s composting campaign allows members to share in the responsibility of improving its soil for more nutrient-based produce. The result? These members become proud owners of the vegetables they helped to grow and they talk about them with their friends. Word of mouth marketing at its best!

What About You?

I’ve been composting for years and, gee, it’s such an easy way to put food waste to good use. Now, after touring the facilities of my newest customer, The Farmory, I’m inspired even further—maybe composting with worms?

What about you? Are you a business looking to heat up your environmental stewardship? Or a gardener wanting healthier soil? Earth Day is a great time to start composting—actually Earth Day celebrations last all week so you have time to find yourself a bucket.

So let’s get going and may the joyous rotting begin!

Want to learn more?
Soil health is a big conversation these days. Two recent and interesting articles are Compost, like the Earth Depends On It, from the Willy Street Co-op Reader and the Dirt Issue (Spring 2019) of Yes!

A Wolf Moon Welcome

Happy upcoming first full moon of the year!

Interestingly, not only will this be the Wolf Moon, it’s a Super Wolf Blood Moon. Super Moon, in that it’s closest to the earth in its elliptical orbit; Wolf Moon, because that’s the name given to January’s moon; and Blood Moon because of the reddish tint that’s going to appear when, yes, a lunar eclipse occurs. 

Barring cloudy skies, here in Wisconsin this stargazer’s phenomenon should appear this Sunday, January 20, between 10:41 and 11:12 p.m. You can bet I’ll be outside watching for it!

Back when people named moons according to the seasons, our northern ancestors hunkered themselves inside near a fire while wolves howled distantly in the January cold. Wolves are a common metaphor for hunger, yet families kept this wolf—hunger, that is—from their door with the food they’d put up earlier in autumn. 

These days, while in the cozy warmth of our homes, we’re browsing garden catalogs and dreaming of the spring months ahead when we can plant those first seedlings. The plans we make now shape the crops we grow in summer and the food we put up in fall, which in turn keeps “the wolves from our door” next winter. 

Preparedness: It’s ongoing through the seasons

For self-employed farm entrepreneurs, winter is time to plan your seed purchases. It’s also time to promote your farm and sign up members for the upcoming growing season. 

Next month is the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Conference and I’m presenting a workshop that offers great ideas for promoting your farm. The workshop is Marketing & Branding 101 and will be Saturday, February 23, in La Crosse, Wisconsin. We’ll talk branding, because you have to brand yourself before you can market. We’ll then discuss marketing and how social media has become the easiest and most cost effective way to promote your small business. 

Hope to see you next month in La Crosse!

Where We Talk About Women and the Difficulties of Self-Promotion

My cousin JerriLynn is an amazing woman. When we were both barely into our 20s, she was an audacious entrepreneur with her own whole foods store. Since then she’s succeeded in a variety of ventures, always with moxie and always with finesse. These days she’s in real estate and even though I’m a Great Lake away from her Lansing, Michigan market, I love following her work.

I’m bragging about my cousin because just about the time Lisa Kivirist and I were taping our In Her Boots episode on the difficulties women have promoting themselves, JerriLynn’s quarterly newsletter came in the mail. I was blown away by how skillfully she announced her latest achievements, all the while keeping to her genuine and unpretentious self (and anyone who’s met JerriLynn knows this is who she truly is).

No matter what industry you’re in, tooting one’s horn is a necessary component of running your own business. It’s marketing, after all. Interestingly, many women think of self-promotion as a necessary evil. Maybe you do too? I admit I have to push myself, but I’ve also learned ways to make advocating my work easier and more authentic.

So here’s our In Her Boots, episode 60. Lisa and I share great first steps for telling your story and effectively promoting what you do. Listen up and then share your own ideas!

Marketing Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Okay, we hear this all the time: life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Like when you explore places you’ve never been. Or hang a shingle for your own business. Or, in my case, do a podcast for some of the coolest ladies ever.

That was me recently when I was interviewed by Lisa Kivirist, host of the In Her Boots Podcast. This is a great series celebrating the collaborative spirit of women farmers and, yes, I was a bit outside my comfort zone (who doesn’t cringe at the sound of their own voice?). But Lisa is awesome and her talented son, audio engineer Liam Kivirist made me feel right at home. It was super fun.

Lisa and I talked marketing—specifically marketing for small farms and women farmers. Both entities are unique and often find marketing to be outside their comfort zone. For some it’s a time constraint, for others it’s not in their personal nature. We discussed how marketing overall has changed and how we can adapt these new strategies to better fit who we are.

Stay tuned in the weeks ahead for each of these episodes!

Speaking of small farms and women farmers—last week my husband and I explored the cranberry regions of western Wisconsin. Neither of us knew much about this industry and we found it fascinating. While touring the Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center, a great place to learn all things cranberry, we asked where we could buy fresh cranberries (certainly the one and only item not in this well-stocked gift shop). We were directed just up the road to Wetherby Cranberry Company (ahem, strategic marketing happening right there, folks).

Wetherby Cranberry Company has been in business since 1903. It’s been owned by Nodji Van Wychen’s family since 1972. They’re one of the few farms—or marshes, as cranberry growers call their land—that sell their product independently rather than through cooperative giants such as Ocean Spray. I’m in awe of how Nordji promotes her cranberries.

Guess what I’m serving for Thanksgiving this year!

Wetherby Cranberries, Warrens, WI

 

Going the Extra Mile

When it comes to promoting my clients, I love getting out and shouting the good word. It’s easy because I design for clients I totally love and they give me great things to shout about.

There’s something to be said for promoting one’s clients. Their success is my success, after all. But even more, it means I believe in them and I value their product. It means I know their industry. Because I target clients who share my passions, we talk the same talk, walk the same circles and, together, know what brings optimal success.

My Current Project

These days I’m promoting Fermentation Fest, an annual event for which I design a 48-page guide. It bubbles over in my list of personal interests—food, art, agriculture, travel—so, of course, it’s one of my favorite projects of the year. And delivering guides to fascinating people and places throughout southern Wisconsin is as much a perk for me as it is for my client.

Come early October, you can bet I’ll be attending Fermentation Fest. I love the more than 50 interesting classes, hands-on workshops, tastings and more, taught by fermenters, artists, bakers and brewers. I love touring the rolling hills of Sauk County and finding art, performances and music in the Farm/Art DTour.

Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? It truly is and it’s an event the whole family can enjoy.

Fermentation Fest 2018 guides

#GetYourFermFestGuide2018Here

Listed in order of cities are venues where you can find Fermentation Fest guides. If you’re not in these areas, check out the Fermentation Fest website or join the mailing list.

Landmark Creamery, Belleville (Paoli)

SchoolGrounds Coffee House, Cottage Grove

Milwaukee Street Traders, Delafield

Fitchburg Public Library, Fitchburg

2 Rivers Bicycle & Outdoor, Fort Atkinson

Café Carpe, Fort Atkinson

Brickhaus Cafe, Jefferson

GetCulture, Madison

Ground Zero Coffee, Madison

Jordan’s Big Ten Pub, Madison

Madison Sourdough, Madison

Regent Market Co-op, Madison

Sequoya Public Library, Madison

Willy Street Co-op East, Madison

Willy Street Co-op North, Madison

ZuZu Cafe & Market, Madison

Willy Street Co-op, Middleton

Roots Coffeebar & Cafe, Oconomowoc

Firefly Coffee House, Oregon

Good Harvest Market, Pewaukee

2 Rivers Bicycle & Outdoor, Watertown

Tribeca Gallery Cafe & Books, Watertown

 

 

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It Takes Grandparents and a Full Flock

The Instagram rule of poultry is if you’re going to raise layers, you must produce a rainbow of egg colors. Given that—and because I have grandchildren who, in my mind, rate much higher than Instagram—I choose breeds specifically for their color of eggs. My chick order this spring consisted of Ameraucanas for their pastels, Marans for their chocolate (I usually forget and say chocolate covered instead of colored, haha, wouldn’t that be nice), and the gentle, very pretty Lavender Orpingtons for their brown.

Add these to my white-egger Leghorns from last year and you get a full spectrum in every dozen. All for the grandchildren.

flock of chickensRecently my husband was perusing the Abendroth catalog and noticed Lavender Orpingtons were $9.95 each. Oops, I guess I never checked prices. And…Lavender Orpingtons only come as a straight run, meaning they could be male or female. Oops, I didn’t check that either. They’re for the grandchildren, after all.

Isn’t it funny what we do as grandparents?

Fermentation Fest event guide 2018

Last week I wrapped up work on the Fermentation Fest event guide and sent the final draft to press (put the paper to bed, to be jargonly correct). Because this year’s guide is to be a reversible (half of it printed upside down), I went to the print agency to verify it was laid out correctly. Look at this, not only was I provided with individual proof pages and a full size mockup, I also got a cute, mini mockup. I feel like a beloved grandchild.

I’m thinking my favorite businesses are like grandparents; they give more than their all without a second thought. And just as it takes a full flock to produce that colorful dozen of eggs, so it takes a multitude of grandparently businesses to produce a successful event guide. Donna Neuwirth, founder of Fermentation Fest, is a brilliant visionary. Cricket Design Works illustrated the gorgeous front covers—both of them! Badger Group is the dedicated agency doing our professional printing. I can’t put into words how honored I am to work with each of them.

2018 Fermentation Fest event guide

Lastly, Fermentation Fest is made possible by a long list (can we say full flock?) of sponsors, funders and partners. Be sure to check them out in this year’s event guide, which will soon be out in various locations. Watch for it!

Lavender Orpington rooster

And now…drumroll…here’s a Lavender Orpington update. One, and only one, is a rooster. He’s developing his comb, learning to crow and is violaceously beautiful (men have all the luck). If he’s gentle enough, maybe we’ll keep him and hold back a few eggs for hatching.

You know, for the grandchildren.

 

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Love My Market, Love My Farmers!

It’s National Farmers Market Week and I couldn’t appreciate it more, having just attended a workshop on Raleigh’s Hillside Farm. Oh, my goodness, the arduous, hand labor that goes into producing high-quality, organic vegetables. Let’s take a moment right now and send out a #lovemymarket and #lovemyfarmers!

The turnout was big for the In Her Boots workshop

The Raleigh’s Hillside Farm event was one in a series of In Her Boots Workshops put on by the Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) and was held in conjunction with the inspirational Soil Sisters weekend (all clients for whom I’m honored to design).

The focus was on hopeful and beginning farmers, and as you can see by the long line of cars, the interest was huge!

Lauren Rudersdorf, Raleigh's Hillside Farm
Raleigh’s Hillside Farm, Brodhead, WI, provides high-quality, organic food to CSAs, area restaurants and schools.

Lauren Rudersdorf is half the husband-wife team of Raleigh’s Hillside Farm and an enthusiastic Soil Sister (she’s the group’s millennial social media whiz). She presented us with a wonderfully authentic day in the life of an organic vegetable farmer and covered the nitty gritty of starting from scratch.

Lauren and her husband, Kyle, began their farm in 2013 on leased family land. She readily admitted they had little experience and even less money. Listening to her now, she’s a wealth of information on farming practices, soil management, produce handling, finances, growth projections and marketing. On top of that, she’s a barefoot bundle of positive energy, which shows in her social media and blog The Leek and The Carrot.

Lauren Rudersdorf, Raleigh's Hillside Farm
With a goal of not going into debt their first five years, the Rudersdorfs kept their investments to a minimum. Here Lauren explains their walk-behind wheel hoe and cultivators.

But, hey, farm life is more than romantic Instagram imagery. There are fields to cultivate, weeds to conquer, produce to harvest, wash and chill, and consumers to acquire and deliver to. Lauren and Kyle now run four acres and as I overlooked those beautiful rows my heart palpated thinking of the day in, day out physicality of such a business.

Even a farm tour didn’t deter Kyle from a day in the field.

Now into their sixth season, Lauren and Kyle have begun investing in their farm. They purchased a Kubota tractor and built a pack shed for washing and storing produce. They also added to their hoop house, which they use for starting seedlings in the spring and extending their growing season.

Display of vegetables from Raleigh's Hillside Farm, Brodhead, WI

Becoming Educated and Taking Action

Most people, myself included, don’t realize how much goes work into that gorgeous display of produce at a farmers market. How naive we are. So on this National Farmers Market Week—and every other week for that matter—what can we do to keep these farming super heroes in business?

Unless you live under a culinary rock, we all know the physical and psychological benefits of eating quality, organic, local food. So let’s support those who produce it!

We know the conventional food-to-store system is broken. Farmers markets are an alternative and more sustainable way to put food on our tables. So let’s shop there. Here’s a directory of markets near you!

We know food brings people together. The same can be said for farmers markets; they bring value to the community and unite its people. So get to know your farmers! Talk with them and learn how they produce their food. Share recipes. Farmers markets are so fun!

Happy Farmers Market Week! Get out there and love your farmers!