Founded in 2016 by seven Southern Illinois farmers, the Little Egypt Alliance of Farmers (LEAF), had two goals in mind: to make ordering local food easier for busy customers; and to support small farmers by providing an online marketplace to sell their goods. The group adheres to naturally grown and...
If you’re like most CSA farmers, your Summer share season is reaching an end and plans for the next begin. As you think ahead, it’s important to deepen your connections now with your current members to keep them coming back year after year. To help make things easier, we’ve created...
Many farms regularly post mouthwatering images of harvested produce and farmers market booth layouts, and have attracted customers to their farm’s Instagram feed that want to learn more the people behind the farm and the story of their products. Farmers are attracted to Instagram because it facilitates communication...
You might be wondering – what is a Facebook Pixel? It is simply a piece of code that you put in the header of your website. It helps Facebook serve up Facebook or Instagram ads to people that have visited your website. If you have a Facebook or Instagram account,...
As the season gets underway, many farms are feeling overwhelmed by the many tasks that come with the start of the growing season. To the lighten the load, we created a guide to help you profitably sell to restaurants. Whether you have been selling to restaurants for years or are...
Located in the heart of Western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, Kitchen Garden Farm is a 50-acre, Certified Organic vegetable farm owned and operated by Tim Wilcox and Caroline Pam. They grow a full line of seasonal produce with a focus on specialty sweet & hot peppers and Italian vegetables like fennel,...
Every once in a while, something you read stops you in your tracks and makes you reflect and really think. Does this happen to you? A long time customer, Idaho’s Bounty Cooperative, recently wrote a letter to their stakeholders that illustrates so much of what our movement is wrestling with...
Photo Courtesy Central Mass Locavore If you ask Jacki Hildreth about the genesis of her thriving business, she made the obvious analogy to a common kitchen staple. “It’s like peeling back the layers of an onion”. Jacki’s lifelong love of local food began working in her parent’s backyard garden and...
As the season winds down, are you reviewing how this year has gone for your hub and where improvements can be made? Did you experience trouble this season with a producer circumventing your hub and making sales around it? We hear on almost a daily basis the struggle that hubs face in...
Does your food hub sell to restaurants, catering companies, or corporate kitchens or are you thinking about it? Restaurants are often the first step for a food hub that is aiming for the wholesale market and they are often a key piece of a food hub reaching financial sustainability....