RE: How to Market and Sell Your Produce
Excellent write-up with many crucial points to help people be successful. There are tons and tons of how-to-marketing books out there, and they all touch on all of these points. Educating yourself about your market is the basis for everything else. And you can't beat freindly, genuine passion for a quality product.
The only thing I would add, is to stay current with your education and knowledge of your market. There will be new competitors coming in, and old competitors going out and all kinds of changes over time. People's taste can change pretty quickly. I've sold hotel rooms and air filters, without much passion, I'm hoping having good natural products will be easier.
When I first started exploring this type of smaller scale farming, I dreamed what it would be like to have access to a market like Chicago. The land prices and property taxes were just too much for me, but it sure would be fun to try for anyone with that opportunity.
Good point. Always Be Evolving. A big market definitely has it's advantages, but with that bigger market comes bigger competition. If you think about it, you could make a really good living growing food for 100 families. 100 CSA shares at $650 each would gross $65,000. These numbers could be scaled up or down, but the possibility exists to earn a decent living by finding a select number of people that really love and support what you do.