LocallyGrown.net Weblog

Very Successful Summer

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 22:24:44 -0500

I didn’t keep up with all the goings on on this page, but it’s been a busy and successful summer for locally grown markets all over the country.

What began as a small alternative market six years ago in Athens, Georgia has spread to other communities in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri, Texas, New Hampshire, Vermont, Oregon, Washington, and California.

My own market exploded this year. The video on this site was filmed two years ago, and I was hopeful that the nearly 50 orders that week as a sign of things to come. Well, we’re now up to almost 800 customers, 40 growers, and enough orders each week to keep five people busy for four hours a week. Instead of merely being an alternative market, it’s now the main farmers market in the area.

The other markets are seeing similar growth. Partly it’s because of the ease of use of this locallygrown.net system, but mainly it’s because people are waking up to the true costs of food harvested on industrial farms and shipped halfway around the world. Attendance and sales at markets around the country are growing like never before, and this online market system just happens to be in the right place at the right time.

I’ve been busy all year adding incremental improvements to the system. Every time customers, growers, and market managers have found things that could be optimized, customized, and simplified, I have done what I can to make it so. In the eight months since I opened the doors, 28,000 items have been purchased earning growers $153,000. It’s not a lot (yet) compared to the industrial farms, but it has helped established small family farms keep going and encouraged many more to begin growing food for their community.

And that is why I put all the effort into this system.

Buy Local on the Mountain!

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:14:57 -0500

LocallyGrown.net welcomes the Cumberland Farmers Market sewanee.locallygrown.net/market to the Locally Grown network! The Cumberland Farmers Market has weekly pickups in Sewanee, Tennessee. The folks running this market used to live in the Athens area and have seen first hand how wonderful it is to have a market like this in the community, and we’re happy to have their new market on board.

Connecting North Texas customers with local farmers and craftspeople

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 03:49:46 -0500

LocallyGrown.net welcomes Cross Timbers Food Cooperative to the Locally Grown network! Cross Timbers Food Cooperative has monthly pickups in Denton, Texas, and serves the entire north Texas area.

MOORE FARMS and Friendsâ€¦Real Food From Real Farmers

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:08:59 -0500

LocallyGrown.net welcomes Moore Farms and Friends to the Locally Grown network! Moore Farms and Friends has weekly pickups throughout the Atlanta area.

Up and Running!

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:41:13 -0500

The Athens switchover happened as scheduled. LocallyGrown.net is now open for business!

Going Live!

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 13:05:53 -0500

All the major features are complete, and the Athens market will be going live with the new system this weekend.

I’ve got some detailing left to do and some documentation to complete, but the system is ready to use!

Order Processing Under Way

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:36:02 -0500

I’m working on the backend of the system, used by the growers and market managers to fulfill the orders.

To see how the system works from the customer’s point of view, take a look at my market’s site—athens.locallygrown.net

We’re still on track to move our market from the old site to the new in a couple weeks.

A Few Weeks To Go

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:18:21 -0500

I am nearly finished with the customer-facing portion of the system. Most everything is in place from the creation of the market through the placing of orders.

I hope to have the order processing capabilities in place in a couple weeks, and then I’ll “go public”.

I haven’t made any big public announcements about the site or the system yet, but there are groups who have been waiting literally years for me to open up the process enough for them to use it. One of them, Cumberland Co-op in Tennessee, has been using the peices as I get them built to get their market going. You can see for yourself how they’re doing at sewanee.locallygrown.net

Preview Announcement

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 02:52:12 -0500

We’re planning on going live in January, but I just sent an email out to a few people who have been waiting (some for several years) for me to get this far.

If you want to join my announcement list, send an email to software-subscribe@lists.locallygrowncoop.com and the friendly robot at the other end will get you all set up.

The LocallyGrown.net model

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 21:11:11 -0500

What are the characteristics of a LocallyGrown.net farmers’ market?

The produce is local to the market.

Every market may have a different idea of what that means. For our market in Athens, GA, nothing comes from further away than about 100 miles. The system won’t prevent you from selling something that traveled 1000 miles, but that goes against what I’m trying to accomplish here.

The growers set their own prices.

The system is meant to emulate many aspects of a traditional “booths and tables” farmers’ market. The customers are buying directly from the grower, at prices set by the grower. The grower describes what it available, supplies photos of the items, and sets the purchase price.

The customer has choices.

Just like at a traditional farmers’ market, the customer can browse everything that is available from all of the different growers. The customer can choose exactly what to buy, how much to buy, and from what grower to buy.

The customer has time to decide.

Unlike a traditional market that may be only open for a couple hours (with all the good stuff gone soon after opening), LocallyGrown.net markets are usually open for business for two days—long enough to fully browse the site and plan menus for the week.

Availability is flexible.

The growers estimate how much of each item that will be able to harvest a week ahead of time. This takes both skill and practice. Even so, unpredictable factors—such as whether or not it is sunny on a Wednesday morning—can make the difference between having a bumper crop or a very small harvest. So, the site will allow customers to keep on ordering an item even if sales have passed the estimated availability. The item might not be there when the order is put together, but then again, it just might be.

The produce is harvested to order.

After the ordering window has closed, the growers are notified of all of their orders for the week. They usually have a day or so to go out and harvest exactly what was ordered, package it, and deliver to the pick-up site. The produce is not coming off from a shelf somewhere, but is coming straight from the field to the customer. Of course, this doesn’t apply for some items. Garlic, for example, is often cured for a while before sale. Jams and other preserves may be made in batches. Honey is processed seasonally and then stored. Soap is made in batches. You get the idea, but most things will indeed be harvested to order.

Payment is taken when the orders are picked up.

Most markets will have a set time and location for customers to pick up their orders. Payment is not made in advance through the website but is instead made in person when the order is picked up. This is because adjusting the amount owed for an order will be a common occurrence. Maybe something ran short due to bad weather, or maybe there were extra items available on the table when the customer arrived, or maybe the grower decided to adjust the price down at the last minute to account for an imperfection. In any case, it is much easier to do this in person rather than going back and trying to issue credits and adjustments through the website.

One aspect to this, however, is that if a customer places an order but for whatever reason does not arrive to pick it up, the customer is still responsible for paying for that order. Since everything is harvested to order, the growers still had to work to put the order together, and should therefor still get paid for that effort.

That is what makes a LocallyGrown.net market.

There are other details on how the site works, but in a nutshell, that is what sets our markets apart from buying clubs, CSAs, and traditional farmers’ markets. Over five years in Athens, GA, the system evolved that included the best points from all of those while minimizing the downsides for the customers, the growers, and the community.