The Fannie Farmer ’ marketplace is filled with a wide-cut variety of people , from experienced cooks and chefs to customers just cause into local solid food , and they all come with their own band of interrogation . Your ability to answer these myriad inqueries can translate straight to market sale , encourage the customers to issue forth back meter and again because you ’re trustworthy and helpful .
If you ’re planning to head to market with your produce or meat , here are six uncouth question you might hear .
1.Are you organic?/Do you spray?
Technically , to be Certified Organic , you must utilize for and accompany the normal of the USDA ’s National Organic Program , at which point in time you are grant organic certification . you may lawfully use the term “ constituent ” to describe your solid food only if you have gone through this process .
But what if you observe constitutional principles and are not certified ? just explain that to your customers . Explain that you do n’t use chemical and prefer biologic solutions for pestis and weeds , but have choose not to be or have not yet been certified . Most customers react well to this answer .
“ Do you spray ? ” is a exchangeable interrogative but more to the point . plainly tell them if you do or do not use chemicals . If they ask further , you could explain which ones you use ( if any ) , how you apply them and how they affect your farm environment .
2. Did you grow these yourself?/Are these veggies homegrown?
Some markets allow their vendors to buy food wholesale then resell it . However , mass often like to buy food from the farmer and will ask you if you rise or elevate it yourself . They ’re likely ask just to verify you did n’t purchase from another farmer .
3. What’s the difference between these _____?
customer will fill in the blank with anything from tomato plant , garlic , cuts of sum or unlike - colored eggs . You should have a good estimate of the mouthful characteristics of different variety of produce , pith or eggs and how they cook in comparison to one another . Before die to market , gustatory perception - trial what you project to betray . Sometimes the difference may be negligible , but a heap of time the customer just wants to cognise if they should be buying one over the other . If you have n’t yet had a fortune to sample everything , you may always ask other farmers who grow the same varieties what they think , or inquire customer what they wish to do with the item they buy .
4. How do you prepare this?
It ’s a good idea to have one recipe you enjoy in judgement for each item you sell and a basic understanding of how it ’s typically prepared . If you are not a devotee of a certain vegetable or cut , that ’s all right — peruse cookbooks for seasonal dishes others can groom easy . Even if you do n’t come to marketplace with elaborated recipes , tender a few ideas for how it can be fain or what cultures , countries and cuisines it ’s most unremarkably associated with will help customers to envision the detail ’s use in their kitchen .
5. Why is everything so expensive?
seek to contend with most supermarket prices will speedily put you out of stage business , so do n’t assay . Charge what you retrieve your food is deserving and explain to the customer the employment involved with your meat , give rise or eggs , but how the client is guaranteed a more flavorful and sanitary ware by buying from a local farmer like yourself . Also , item in the grocery store often journey thousands of miles , and can come from entire other country and continents , whereas the solid food from your farm had to travel only as far as you did . evidence them that , along with anything else that break into your pricing . Occasionally a customer will pass , but more often than not you will get a incontrovertible response , a sale and a loyal customer .
6. Are these free-range/pastured?
In esteem to meat and testis , customer may want to know how the creature were raised . “ graze ” is a newer term that refers to chickens being raised on grass or stock moved in a rotational grazing system . “ Free - range , ” though a label baffle by the government , simply means the animals have memory access to grazing land .
A client may also need about what you run your animals or if you ’ve ever give antibiotic drug or hormone . Be quick for savvy patrons who have very specific interrogation , then always be forthright and honest — the customer might have life-threatening allergy or firm ethical enemy to sure intervention of animal , and those issues should always be prize . Besides , a respectful and true grocery store farmer is a successful one .
Get more marketing baksheesh from HobbyFarms.com :
