|
Deanna Child (left) and Deborah Williamson are the brains behind Farmer Girls, which links farmers, buyers. |
BY CATHY JETT
Barbara Tourtelot tries to get as much of her food from local sources as possible.
But it's a half-hour drive from her home in Delaplane to the nearest farmers market, which is in Warrenton.
So she was sold when she discovered a Web site that would not only let her order directly from farmers operating within a 40-mile radius of Fauquier County but also would deliver her purchases to a location 10 minutes away.
"They make it so easy," said Tourtelot, who bought her free-range Thanksgiving turkey from FarmersOnlineMarket.net. "We're not driving all over the place to find these people."
Farmer Girls, the business behind the Web site, is the brainchild of Deborah Williamson, who is on the board of the Fauquier Farm Bureau and grows lavender on her farm in Catlett, and Deanna Child, a farmer who raises pigs and poultry on a pasture in Orlean, along with vegetables in a hoop-house garden.
"We've had to run to Whole Foods and farmers markets to sell our products, and that eats into the time we have to farm," said Williamson. "One of the main things we wanted to do is take the marketing piece off the plate for the farmer so they can do what they do really well, which is farming."
She and Child began kicking around the idea for Farmer Girls in early June, and looked at other models around the country for ideas. They came up with one that lets farmers set their own prices and post their products and a brief description of their farm and philosophy online. Then, one morning a week, they drop off orders, which are then bagged for customers to pick up.
By August, the business partners had their Web site up and running with offerings by about a dozen farmers. They now have about 125 customers and 30 farmers.
"Time-wise, this is more convenient for the farmers and the customers, because you put all your product out there without having to sit on a lawn chair in a tent for five hours," said John Grose of Buffalo Ridge Farm in Rixeyville, which sells free-range turkeys and buffalo meat. "Ultimately, you reach as many people. So far, it's been working very well for us."
All of the farms listed on FarmersOnlineMarket.net are 30 to 40 miles away, except for Allen and Debbie Sinclair's Shenandoah Farms in Shenandoah County. They were included because they can provide customers with fresh vegetables from their greenhouse even during the winter, Williamson said.
Farmer Girls makes its money by taking a small percentage of sales and charging customers a membership fee to participate. For $25 for six months or $40 for a year, they can begin ordering at 1 p.m. on Sunday, pay for it with a credit card, then pick up purchases on Thursday at Vint Hill, the IGA in Marshall, Accotink Unitarian Universalist Church in Burke or the Lee Highway Nursery in Warrenton.
The exception will be Christmas week, when deliveries will be moved up to Dec. 22. The operation will then take a three-week break over the holidays and re-open for orders Jan. 17.
"We're a year-round market," Williamson said. "We have probably 90 percent of what we normally have during the winter. We're trying to build up our customer base so we can bring more farmers on and sell more than we have now."
Among the early joiners is Lee Sherbeyn, who runs Sherbeyn's Longhorn Beef Products in Bealeton. Orders for his free-range, low-cholesterol beef have grown from $35 a week initially to about $100 a week.
"It's not overwhelming, but it gets better every week," he said. "More and more people are seeing our name, which is good because we haven't done a lot of marketing."
His beef, for example, is now one of the ingredients in the sausage made and sold on FarmersOnlineMarket.net by Grace Brock, who runs Ole Pioneer's Kitchen in Vienna.
Cecilia Schallenberger, who makes goat cheese at her Sweet Valley Dairy Farm in Elkwood, is another farmer listed on the Web site, but she doesn't plan to start listing her USDA-approved chevre until she figures out the appropriate sell-by date to list on the packaging. That will likely be next week.
She said she found out about Farmer Girls because there was so much buzz about it at the Culpeper Farmers Market. Part of the appeal, she said, is that farmers get to set their own prices.
"There are cases where the price I charge is very acceptable to customers, but when I sell to a store or specialty shop, they double my price. This keeps customers happy with my pricing."
Selling on FarmersOnline Market.net also is more
"I know exactly what to pack and when to deliver and I'm done," she said. "No more loading up additional products to a market and then bringing some of that home. It's a lot more efficient."
Cathy Jett: 540/374-5407
Email: cjett@freelancestar.com
