The LocalHarvest Blog

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

As a consumer of food, do you ever think about what a farmer has to do to keep their business running and food delivered to your plate? If you do not produce food for a living, could you imagine people relying on you for the food they eat, for their sustenance? Could you envision making your living from what you grow or raise off of your land? Just let it sink in a little that kind of commitment and pressure.

What does it take to be a small to medium-scale farmer or rancher these days? Apart from the obvious of growing high quality food by keeping the pests at bay, controlling weed pressure, improving the fertility of the soil, selecting the right crops or animals for the climate, harvesting them at the peak of flavor (or a little before then), packing, delivering, and selling those crops, there is so much more to it. The necessary but less glamorous side includes financial management, managing employees, paying taxes and payroll, following regulations and obtaining proper licenses, acquiring and maintaining vehicles and equipment, building infrastructure, and the list just goes on. Just like many entrepreneurs, a farmer wears a lot of different hats and must be a master of everything.

As eaters of food, we often just see the farmer or her employee at the market, the food itself, and a bit of the work they do to unload it, display it, and sell it to other eaters. From that vantage point it looks relatively uncomplicated, maybe even something we could do ourselves. The farmer is happy- they are selling the fruits of their labor. The eater is thrilled- they are getting the freshest, tastiest ingredients available and they can feel a sense of contentment knowing their dollars went directly to the farmer. It all feels really good.

What goes on behind the scenes, however, is a lot of tedious, time-consuming bookkeeping, data management, phone calling, emailing, and chasing money. In order to survive, a farmer must pay attention to these things, even if they loathe them. Some farmers use computer spreadsheets, others still use paper and receipt books. Some use the front dash of their truck as their filing system, while others have a cabinet full of folders organized by customer, class, or month. To find and engage customers, there is a lot of phone calling, emailing, and talking in person. There is also social media, print media, advertising, flyering, speaking to groups, and any other method to get the word out. It's simultaneously exhausting and necessary.

LocalHarvest got its start over 16 years ago to make the lives of farmers a little easier and to help consumers locate and build relationships with the people who grow good food in their regions. That is our core, the farmers and the eaters. To this day, we still don't charge a penny for farmers, markets, restaurants, food hubs, and others to list their business and share their offerings. And we have over 7 million people a year that use our site to locate a CSA, a specific ingredient, find a farmers market, etc. We are making those connections that nourish people and build resilient businesses that sustain families and communities. We are humbled at the power of our small but mighty website to do these things.

Kindly,
-Rebecca Thistlethwaite

Guillermo

07:00 PM CDT