Farmers ’ Market Training Workshop Helps
Growers Prepare For A New Season
SYRACUSE, N.Y.-The
2000 farmers’ market season
is rapidly approaching.
Market managers, market
committees, and market
boards are gearing up all
across New York State to
make plans to make the 2000
season a success.
They’re looking to make a
more pleasant shopping ex
perience for their customers
by offering more sellers, more
products, and more events.
For the farmers, they’re
trying to bring in larger num
bers of customers to increase
the sales of each seller at their
markets.
The Farmers’ Market Fed
eration of New York is offer
ing a farmers’ market
planning workshop to help
all those managers, commit
tees and boards prepare for
the new season. This work
shop, “Preparing for a New
Season,” will be March 21 at
the Corning Intown Promo
tions Office, Corning, N.Y.,
and is open to anyone inter
ested in helping to make the
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2000 farmers’ market season
a success.
Speakers will cover a wide
range of topics, Janet Nelson,
extension associate from Cor
nell University, will discuss
the Farmers’ Market Nutri
tion Program. This program,
through the NYS Depart
ment of Agriculture and Mar
kets and the WIC program,
offers $2O to WIC recipients
to spend at farmers’ markets
through the course of the
season. It’s an excellent pro
gram to introduce young
mothers and their children to
farmers’ markets and help
them to raise their nutritional
well being by eating healthy,
fresh fruits and vegetables.
It’s also an opportunity for
farmers and market mana
gers to educate these mothers
about New York State agri
culture and the bounty of
products that are raised right
here in the state and offered
at over 200 farmers’ markets
across the state.
Recruiting new farmers is
a constant struggle for many
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of the farmers’ markets in
New York. Andre Gon
carovs, from the Ithaca’s
Farmers’ Market, will be
sharing a program that he
helped to develop to recruit
new farm enterprises to the
Ithaca Farmers’ Market. The
program, called the easy
entry program, has been suc
cessfully used in Ithaca for
several years and has brought
many new farmers into their
market.
Most of the state’s farmers
markets do not have budgets
large enough to do much tra
ditional advertising; radio,
television or print ads. But
free publicity can be found if
you know where to look.
John Ehrenreich, city editor
for the Corning Leader, will
be speaking on the use of
press releases as a means of
promoting farmers’ markets.
He’ll help market managers
understand how to make use
of this valuable tool. He’ll
also discuss ways markets
can “court” the press to get
the maximum amount of cov-
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Grower and Marketer, Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 11, 2000—Page
erage possible. His tips and
insights come straight from
years experience at being an
editor for a daily newspaper.
Monika Roth, a Cornell
Cooperative extension educa
tor with the South Central
New York Area Ag Program,
will be sharing her expertise
on keeping track of a mar
ket’s performance. She will
be talking about what kinds
of information managers
need to collect, including cus
tomer demographics, sales
records, attendance records,
etc. All of the records she will
be discussing are important
for farmers’ markets to be
able to document the mar
ket’s economic impact, apply
for grants, determine what
the customers and vendors
needs are, and for tracking
year to year growth.
Finally, a consumer panel
will present what they see as
an ideal farmers’ market, in-
E-Mail Lists
The following lists were taken from Dr Richard Snyder, Mississippi Stale
University newsletter "Vegetable Press 11
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bee-L hstserv@hstseiv net beekeeping and bee biology
gardens hstseiv(s\ikcc bind general gaidening
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newciops bstseiv("\in tc pintle edu new oi specially t mps
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eluding what the market
must offer in terms of ameni
ties for customers, the prod
uct diversity they are
interested in, and the opti
mum location and operating
times for a market. They’ll
also discuss what attracts
them to one seller’s booth
over another. Is it the display
techniques, the customer ser
vice, the product offered or a
combination of several fac
tors? They’ll be frank with
their opinions and be avail
able to answer questions from
the audience. Everyone will
be able to learn something
from the panel presentation.
Registration is $l5 per
person and includes all pres
entations, handout materials,
and lunch. Reservations are
requested. Call the Farmers’
Market Federation office for
more information and reser
vations, (315)475-1101.
.410-452-5252
..814-742-8171
717-249-2313
..814-886-4183
.610-252-8828
.814-764-5159
570-729-7117
.610-273-3131
.814-262-0137
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717-626-4705
.610-298-2011
. 724-397-2660
.610-987-6277
.610-932-8858
.570-649-5161
.724-222-0450
814-793-3731
181