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Season Extension
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Easy- to-construct high
tunnels have been especially popular for off-season fruits and
vegetables that fetch premium prices. Photo by Mark Davis |
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Whether you’re selling at farmers markets, through a CSA
or on your farm, lengthening your marketing season can be critical
to spreading your workload and evening out your cash flow. It can
also help maintain relationships with customers and allow you to
offer year-round employment to key employees. While some farmers
enjoy having off-season “down time” to make repairs
or plan for the coming year, others find that practicing seasonal
diversification makes for a more well-rounded farm enterprise.
Season extension involves using greenhouses, unheated hoop houses,
row covers or alternate varieties to push fruit and vegetable crops
earlier into the spring or later into the fall.
In Oregon, farmers Aaron Bolster of Deep Roots Farm and Anthony
and Carol Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm teamed up with the Oregon
Farmers’ Market Association on a SARE-funded project to test
the idea of extending a popular Portland farmers market through
the winter months. Customers got acquainted with the wide array
of local products available year-round, while farmers gauged off-season
demand. Deep Roots used hoop houses to grow late-season greens and
other cold-hardy crops; other farmers, like the Boutards, offered
value-added products based on their summer berries and other specialties.
“This is an area where there used to be a lot more emphasis
on winter production, but with more shipping and competition from
the South, it kind of fell away,” Bolster says. “Now,
with the demand for local produce, there’s a real opportunity
for farmers who are willing to take it.”
A key goal for Bolster and the Boutards was to keep people employed
year-round to foster good workers. They also found the winter market
was a catalyst for them to grow more vegetables year-round, then
try shopping any extra product to local stores and restaurants.
“In winter there’s certainly more risk, but it’s
worth it,” Bolster says.
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This Rhode Island greenhouse
offers options for producing before and after the traditional
season. Photo by MB Miller. |
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Sometimes, the key to capturing a valuable market is timing. Having
the earliest local sweet corn or tomatoes at the farmers market
will command a price premium; the trick is to keep customers coming
to your stand through tomato season and beyond. Thinking creatively
about how to maximize the overlap between peak demand and peak production
is an important part of direct marketing. Becky Walters of Burns,
Kan., developed her distinctive pumpkin salsa after selecting an
early-maturing pumpkin variety to coincide with tomato and pepper
season.
Another part of season extension has to do with understanding the
seasonal preferences of your target market. Meat producers often
find that customers buy ground beef in the summer and roasts in
the winter, for example. In Colorado, the Groves have learned that
they have to ship on Thursdays because many people like to receive
their meat on Friday for special weekend meals. Moreover, the Groves
say that bison sales are strong around the winter holidays and into
January, apparently because people resolve to eat healthier meats
around the first of year. Finally, raising heritage turkeys for
the Thanksgiving market has proven a yearly boon for many poultry
producers.
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