An Interview with Blue Sky Organic Farms

From farm stores and markets to wholesale and restaurants customers, there are so many ways to sell local food. Read on to learn about an organic farm that is using Local Food Marketplace as a single software solution for selling to four different sales channels.

Looking for an all-in-one system?

Get your FREE Demo!

LFM Customer Profile: Blue Sky Organic Farms

David Vose, Founder of Blue Sky Organic Farms.

• • A certified organic family-run farm that has been growing in Arizona since 1994.
  • Founded by David Vose, a chef who wanted to find quality produce and decided to fill the void in the market himself by becoming a farmer, which led to starting Blue Sky Organic Farms.
  • “Our goal is to fulfill the need for local, high-quality organic produce in the immediate community.”

Today, Blue Sky Organic Farms operates a large CSA farm share program, participates in four weekly farmers markets, sells to a large wholesale client base, and runs an on-site farm store full of local food and products from other Arizona-based producers.

Local Food

Blue Sky Organic Farm’s products have gained a reputation across the country—but the number one goal of the farm and its staff remains providing local organic food to the immediate community. We recently spoke to Brenda Lopinski (CSA Manager) and Vicki Silvera (Office Administrator) about their experience implementing LFM’s software to help the farm reach even more local consumers.

Blue Sky Organic Farms switched to LFM in 2020, in a time when the demand for online shopping was higher than ever due to the COVID pandemic.

“With COVID, a lot of people really realized the importance of local food,” says Vicki. “If there’s a crisis and I can’t get it in the store, maybe I can find it locally—and oh my gosh it tastes so much better!”

Bringing New Sales Channels Online

Prior to adopting LFM, Blue Sky only sold online to one of its sales channels—CSA farm share members.

Blue Sky basically has four different sales channels. We reached out to LFM because we need ONE platform that had a shared availability and distribution solution. We wanted an online presence for all our sales channels, not just CSA.

Ready to bring your local food sales online? Reach out today for a free demo of our all-in-one local food sales platform.

Specific LFM features that Blue Sky Organic Farm Loves

Brenda and Vicki named a few reasons why LFM outshined the competition in helping Blue Sky Organic Farms increase its local food sales:

1. Unlimited Price Lists

Not only did LFM help Blue Sky bring the rest of their sales channels online, LFM has helped Vicki and Brenda set unique prices for the same products.

“Because we serve so many different types of retail and wholesale customers, from local valley distributors to boutique restaurants, we thought that we couldn’t sell online because of the unique pricing for those channels. Because LFM offers the ability to set multiple price levels, we can literally sell one product for a hundred different prices if we want to.”

2. Customized Online Experiences

Vicki & Brenda have been able to customize the online experience for different shoppers. For example, retail prices are slightly higher than wholesale due to the work required to box smaller quantities of product. However, retail customers can view and purchase the wide variety of local products at the farm store—from spices and seasonings to kombucha, as long as they are organic and local. For wholesale customers, the only products they see online are the foods grown and produced by Blue Sky Organic Farms.

3. Sales Growth Opportunities and Shared Product Inventory

Vicki of Blue Sky Organic Farms and one of the farm’s goats.

New online sales options for individual shoppers also meant new sales growth opportunities for Blue Sky.

“Before we implemented LFM, only CSA customers could buy online. Now, anyone can pick up an order. So we do have retail customers that are shopping online weekly without having to commit to a CSA box.”

One change to Blue Sky’s CSA program after switching to LFM is that members can now shop for add-on items through the online market. “Since LFM accommodates our whole inventory, we could expand our product offerings to CSA customers.

“We had a CSA customer develop some dietary restrictions, so she couldn’t get her regular farm box. She was super excited to find she could keep ordering online and picking up from the farm store every week.”

4. The Support Team

Vicki says of the LFM support team “I have nothing but positive things to say about support team. Nick especially has been nothing less than responsive, he has worked really diligently with us. From a support aspect you guys rock!”

Looking for more ways to grow your business and save time? Check out some free resources for farmers and food hubs:

• • • Read about how LFM helps one food hub work with over 50 producers:
      • “What helps is that LFM is organized in a way that as producers, we list inventory ourselves, set prices, and describe our own products. We maintain the transparency of sourcing—you can see where every product comes from and customers value that.” –Kate Donald, Stout Oak Farm
    • Looking to save time? Here’s how to gain 20 hours a week.
    • Check out our free Guide to CSA Retention
    • Want to keep up with all things Local Food Marketplace? Join our email list!