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Simplify your Farm's Delivery Day
634 Plays4 months ago
In this week's episode, Janelle speaks with Laci of Tagge’s Famous Fruit and Veggie Farms in Utah about their Farm’s delivery day. The Farm serves over 1,000+ CSA members, and uses software to simplify and save time fulfilling orders.
For more Farm resources, visit: https://www.barn2door.com/resources
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Transcript
Introduction to The Independent Farmer Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Independent Farmer Podcast, the go-to podcast for do-it-yourself farmers who are taking control of their own business, skipping the middleman, and selling direct to local consumer and wholesale buyers. This podcast is hosted by Barn to Door, the number one business tool for independent farmers to manage their business, promote their brand, and sell online and in person.
Meet Janelle: CEO of Barn to Door
00:00:29
Speaker
Let's dive in to today's Independent Farmer Podcast.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to the Independent Farmer podcast. I'm Janelle, CEO of Barn to Door and your host for today's episode. As many of our listeners may be aware, Barn to Door offers an all in one business solution for independent farmers who are cutting out the middleman, taking control of their business, selling under their brand and making sure their customers can purchase from their farm, both online and in person. In today's conversation, we will get into simplifying your farm's delivery day. For independent farmers selling under their own brand into their own communities, delivery day is many times how buyers get your food. Farmers we work with offer local pickups or meetup locations and door-to-door delivery to access cities and buyers near them.
Lacey's Farming Journey
00:01:23
Speaker
Today I'm happy to welcome back Lacey from Tagee's Famous Fruit and Veggie Farms in Utah. Lacey is part of our Farm Advisor Network and has worked with Barn to Door for three years. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience with one of the most successful and growing CSAs in Utah. He and her family work incredibly hard managing a lot of customers, orders, and deliveries. I'm excited to talk to Lacey about streamlining orders and time-saving measures she implements to ensure an efficient delivery day, especially as they grow and have more and more to manage. Welcome, Lacey.
00:01:58
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been exciting to work with you. Thank you. We love working with you. I share your stories and your ideas out all the time, so I'm glad people get to hear directly from you today. india yeah Anything to yeah make your life easier, that's for sure, right? Yes, I am a huge fan of that. Okay, just to get started so that people know who they're listening to, Lacey, tell us a little bit about your firm. Awesome. Yeah. So my dad's been farming for about 28 years and they first started off with doing farmers markets and fruit stands. And then we included CSAs for about, this is our 16th year doing CSA subscriptions.
00:02:42
Speaker
And the main reason why we included the CSA subscription is because we hated being underwater when the season started. And so the CSAs is a great way to get your head above water when you start your farming season. So we've been doing that for 16 years, but we started off small, a hundred, 200, 300 subscriptions, but the last since COVID we've been over a thousand a year, a thousand subscriptions. yeah Yeah, we're huge.
Scaling with Barn to Door
00:03:09
Speaker
The year I transferred um to Barnadore, I had 1,400 subscribers and Barnadore, they sold me, they put every little subscriber from my old website into Barnadore and it was life-saving. So I can get up to 1,400, 1,000 is good though. So this year we're at like 980. So I'm almost there getting more orders in, I'm hustling and it's next week. So we're super excited to get going, yeah but that's where we're at.
00:03:39
Speaker
That's incredible. Wow. You started 200, now you're over a thousand. That's a lot to manage if you don't have a system. Yes. Or involved I should say you have a system, but if it's a manual, right? Yeah. So yeah, the reason why my mom was on the computer for four hours a day, two hours in the morning, two hours at night, just for CSAs. And it was not fun. We were using Excel. We were entering manually, putting in the orders, and then we're like, we can't do this. This is too much. And we weren't able to scale. So we were only hitting 600, 700. That was too much even. So that's why we got Barnador. It smoothed us out so that we don't have to spend time on the computer. We're able to get more drop-off locations and we're able to expand. So it's amazing.
00:04:24
Speaker
Walk me through, because I think that there are a lot of farms out there who might not have a system and do it manually, but walk me through what your mom did two hours in the morning and two hours in the day. And that was managing up to about 600 and you just couldn't go beyond that because you can't recruit. I guess you can't duplicate your own mother. Oh, totally. Yeah. So, you know, it's all that back in customer service, like little questions that they weren't getting, but really it was also like we were upselling every week. We'd be like, Hey, who wants a box of apricots? And then they would email us back. I want a box of apricots. Then my mom would have to put that in a little sheet and then she would have to say, how are you going to pay me? And there'll be like credit cards. And then she would have to call them.
00:05:09
Speaker
get the credit card over the phone or I'm going to drop off a check then we have to look for the check or like stuff like that she was doing morning and nights and then people that have to drop off they would have questions and then of course that was add-on sales we wanted to do blackberries we want to get rid of those just those emails coming in were just not easy and so we weren't able to maximize those add-ons at all yeah it was a it was much work doing that and it wasn't even worth it to spend all that time Yeah. So essentially every single order was handled separately with lots of emails back and forth per order, including add-ons, any questions. So she was sitting in her email inbox for much of that and creating tasks. It sounds like if there was missing billing after the fact, she also was tracking down, which is not fun. Like if you're tracking down cash, that's not what you want to be talking to your customers. Ideally, that's not what you want to be talking to customers about, which is
00:06:07
Speaker
tracking them down for cash check and payments. Got it. So that makes a ton of sense. And at that time, because you're saying you expanded even pickups. So I want to understand a little bit, and I appreciate this, but it's just really neat for people. Honestly, we when we talk to farmers, Lacey, sometimes we're like, look, we work with this amazing farmer in Utah. And I kid you not, it saved some hours of time every day just to put a system like Barn to Door in place. So if somebody's listening to this, can you explain why? Why did those two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, like what does it look like for your mom now and what changed?
00:06:48
Speaker
So my mom's not on the computer at all. She may be a half hour the morning of delivery. and My mom's a customer service to the team. We have a few customers that just don't like tomatoes or something like that. But yeah, she's only me on a half hour a day now, which is amazing because the system we have set up. So as you know, in Barnadore, if someone reaches out to me and says, hey, I want to have my house as a pickup. of it. Great. I just throw their website on. It's there, ready to go. And then we just see the orders come in. We download it off Barnador and we print them.
00:07:21
Speaker
You know what I mean? that I know that was very simple of saying it, but it is not. It's so easy now. Yeah. And we're able to but throw in that new drop-off really quick. They get the signups coming in and it's just an easier way back in the day. There wasn't a system for that anywhere. You just like do a little paper form and then bring me the paper form when it was just too much work, you know. So now you have it up on basically a store online, right? Do you just send them the link or are you sending out emails with reminders to shop? How does it work to make sure that they're placing their orders without all of the back and forth? Yeah. so i just
00:08:00
Speaker
ah career The thing I want to send out, I just will send that link out. I have my Mailchimp, they just sync with that and I send it out and then the orders come right in. Simple as that. So, I know it sounds so simple, but it really is. It's just amazing how you can just send a link, they sign up, they pay, they pick their pickup, it's done. Love it. So I love that you said that's enabled you to go from like 600 to about a thousand also by saving time, which is lovely. We always say farmers don't have extra time. So that's always music to our ears. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Anything to let us focus on the important stuff instead of that busy body work. Yeah.
00:08:41
Speaker
And we know not all of us can go hire someone to do all that for you. So you do just suck up those tasks. And
Home Delivery & Pickup Logistics
00:08:48
Speaker
it's just another thing to your day, you know, and Barnador has really taken that pressure off. It's simplified. You're not on the computer anymore. So it's amazing. And then you said that, and we're going to back up a minute, cause I kind of want to walk through delivery day two, but I'm right now we're just focused on the ordering process. So I love that you said one of your customers was like, Hey, I want my house to be a pickup site. What is that? What does that mean? And it sounds like you said you just put their address into the system so that anybody shopping can choose their house.
00:09:21
Speaker
Yes. So yeah, to be a drop off, I kind of have a minimum of 10 boxes. I have 60 drop offs right now. so we are I was going to ask you that next. so So yeah, and then people will not see their city and then they're like, well, I'll just host my house. And for the requirements to host your house is you need to have a little shaded area. So it can be a porch, it could be a tree, you could put up a table in the shaded. It doesn't need to be in their house, doesn't need to be in their garage. I'll just say, Hey, do you have a little bit of a shaded area? That's in the afternoon. All you have to do is just host your house. And then they want a box, of course. So perks of them, they just can walk out the door and there's their box, you know? ye So yeah, they'll host their house. And I do ask them like, if you could advertise for me on your Facebook and your next door app and on your social media, your house.
00:10:08
Speaker
And they're fine with their house being out there. and And I do ask them like, are you okay with your house being on my website? yeah yeah You're getting cool people that want a sport for farmers. So their most 99% of them are down. So most of my pickups are homes, like people that offer their house. And then obviously I have my fruit standard with pickups and then there are some businesses. that will host so their business for the whole business. But 90% of them are little homes like this. And then I tell them not to worry about anything and everything comes labeled. It's set out for them. It's in the shade. We do like to reuse boxes. So they do kind of have to mess with the boxes a little bit, but they're happy to do that. And then yeah to make it worth it at the end, you send them a little thank you note at the end with some jams and salt says, and you know what I mean? I make it worth them and they're, they appreciate and they're willing to get off their house. Add to pick up so that it comes in their area so we can expand. So that's kind of my house is now pick up.
00:11:04
Speaker
yeah So now my house has a pickup. I like kind of regret it cause I have to deal with the boxes and now it's kind of good for me to know what they're going through, but my house literally has 60 boxes though. So I have some of my helpers come and get the boxes that night, but it's good. You know, people, they want that convenience. And yeah as we all know, it's nice to just drop 10 boxes there. And like the delivery is too much and you have to have that delivery fee. You can't make it. three You do have to have a charge and we do charge 15 bucks if someone wants it at their house a week. And that is just, that barely covers costs. So the pickups are great. Then you get your box. You do have to go pick it up or it's at your house and then you don't have to pay an extra delivery fee. So it works out great. Got it. So each of the customers, and by the way, you said you have 60 pickups, correct?
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah. About 60 right now, i'm mostly at homes. Do you cover a pretty decent area? Yeah, so where we package our boxes is the city. So I split it up in three different days. As you know, I cannot do a thousand in one day. So I do Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So Tuesday boxes, I go from my warehouse. I deliver north. We deliver about an hour, half north. Yeah. So from where I packaged to our half north, I have about on Tuesday, I have about 35 different payoffs. So I'm going up. That makes sense. Yeah. And then on Wednesday, they go.
00:12:32
Speaker
South an hour and a half about I'm from where I'm at. And then Thursday is just kind of around my area. So we're so good. And Barnadore helped me with that. They set it up with zip codes. So I gave them all my zip codes for Tuesday. And then I gave them all my zip codes for Wednesday, all the South and then Thursday, the zip codes around me. And so when people order the home delivery that lines up with those far ones, so it's magical. It's all set up so perfect. Oh, I love saving time for farmers. Also because it's so funny that at the very beginning you said you're able to get your head above water, right? When you started to use Bontador and it's so funny you said that because I use that same analogy like in the last week, like three different times. When I was talking to folks about Bontador, I'm like, our goal is
00:13:20
Speaker
help farmers go from hopefully not feeling like you're drowning, but get your head above water and and then start to swim, right? Like to your point, the fact that you're now able to scale and go up to a thousand and know that you could go higher if you wanted, because ideally you're getting enough time back to actually think, right? I mean, I think that that's part of it too, right? And be incredibly organized just by default. It's really fun to hear about the pickups and the drop-offs because I know a lot of farms like to hear the mechanics of how that works. So I love that you mentioned the homes can offer, they have to have a shaded spot. And just to clarify, if I'm one of your customers and I choose um the day that you go north and you're dropping at that pickup or drop-off, I guess, however you want to say it, it's $15 per delivery. So that helps you cover all of the gas fees as well. Those are and gas and driver fees. And people pay that pretty readily, it sounds like, obviously.
00:14:12
Speaker
Is that accurate? Yeah. So people that just want to their house and not go anywhere, they do pay 15 bucks a week. The direct door to door delivery. but yeah I do charge 15 a week for those people that want it on their porch only, but the products are free because I do make it like. Hey, you got to have 10. You've got to help me. I'll help you. We'll get advertising your new location, but they're so happy to do it. And it's so easy to attend 10's been manageable. So they get 10, but there's a little bit of flexibility, but if there's like a new location and it's too far and it's three boxes, I ended up dropping it, but everyone can do it. They're excited. They get their friends to sign up, you know, it works out. So they're on the team with me. That's fantastic.
00:15:00
Speaker
Okay, so 60 pickup locations, amazing partners who obviously have a lot of affection for you and your farm, sharing on their social Facebook, getting their friends to sign up. And there's no extra cost for those people who choose pickup locations at other homes. But then, and I'm probably a good example of this, but I'm busy. I don't have time for pickup. You're in my area, whether it's what, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, I think you said, and Then it's door to door delivery. I can say, okay, fine. Yeah, I'll pay the $15. Right. And you'll bring that to my doorstep in all of those same areas. Yep. Exactly. And it's barn to door set up. So like, even if you are North and our North.
00:15:40
Speaker
You get it on that day of Tuesday when I'm already going north. you know yeah So it pairs up with the home delivery. So some of my drivers will have three different houses with 10 boxes each. And then they'll have a little special one person box around there that they'll deliver. So it's time efficient and cost efficient for me. Wonderful. So are you glad that you offer both door to door delivery and the pickup locations and why? Totally you need to have both options, because there are some people that want to support local and want that fresh produce but they really don't have time. And they're okay to spend the extra money a week you know. And then there are people that don't want to spend that and they're willing to drive five minutes down the street to go to a little house and that's okay with them. So you got to have both options.
00:16:25
Speaker
I feel like there was a time in my life where I would have been the pickup customer. And now there's a time in my life where I would be the door to door delivery customer, right? Like, you know, in terms of where I was in my life, if I have a little extra time and I want to save a little money, but I definitely want the farm food pickup, no problem. But now I'm super busy. I have things going on. $15 for me. That's a no brainer. And knowing that that's going to be on my doorstep is just gold. ms gold Yeah, and those customers are my favorite because I do like to get a lot of the add
Customer Engagement Strategies
00:16:57
Speaker
-ons. They love getting like the flats of raspberries and they love to get a lot and it's just right on their porch and they love it. It's convenient for them. They do their whole grocery right off my online store and it's amazing. port
00:17:08
Speaker
yeah Amazing. Amazing. That's a really good point that you made Lacey, which is, do you think your door to door delivery folks, and maybe it's because of the $15 fee or they just don't have time and they're excited to expand what they add? Do you think they buy more? Totally. I think they just buy more because they already have that 15 a week. So they're like, let's take advantage of this. I'm going to get more corn and more berries. I'm going to do my whole shopping for the whole week because I might as well. It's already coming to my house. You know, so they do buy more and they love the little honeys. They can get every week or the jam or
00:17:44
Speaker
my little special desserts I do or whatever they love it and they just are my best yeah and they're excited and they just want to keep supporting us too you know we want to make it a one-stop shop for them and so we try to and then they're excited I love that I love that Okay, so we've gotten a little bit of insight. I love the description of the pickups, what that looks and feels like to the folks. And then you the different type of buyer that is keen on door to door delivery. So you're capturing both types of buyers in the same neighborhoods on the same day, which is amazing.
00:18:20
Speaker
So let's talk a little bit about delivery day, which is when we're talking about the day of what does that look like for you in terms of like you wake up, what's the process to make sure that says time saving and easy as possible. Cause that's a lot to pack in. Think about, yeah I ah suspect years into it, you've got it down to a science. Yes, totally. I wish you guys could just come and do a day with me. It is so exciting. You wouldn't be mind blown of what I can do. All my workers are like, how do you load 15 cars with 500 boxes in three hours? It's like, I don't know. I'm very good at making people move. And yeah, I've done it. I was kind of in high school, so I didn't manage the CSAs when they first started, but I think this is my 12th year managing, getting them packed.
00:19:11
Speaker
getting them in the car and getting them to the house. So what it looks like is so my beautiful mom does get the list ready. So she has them in groups. So we have 30 on Tuesday. She has a clipboard with the labels ready and the list of each of the groups. So we'll have home one, two, three, four, and five. So all ready to go, which is amazing. So I don't have to do that. So if I did have to do that, that would be a little bit more on my p plate, but. I wake up, I have my list for putting in carrots, cherries, apricots, and my packers are filling them up. And then but once they're closing them, I start pulling them. So I get my list. I have 10 boxes. I got four honeys. We've got four flats of raspberry. Then I got five peach boxes.
00:19:54
Speaker
pull all that ready, and then I have a little cute assistant, and we just label them really quickly, and then that cart is ready to go. Then once I have the three ready that are by each other, house one, house two, house three, I put them in a truck, load them up, and then my driver goes. And then it's beautiful. He'll go to the house at the shaded area. It's all labeled. He'll lay them all out cute, put their cute little add-ons on top, and then it's ready to go, and then the people will come after two o'clock and pick it up. And then, yeah, so that's kind of like the process. He'll send me a picture of it all laid out. The biggest thing is making sure it's in the shade and not raining, but that there's not too many rain days in Salt Lake, which we're very lucky. And then, yeah, the customer gets to come, sees their name, grabs their pile, and they are good to go. Got their fresh produce. And then they bring back their box, and then i I'll pick up the boxes the next week when I bring the new boxes.
00:20:48
Speaker
So that's kind of like our little system. It's beautiful. It works really well. I love that. I think I might take you up on that and come for a day. Yeah. Tuesdays are my 500 box days and it is so, so exciting. It's just so fun to just pull out a fresh beats, put it in a box with carrots and you get this such a cute little assortment. And then you also on the side of that, the customers got an email. They have recipes with, they kind of are running out of ideas. they're looking at those recipes and then they're also looking on that email if they want more beats next week they're going to be like oh i'm going to order more beats right now i love those i'm going to get more and it and so it's a beautiful system and that's where they reorder more when they go back and look at the recipes yeah and then there's some knowledge on the eat well like they'll talk about some specialty melons or something, and then I will also have on there like you love this melon we might not have it next week, but order one will pick some for you and then they'll order extra melons and stuff because some people just love a certain fruit.
00:21:50
Speaker
And I want them to be able to enjoy that as much as they can in the peak season. and So that's really good with the box. If they really like that piece or that those beats or the pepper, they're able to get more for the next week. It's like selling themselves, right? When they try the amazing, the almost amazing foods, it's almost like self advertising per item in your box. You can always add on and buy more for the next week. I love that. I love that prompt with the email too. So that, you know, when they're thinking about it, reading the recipe, engaging with you in between and the next delivery, they're clicking through to make those extra purchases. That's very smart. I appreciate that.
00:22:29
Speaker
Okay, and I want to talk about add ons in a minute because I know that you do that like a superstar, but backing up still on delivery day. One of the favorite parts, and we get this feedback all the time and it's funny because we didn't necessarily anticipate this when we built pick and pack lists, but we often hear farmers say that pick and pack lists and then one click to print all those labels in addition to that. And then Rautific, I don't know if you use the integration that we have for delivery routes, but I think the pick and pack list is arguably one of people's favorite features when they're using Barnetador.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's beautiful to know the bulk. It's beautiful to know how many of each item you have. I love that list too. It's nice to also just hand that to a worker and say, Hey, make me 10 peaches really quick. And I need a hundred of my one person boxes. That is a beautiful list because as you know, some people, I do do a little makeup. People will cancel out some weeks and some people will add on another box. So my numbers are not exact and it's nice not to to worry about it. I just pulled a list. There we go, we're ready to go. And then yeah, the main master list where I can separate them for each pickup, I just kind of sort them in groups and then I'm able just to print each group and it's ready to go. That makes a ton of sense. So quick printing of what you need to pack on a given day and then per order per pickup location. And then do you use the labels as well?
00:24:01
Speaker
It's so easy because I download it as Excel and I literally just merge it into those labels I want. yeah You guys helped me with this. So I actually had a new farmer reach out to me how I printed on different labels and I did them last week. So with the bulk, I have to have them on a different kind of size. I don't need it so big, you know, and there's some information I kind of edit out. I just want their name, what they're getting in their pickup location and their number. Yeah, I'm able to make it a little smaller and customize, but I wasn't able to do that with my old website. Like I had to enter a manually in, but Barneter has it ready to go for me and I can just move a few things. It takes me 10 minutes, merge them and then print.
00:24:41
Speaker
I'm glad to hear that it's so fun because I'm getting feedback from farmers on, Hey, it'd be really neat if it did this. There was a time when our labels didn't have the customer phone numbers. It was just their name, the location and what the contents of the box. And we had farmers saying, Hey, please add the phone number. So if we still need them to come pick up the box, it's right in front of us and we can make a quick call. And so we did that. And just because of the feedback from farmers were like, well, of course that makes perfect sense. So we love all the feedback. Absolutely appreciate that. Well, and then do you use a routing app on your delivery day so that you know exactly where to go? Yeah, I used it one year and use RoundTific. I used it one year just to like kind of see the cost for the 15 weeks. i want I wanted to try it and yeah it was, it's very easy to use and it's amazing.
00:25:32
Speaker
I recommend it if you want to put that, but I'm so good at it now. I know exactly the areas and how I load my cars. And I have set drivers and I don't have to use it anymore. It's very successful. It's smooth. And if you're especially hiring a lot of new people and you don't have consistent people, I would use it. I'm very lucky yeah to like make people come in and work for 15 weeks on the, I have the same drivers every time. i mean So they have it ready. Yeah, but it is, I yeah love Ralph tick of it. I used it for a full year. I loved it. Yeah, I appreciate that. And especially that you have persistent drivers and consistent routes, it sounds like, which is really helpful. It's just, again, down to a science and then everybody knows what to do. That is fantastic. Okay. So on delivery day, is that pickup and delivery same driver?
Farmers Markets & New Farmer Tips
00:26:23
Speaker
So I have a bit different packers and different drivers. My drivers while I'm packing are setting up my first standard farmer's markets. So they go set those up, come back. I'm ready to load their car again. So we have a lot going on at one time. How many farmers markets are you at currently? So they're all different days of the week. We're about, we're at 15, but we ramp up to about 20. Wow. So like on Wednesday, there are hard days. I'll have 500 boxes to package. I have to load my nine fruit stands at nine 30 am get those set up. up
00:27:01
Speaker
Then they come back, they do their CSA delivery route, and then they come back and they load up about two farmers markets that are that night. So it's crazy. So my husband, the warehouse manager, he's in charge of all the cars and getting them loaded, but I get him set up and ready to go. So we have a lot going on at once. So Tuesday, Wednesday, please don't follow us. Don't bug us. I have one more curiosity. Do you use your farmer's markets as pickup locations? Some farmers do and some don't. I'm just curious. so I did about 10 years ago, but now I don't. yeah It causes a little jealousy. It causes a little jealousy and contention that we don't need between farmers. and Some of the stuff in the boxes, I don't sell on purpose so that another farmer can get that sell. and so I don't want them to like
00:27:50
Speaker
box with something, you know, because there are certain things I just grow special for the CSA customers and I don't sell because other farmers grow it better, or yeah they have more of it. So it did kind of cause contention and jealousy. And so we just don't do it anymore. Because I have those pickups in those areas anyways, maybe it's not that day. And they can get it another way. Yep. Yeah, I love that. That is so considerate of you. And you know, honestly, those sometimes are the business decisions that need to be made, right? Yeah and like if you're first starting with CSA, use farmers markets in the pickup for sure. um It's a good way to like kind of sell it more like hey this is our box you want to sign up for it and we don't need to do that anymore but I would for sure if you're first starting out I would use yeah any location you can any little coffee shop whatever you can do to get people to see this little cool box do it.
00:28:43
Speaker
It's really great advice and also interesting. I love that you keep referring back to, hey, if you're just getting started, this is a great idea. Or if you don't have persistent drivers, you know, and it's just somebody doing you a favor, they need a route. There's tools and things to help you early on. And then once you really get your stride, or since we're doing a swimming analogy, your stroke. that you can change up sometimes what you don't have to do anymore. So sometimes you're like, we don't need to do that anymore. In order to scale, we can streamline it and do it slightly differently.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. Yeah. And then I really wanted to talk about add-ons because I know that's one of your areas of specialties in terms of upselling or adding on more items to that CSA box. um And I think that was one of the things that was and ah especially extra work for your mother when she was doing two hours in the morning and two hours at night was all the individual add-on orders on top of subscriptions. So how does that work today? Yeah. So, you know, as farmers, sometimes you look are looking at a hundred flats of raspberries and you're going. Holy crap. How am I going to like sell these, you know, or next week I'm going to be picking 300 boxes of peaches or say you have another row crop of beets that you need to get in the box, you know? So what we were thinking is, okay, we have these great members are ready. Let's give them a discount as is. So most of my CSAs do get a buck or two off.
00:30:12
Speaker
When they get these add-ons and then I'll send out a cute little Friday email for the next week and say, Hey, it's peak cherry time. This is time to eat cherries. We're going to do a little cherry week. So I offer them a two pound size of cherries for a certain amount, and then a bulk or size of box of cherries. And then I even will throw in some ideas if they want to be creative and bre make cherry pie or stuff like that. And so I'm able to blast that out. And then they already ate the cherries that week. And they're like, yeah, I want some more cherries. And I do mention like, you're probably going to get some in your box too, but why not add on for the parties and for your friends. And so then it's convenient. They can get more instead of going to my fruit stand and farmer's markets, it didn't just come with their box. And then on top of that, they already got a buck or two off. So.
00:30:56
Speaker
They love it. And I want these people to know that their priority, like I'm thinking about selling to them first. Before my first time in farmer's markets cause they're already getting me their costs. So then my kickback is you'll get a little discount on when I'm both. Yeah. And. and if you want some more. So yeah, it's saved a lot of time. That little email, they go to my website, they click those extra cherries. They make sure they have their pickup there. And then that generates with their order with their box. And I'm able just to print that with that pack list. So when it's cherry list, I pulled the pack list and I can see that I sold 10 boxes of cherries. I sold six of the two pounders. You know, I can know exactly how much I'm getting ready. ye
00:31:37
Speaker
So I just get those ready ready to go. So then when I'm pulling my orders with the normal box. I can get their cherry. They have a label ready for it label it and it's good to go. by the process I I feel like when you say that makes me excited about sort of the but the bumper crops or the seasonal ones that you're going through in addition to it like, of course there are some things that grow well all season, but having certain ones come through that are really seasonal is like ah an excuse for marketing almost, right? So really neat to sort of change up. A lot of people struggle with marketing because they're like, how do I change up what I'm focused on? But when you have the seasonal sort of parade of vegetables coming through or fruits, I suspect that is handy. Yeah, it works really well with our fruit. Cause we first start with cherries and apricots and then they go away. They're only on for three to four weeks. And that's another thing on educating them, like, you know, cherries aren't the whole season. Like let's eat as many cherries as we can until you're sick of me, you know?
00:32:38
Speaker
I love it. I also love that you mentioned like your subscription customers, you really think of them first because really it sounds like they're your most loyal customers. And so they should be top of mind, right? Even though you love all your customers, it's good to encourage even other farmers listening to think about your different groups of customers, even in different ways, if it's helpful for business. Yeah, they are. that Those CSA customers are the biggest blessing to us because they put their orders in in January and they don't get their box till July. Like someone that's willing to give you $300 so you can keep farming and can get those seeds and get all those upfront costs. Like what an amazing person to do that. And of course I want to share that love back and
00:33:25
Speaker
For them, and I'm going to share it with the fruit of my labors. I'm going to give them the best of the best, the best cherries, the best everything. That's the least I can do. I'm like, I wish I could do more, but that's what I can do. And there it's a win-win on both sides, you know? So we're really lucky to have a thousand people that want to give up their money early. I know that we're going to give them the best of the best. Yeah. That's awesome. I love hearing that and and it is a win-win, trust me.
Marketing & Community Building
00:33:52
Speaker
I'm often at the receiving end of of amazing farm food and i I'm so grateful. So grateful for such high quality you know produce and proteins and everything else.
00:34:04
Speaker
that frankly you can't even get at the store so it's amazing it's such a treat right yeah because it really was yeah everything was picked that day or the day before like amazing so they do get that and they do notice that after they like tried cherry from the story versus us and they're like well yeah ah I'll give 300 bucks to have that fresh, yeah you know, yeah it didn' it didn it's like they're literally buying from the farmer. Yeah. Yeah. Talk about transparency, huh? That the farmer that grew it is literally handing it to you directly. Amazing. Yes. You actually do a really good job marketing and I know we need to wrap up on delivery, but I want to do a quick little plug because I feel like.
00:34:48
Speaker
you have great ideas and have used your delivery and pickups well for the purposes of marketing and branding and even attracting new customers with those pickups and direct deliveries. Do you have a tip or two that you can share on things that you've done that you feel like are successful in helping you gain emails, gain customers through that sort of delivery day, whether it's pickup locations, whether it's door-to-door delivery? Yeah. So the best way is obviously using your customers. That's what I recommend to use first. So I always do a little promo code. I'll be like, Hey, each time you post about us and tell about your location, I'll give you five bucks. I'll coupon code.
00:35:32
Speaker
So I'm able to do that so they just go into their little groups, post a picture sign up. This is where you're picking up and I can't access each city's Facebook groups because I live certain places so they'll go into their little community and just for me, and then they just send me a little screenshot and then I send them a little $5 little coupon off and they'll use it for. cherries later or something. So that's my first way of how I'm able to spread the word, and which is awesome. My customers are the best at the box. They know what they're getting into and they can easily convince a friend to do it with them, you know.
00:36:09
Speaker
And then the second way is I do use a little bit of marketing on Instagram. There's a lot of foodies out there. There's a lot of um like city account Instagrams. I'll reach out to them, do a little giveaway with them. They'll advertise. like So one of my really far drop-off is Logan. It's about an hour and a half north of Salt Lake. I've wanted to get more boxes up there and found a little Instagram account that does best of Logan. And so I reached out to them. Some of them do like want to trade or some will ask for a little bit of money for advertising.
00:36:39
Speaker
You can just reach out to them and say, Hey, do you mind promoting my farm box and letting people know on Tuesday they can get a box here. And a lot of people love the farmer and helping them out. So they're more than welcome to do it. And that's another way to spread some news, getting new emails and orders. So those are my two ways. And then obviously when the boxes are starting to go, like people are sharing about the boxes on social media. So I'm able to share that. And then they kind of have FOMO. So that first week I get a ton of orders and they get fomoed and they start coming in. And then it's just a big party of like sharing what's in the box. It's Christmas today. And so that's my other ways. My customers are yeah actually the the best. They share with us. I'm able to re-share and it's fun and it's exciting. It's really good. Amazing. And then they tag you of course on social media and then you have links back to your store, I assume.
00:37:32
Speaker
Yes, yes. So on my Instagram, it says sign up for a box right now. It's created and they can join by Sunday to get on the next week. Yeah. ah Amazing. Amazing. Wonderful. and Do you do any email collection or QR codes or anything like that? I know that there are certainly some farmers who do that as well. Yeah, that was my goal this year. So I haven't really collected physical emails at all my locations. Obviously my website is set up so they can put their email in when they go visit to it. This is my first year. I did print out a little sheet.
00:38:07
Speaker
news about our farm and I put their first name and email and they're able to fill it out. This is my first year doing that. So I can report later if how successful that is. Oh, I'm excited. Yeah. We'll see. It's just another thing, like telling my sellers like, Hey, we're here at the market. Put this clipboard out. You know, it is another thing. So it is harder that way. But it is my first year really giving it a try and making sure I'm on them to get emails. But my best way is just through Instagram, seeing what's in season. They go there and then it will shoot them to the website. Well, and once they make a purchase, the email is automatically added, right? Yeah. Yep. And it's automatically into Mailchimp too. And it's beautiful. So yeah, it works out. Oh, that's wonderful. I know. i
00:38:51
Speaker
$9,000. Pretty good. I'm doing okay. Wow. Yeah. Wow. But there's some out there that I'm a little shocked though. Some of these farmers are just keying their emails and I'm going to get there. I'll get better. Amazing. but You should be very proud. That's incredible. Okay. Before we go, any last words, any final bits of advice or tips or, or maybe even better, do you have any goals for this year that you want to share?
Encouraging Home Cooking & Conclusion
00:39:18
Speaker
Yeah. So my goal this year with my CSA program is, you know, it's so easy to just go and eat out, you know, and like, it's sad. Like, I think the percentage of eating out is like up to 60%. It's really sad. And so we need that refresher of cooking at home.
00:39:38
Speaker
cooking with what you have, getting creative, eating what's in season. So this year I'm doing like a physical recipe card in the box every week. And it has a scan code to get them to my website, but this card is going to make them think about me all year. Make sure that those recipe cards are floating around your house, you know, and it's going to be cute. So like next week it's beats. A lot of people struggle eating with beats. So I have a really cute beat hummus and actually the recipes I use are people in my program that are really good cookers. I'm collaborating with them and they actually have social media accounts. So I'm able to promote them and they actually are awesome. They'll make videos and I can get people to their accounts and then we're working as a team. So like, obviously as me and the farmer, I am working 12 hours. I do not have time to go make these comments. I'm so sad I can't. So I can't do the recipe testing. I cannot, that is not something I can do, but I have an amazing lot of foodies around me. Yeah. And I have such cute moms that are good at cooking and they can do that beat hummus, you know? And so I will collab with them and it's a sharing thing together. And I appreciate them for helping me out and.
00:40:50
Speaker
So I'll use them I'll promote their little social media and then my customers will follow them and then and they'll be creative and they'll learn how to cook more and they won't get discouraged if they get these three weeks in a row, you know, I love it all cook at home. Yeah. So that's my new goal this year, which is a lot. It is an upfront cost to get the recipe cards in the box, that little cost of paying for that paper, but I'm going to do it. It's an investment to cook already. So let's help. Let's be motivated together. And then those recipe cards will get onto my website. It will get them kind of thinking about next year. And then hopefully if they see that card in the winter, they'll be like, Oh, I got to sign up. You know, so it'll be a little win-win around.
00:41:30
Speaker
So we need to check in later this year on the partnering with local foodies who are your customers and also on email collection, even though you're already doing a great job of that. But very fun ideas and you're right. It's nice to leverage your community, especially on the foodie side of things. That's fantastic. Thank you for that. I'm going to check in with you on those later for sure. I want to extend my thanks to Lacey for joining us on this week's podcast episode. You can check out more of Lacey and the farm on their Instagram at Peggy's fruit. That's T-A-G-G-E-S fruit.
00:42:05
Speaker
Here at Barn to Door, we are humbled to support thousands of independent farmers across the country. We are delighted to offer services and tools to help farmers access more customers, increase sales and save time. They've saved save time for their business. If you're an independent farmer who is just getting started or transitioning to selling direct, or if you've been at it a while and want to simplify your business management, visit barn to door.com backslash learn more. Thank you for tuning in today. We look forward to joining you next time on the Independent Farmer Podcast.
00:42:45
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on the Independent Farmer Podcast. At Barn to Door, we are passionate about empowering independent farmers to build a thriving business. To all the farmers out there, thank you for all you do to grow amazing food, care for the soil, and serve your local communities. You are the backbone of our country. For free farm resources or to listen to prior podcasts, go to barntodoor.com backslash resources. We hope you join us again and subscribe to the Independent Farmer Podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. Until next time.