How quality and marketing drive success for small farms

One advantage of a small farm is that one can form a more personalised form of marketing, resulting in a sought-after product for which customers will usually be prepared to pay more.

Stores like to purchase products at the lowest price so as to increase their margin. Market prices fluctuate according to supply and demand, and the trend is to keep the selling price high for as long as possible after the market price drops.

We need to determine a price that is in the ballpark and allows us to make a profit. By this means, the outlet can keep the selling price the same all along, so the customer knows what to expect.

By adhering to the protocol of farming described in the previous six articles of this series, the taste and general quality of the produce will improve substantially.

I started to supply a store in my village with limited quantities of my tomatoes as the manager was accustomed to purchasing from the market. His staff and customers started to notice the more tasty quality of my tomatoes and reported this to the manager, who made the decision to purchase only from me whilst I was in production.

Many nutrients available

His staff members would tell me how they enjoyed my tomatoes compared with the tasteless market tomatoes.

The reason why my products taste better is because of the organic content of my soil, which feeds a vast array of different organisms that in turn make a great many nutrients available to the plants. Not only does this improve the taste, but it’s substantially more nutritious.

Recently in the news it was mentioned that we have to eat seven oranges to get the same nutrition that we had from one orange some years ago. This is due to modern farming methods that have depleted the organic reserves in the soil. We don’t need all the minerals that are in proper organic vegetables to produce good yields.

Hydroponic vegetables can be grown very successfully with just 14 minerals, but will lack the full health-giving qualities of organic produce and its shelf life.

Unfortunately, it seems that to be certified organic, all it takes is to have not have used artificial fertilisers or pesticides for three years. There is no requirement for organic content of the soil, which makes all the difference.

Dozens of different minerals can be taken up from the soil by plants. Every disease that the World Health Organization has studied has a link to a mineral that is lacking. I have a chart of the mineral content reduction in produce over the past 100 years and it is substantial.

The diversity and amount of minerals and growth-promoting substances produced by and made available by soil organisms not only improve our health, but also contribute to the taste and tenderness of the vegetables.

Your sales outlet should be aware of this and it should be relayed to customers, perhaps even with a sign displaying ‘Nutrient dense, organically grown’. Customers will then know why the produce tastes better and come back on a regular basis.