THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: EIGHT LESSONS FROM ROCKY GLADE FARM.
If a farmer is truly trying to work restaurants into their sales, I found Rocky Glade's advice to be thoroughly insightful. So insightful, in fact, I couldn't fit everything I wanted into the last post. So I thought it necessitated one more short piece––a collection of eight interesting tips, ideas and stories farmers should consider when hoping to work more with chefs.
One - Don't call chefs. And definitely don't call chefs at night––while they're cooking––unless you absolutely have to. "I will not call you [in the evening]," says Julie, "unless it's something I have to have an answer on. But if I'm trying to beat cold, or beat rain, I am gonna call you because I can't wait." Email is generally preferred, but each chef may have his or her own preference. And as the chef gets to know you, and how farms function, they will understand the necessity behind the occasional phone call.
Two - Invite the chef to visit your farm. Help he or she to understand where you're coming from: "Our hoop house is just like [restaurant] tables," says Jim, "Our profit is how much you sell that table, but also how fast you turn it. You can't put a six month crop in a hoop house because you can't give up those three lettuce crops, or the four radish crops."
Julie adds, "And they get that because they don't want someone sitting at a table for three hours not ordering anything."
Three - Send samples, take pictures, physically show them what you've got. "If they can see it and touch it," that helps sell it.
Four - Pay attention to what they want, and don't send them things they can't use. "Early on, what we didn't send built the relationship as much as what we did."
Five - Indeed, build your relationship. A lot of farmers may view restaurants as an opportunity to dump ten bushels of kale every week. But it's not that easy: "We work that relationship just as hard as the CSA," says Julie. You have to communicate with them regularly, listen to them, anticipate and care about their business as much as your own.
Six - Eat there: Rocky Glade tells us they have only eaten at Rolf a few times, and "...actually seeing your food come out on a plate," Says Julie, "You go 'Okay, that's why. That's why you want this small. Or that's why you don't want it bunched...'. If I go and eat, and watch my food come out, it helps me do a better job in the field." -Julie
Seven - Have your chef be specific about what they need. Jim tells us, "A lot of chefs will tell you, 'I'll take all you can grow'. Rolf and Daughters is really good about telling you what the goal is and why."
Eight - Share the risk. This is something Rocky Glade is still working on and Julie tells us, "The only way I've found to share the risk is by doing a bunch of research, finding out how much something might cost, I tell him what I would have to charge and he decides if it's worth it." In the case of a very expensive seed, they say, "if [the chef] helped with the seed cost, [he] could buy it later at a discounted price." This sort of "risk sharing", since chef's are not as fond of the CSA model, might be the best way to safely experiment with new crops and new ideas without risking too much of your own space, money and time.
Big thanks again to Rocky Glade for all their insight–-what a great family and model farm. Don't forget to keep up with the Vaughns through their website, and visit them at the Franklin Farmer's Market.
- Jesse.
THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: WHAT FARMERS DO RIGHT.
It's around 8:30 a.m. and I'm looking at a large chunk of galangal, which has suddenly appeared from the cab of Rocky Glade Farm's truck for the chefs to taste. Owen––who is always bouncing a little with excitement, but particularly so at the sight of this rhizome––cuts a few slivers off and hands one to me. The galangal itself is beautiful, the flavor unreal, and the fact that it even exists in this moment? A perfect place to continue our TFAC Series. Because if you want to know what farmers do right, Philip and Owen tell me, just talk to Rocky Glade.So that's what we did. This past Sunday, Hannah and I went to Rocky Glade Farm to meet Jim, Julie and their distractingly wonderful children at their farm for a little conversation and farm tour.
I should start by saying that what I didn't realize about Rocky Glade when I first requested an interview was that this is their busy time. Unlike us, who are now more or less "laid by" for the season, the Vaughn family is just gearing up. They do not do a full-on summer market––they literally and somewhat shockingly, don't even grow tomatoes. Instead, they focus most of their efforts on the fall and winter, because upon asking themselves, "When would our customers miss us the most?", wintertime was the obvious victor. So for them to have given us a whole Sunday afternoon in the fall was very generous, and I hope they found it as fun and interesting as we did.Something else I did not realize about Rocky Glade was what percentage of their sales that restaurants make up. Well, not restaurants, exactly, but primarily one restaurant––singular. In terms of income, they told us, Rolf and Daughters makes up around a third of their yearly sales. Then, of course, there are a few other restaurants that buy from them who they view perhaps as larger market customers. They also have their market table and then a Fall/Winter CSA to make up the rest. But Rolf is a notably significant slice of the pie. For a market farmer, that's an attractive reality––having a customer that large, and that consistent. However, when I asked them if they were looking for more restaurant sales like that, they both said not really. "We don't need another Rolf." They like having a couple other smaller restaurants, then a few different income outlets. Indeed, Rolf and Daughters supplies a large portion of their revenue, but because diversity is as important in your sales as in your garden, they do not rely solely on restaurants for their income. If the restaurant shuts down for a week, as they point out, the farm doesn't shut down. Since it is always producing, a farm needs alternatives and, we all laugh, "people who can use normal-sized chard and kale––some regular chefs."
What their farm has with Rolf and Daughters is special, they tell us, but it isn't unique. "A lot of farms our size," Jim points out, "end up finding one restaurant they mesh with." This is a person who comes to them to sift through seed catalogs in the winter, or calls them regularly for produce, or even goes to them first when they're wondering if a specific crop can be grown locally. It's not just a customer, but a working relationship. Or as Julie put it, "A partnership."But if you were a chef, it would be hard not to not want Rocky Glade as your farm. They are passionate about what they do, and according to Philip and Owen, they're on it. They send consistent, regular emails with produce lists, and how much is available every week. Julie "scouts the garden hard twice a week", then sends them updates on what's coming in, and what's going out. She tells us she likes any type of communication that can "hang out there" for a while, so that the chefs can see it, and start thinking about it. Chefs have different schedules from farmers. When Rocky Glade is getting back from the fields, and typing up their availability lists, R.A.D is starting service. But by sending an email or leaving a message, the next time she checks in with them––which she does by lunch every Monday, if they do not respond––she will have an order within hours.Of course, Julie said she always feels like she's pushing too hard, but to hear R.A.D. talk about it, they're grateful for the check-ins––for someone working so hard to keep them supplied with great food. The chefs also like that they know how much they can order of something, the size it might be, and so on. Jim will even send chefs pictures from the field of various produce so they can see how it's coming along. It's smart, and as far as I can tell, greatly appreciated.
So what the Vaughn family does so well, from my perspective, is focus on just a few restaurants––one in particular––and really works hard to satisfy those restaurants' needs. They don't just grow things and heap them on their table in hopes restaurants will buy every bit, because most of the time, they said, the restaurants want something different––something specific. They want a smaller size, shape, or even part of the plant. Getting to know the chefs then, eating at their restaurants and really building that relationship, gives them the opportunity to understand what those needs are and to fulfill them. Moreover, they communicate a lot. They ask a lot of questions. They give and request feedback. Rocky Glade, in this sense, is a great model for the restaurant farm because they are constantly striving to better serve their restaurants.Anyway, I could write a book on Rocky Glade, but later this week or early next I'll try and distill some more of what we learned there into a more concise, "Lesson from Rocky Glade" post. So check back and––sorry, can't help myself––go Cubs!- Jesse.
A NEIGHBORHOOD OF FARMS.
We hung out with our friend Eric this morning, and we find ourselves once again feeling inspired and challenged as farmers. Eric is the farm manager at Bell's Bend Neighborhood Farm - a group of farmers living and working together in the Bells Bend/Scottsboro community of Nashville. The goal of the farm is to be an example of how sustainable agriculture can improve the land and the community, providing jobs and food as well as preserving the valuable farmland. We love the idea of community - about joining forces to be able to achieve so much more, about specializing in one thing and relying on your neighbors for what you aren't producing yourselves. As Eric said today, homesteading and farming didn't used to be such a "difficult" way of life. Neighbors helped each other and depended on each other, and everyone was a farmer. Lovely, right?We are excited to be joining our own little community of farmers soon. And we are also excited after seeing Bells Bend's herd of milking Devon's, their amazing intern house, and the field full of telephone poles where they grow HOPS for Yazoo! We left with our heads full of new ideas and a lot of mud on our boots. A good day indeed.- Hannah.
THE BARTER SYSTEM.
One of the best things about being a part of the small-farmer community? The barter system is alive and well. It seems that folks who are in the business of food and labor and livestock and hay are more than happy to use those things as their currency. And we LOVE this philosophy. We love trading bottles of homemade wine for Great Pyrenees puppies, heirloom tomatoes for raw milk, spinning lessons for a new logo design. It make so much sense.And on that note: we had the pleasure of spending this morning with Little Seed Farm. These new friends are running a lovely small farm in Tennessee, working towards many of the same things we aspire to. We had a blast running around with their menagerie of dogs, cows, pigs, goats, chickens, and guineas (more about that tomorrow). Before we left, we had a good old-fashioned swap of wares. Jesse and I came home with some amazing goodies - fresh eggs, homemade cheeses, and some items from the Little Seed Farm Store: Farmstead Milk Soaps (made from their goat's milk) and Herbal Lip Salve, plus some beautiful hand-drawn notecards!So not only did we walk away with a bag full of delicious cheese (which we could barely keep ourselves from devouring in the car on the way home) and Cocoa Stout Soap (made with a locally brewed beer!), we also walked away with our hearts and minds full of inspiration. It is always rejuvenating for us to meet other young people, working hard, leaving behind comfort and convention to try a better way. *So thanks, guys, for a wonderful day and a lot of fun! Good luck with the kidding season!*- Hannah.