By Matt Reese
People crave a connection to their food—including a relationship with the people who produced it. On the other hand, building connections with their customers can also be very rewarding for farmers.
“It’s magical. It sounds silly, but when the dots connect, when our customers actually see how everything fits together and why we do all the work, you can just see them light up,” said Gina Orr of FreshORR Family Farms in Perry County. “Then they start asking questions and that’s when that special connection is formed.”
At FreshORR Family Farms, Gina and her husband Richard produce free-range chicken and pork, as well as 100% grass-fed beef and lamb. They sell many products directly from their farm to customers and also partner with the Keller Market House in downtown Lancaster in neighboring Fairfield County to build customer relationships. The Keller Market House is a retail store in a historic building that is open 6 days a week, year-round, and offers a wide variety of locally produced foods, household products, crafts, artwork, and other items.
“We’ve been at Keller Market House since fall 2019, and we’re able to reach a group of people who might not want to come to our farm in Perry County on Saturdays. If they can’t make it to our farm, this is also a great place to pick up our products,” Orr said. “I think a lot of our customers who even come to the farm will shop here during the week because it’s convenient and then they can also pick up other things for their meal prep or whatever they need. It’s also a different demographic here than we might otherwise see at the farm. These are busy people. There are people who come in after work or during their lunch hour and pick up what they need for the day. It’s quick. I think on Saturdays, those who come directly to our farm have a lot more free time. They’re not quite as rushed, so we can make that connection and have those conversations. At Keller Market House, we’re not there in person, but they’re trying to find other ways to reach out because that’s really important. We want to connect and understand what our customers’ needs are and just get to know them. Over the years we’ve tried to find fun ways to do that through the Market House.”
Keller Market House hosts events with some of the 200+ vendors who sell at the retail store and the seasonal Lancaster Farmers Market on Saturdays, helps make virtual connections, and arranges farm visits to network. Keller Market House represents a relatively small portion of the farm’s overall sales (about 10%), but represents an important group of buyers that the farm could not otherwise reach.
“The staff here are really good at telling us about customers who say ‘hi’ and ask, ‘Do you have any of this?’ or ‘By the way, have you thought about bringing this up?’ They’re very good at being the interface between the consumer and the vendor,” Orr said. “We found some other vendors in the Perry County area that we could partner with that are part of the market, and we’ve done some events where members and customers could have brunch or dinner at our farm. They could come in and see firsthand what we do. It’s one thing when your neighbors want to come over and already know what you do. It’s a whole different thing when people come in in their high heels who aren’t familiar with it. These events are special and unique.”
Orr said the cost of adding another distribution channel can be a deterrent, but it’s important for farms to be aware of the benefits they get from the advertising, relationships and behind-the-scenes support that can come from working with retail stores and farmers markets.
“Don’t sell yourself short just because you have to pay dues. There are people out there who will support you,” Orr said. “It’s incredible to think of all the producers and makers in the area that we don’t even know exist or are afraid to take the step and join a market like this. It gives me more time to help out on the farm and be where I need to be.”
Erin Harvey is the executive director of the Keller Market House and the Lancaster Farmers Market.
“The Keller Market House has been here for about 8 years. The farmers market has been here in one form or another for over 40 years, but in the last few years we’ve combined forces. We have 6 employees now and I oversee the operations of both,” Harvey said. “I was a farmer myself. When the Keller Market House opened, I was one of our first vendors and then a volunteer and board member. When we merged with the farmers market, we were curious how it would affect the vendors’ sales. I think it was a win-win for everyone because from a consumer perspective, once you find a product you like, you just want it. You don’t necessarily care if you can get it at the farmers market, and you like the convenience of being able to buy it somewhere else six days a week if you can’t make it on Saturday morning. That’s a limitation of farmers markets. This allows our suppliers to establish personal contact and customers know that they can get the products right around the corner all year round, depending on the season and availability.”
Of course, the growing season is a busy time, but Harvey’s schedule hardly slows down during the winter.
“I don’t think we have a quiet season yet. January, February and March are a very busy time for us. We’re a nonprofit – a 501C3. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on early in the year. We have a sponsorship campaign and a membership campaign that the community can get involved in. We’re recruiting and registering farmers market vendors and trying to get ready for our busy season and plan events. Then once we get into April, it gets very busy and it never gets quieter because once the farmers market ends, we’re into the holiday season,” Harvey said. “As a nonprofit, we’re fortunate enough to get our building through the county and it’s been sitting here vacant. It’s a big, old historic building that most people who have lived here for a while would recognize as a hardware store that had been here for decades. Most recently, we completed a grant cycle with a USDA grant through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative that allowed us to complete the renovation of the main floor. There were parts of the building that were still pretty unusable and have now been completely renovated. The goal was to expand our capacity and now we have a workspace for salespeople and staff, as well as office and meeting rooms behind the scenes, which has given us more retail space up front. Now we have some breathing room to continue to add more product. We’ve added refrigerators and freezers that were previously at capacity. It will be exciting to be able to say yes to some new salespeople rather than having to juggle space.”
Ultimately, improvements to the facility were made to foster relationships.
“We’re continuing to struggle through some teething issues and figuring out how to do what we do better. For example, we’re telling vendors stories more often at workshops and events so people can build a deeper relationship with them. As more and more things in our lives become so impersonal, that kind of experience is becoming very important, whether it’s at the farmers market where you feel part of a community, or even at the Market House. I think our staff are really critical. They want our vendors to be successful and build relationships with customers. We learn what people like. We keep it available for them – that doesn’t happen at a big box store,” Harvey said. “Local is meaningless without the people – that’s the whole point. You get to know someone. It’s a real person and you want to see their business or their farm preserved. Our customers recognize the person behind that product. I know that myself. I buy food here and when I go home and prepare a meal, sometimes I just stop and think – this is from Brad’s farm and this is from Gina. Suddenly all these people are there and part of your meal. It’s not just this impersonal, faceless, mass-produced food. It’s part of the relationship with these people.”
