Farmers markets help farms grow loyal customers
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Vendors provide a mix of everyday foods and community vibes during the famers market in Covington, Kentucky. Photos: Casey Weldon/Axios
For many local farms, the most valuable thing a farmers market sells isn't this week's produce. It's next week's customer.
Why it matters: Farmers say face-to-face connections at markets keep shoppers coming back to their booths, on-site farmstands and online stores.
- That's increasingly important as many family farms diversify beyond farmstand or commercial sales to stay profitable.
Case in point: Neltner's Farm in nearby Melbourne, Kentucky, has been in the family since 1892.
- Today, weddings, company picnics and its annual fall festival generate a major share of the farm's revenue.
- But owner Kevin Neltner said about 90% of the farm's produce is sold through local farmers markets.
One of the farm's regular stops is the Covington Farmers Market, held Saturdays along Washington Street.
- "We're first and foremost a place to buy fresh produce in an area that's considered a food desert," market manager Allison Wendling said. "But we're also a small business incubator [and] a weekly gathering space."
Growing the news: The cyclospora outbreak has more shoppers paying attention to where their food comes from.
- Farmers markets let them meet the people who grew it, picked it or raised it.
What they're saying: "I know what cows it came from, what they ate, what day they were milked, when we made it, how we made it, everything that's in it," Nick Nolan of Laurel Valley Creamery in Gallipolis tells Axios.
- "You just can't get that in a big grocery store."
- Nolan drives about two hours to sell at Findlay Market on weekends. Dan Woods, owner of 9N Farm in Greenfield, travels about 60 miles to do the same.
Yes, but: Building those relationships takes time — and money.
- Lebanon livestock farmer Steve Lutmer spends hours setting up, working and tearing down his booth.
- He says a market has to generate at least $700 to $1,000 in sales to justify the time, so he's turned down events just 30 minutes away.
The bottom line: If it's the right fit, farmers markets pay off, Lutmer said.
- About half of his first-time customers at the Lebanon and Mason markets eventually visit his farmstand at Highland Rail Farms.
- "It's definitely helped get our name out there."