Blog entries by Tom Roberts

About Tom Roberts

When I started attending the Brewer Farmers’ Market back in August of 1983, my sole concern was being able to sell the produce my farm was growing at a good price. After attending market for a year or two, I began to realize that how the market was organized had a great impact on my sales. And how the market was organized also influenced how it made decisions about dues, new members, what could be sold at market, and how it promoted itself—and this, too, had an impact on my sales. So I got involved in the market’s steering committee and began to understand how various market members thought the market should operate. Some wanted a market czar, some wanted everyone to be allowed to do their own thing. But everyone seemed to agree that if the market as a whole did well, then so did they.

Market Promotion

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Promote your farmers’ market using approaches that cost nothing except for doing them. Of course they need to be kept updated as necessary. To generate the greatest visibility, do as many of these as you can. Click images to visit real examples. Passive promotional methods are those you put out there and wait for people […]

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Good market practices

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The difference between struggling and success can be good market practices. What makes for a good farmers’ market? Certainly a strong and supportive base of shoppers is an essential ingredient. Yet demand for products is simply the fuel. How well the market is organized is the engine. Some engines waste fuel whereas others are efficient […]

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The spectrum from peddler’s market to producer’s market

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Thinking about Farmers’ Markets There are lots of ways to direct-market foods at a farmers’ market, some of which perhaps not everyone is familiar with. To better visualize the distinctions among them, it is often helpful to such arrange variations on a theme along a spectrum. This article is presented as a description of what […]

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Do farmers’ markets need managers?

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Starting a farmers’ market is a form of community organizing. It happens on two levels, organizing the market members and organizing the shoppers. Working with these two audiences takes very different forms, and I will concentrate here primarily on how the market members are organized. Community organizing can take many forms depending on where the […]

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Product Liability Insurance Q & A

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Hi Tom, I got your name off the internet at the MFFM website. I am a farmer and I currently sell at a local market. The question on “product liability insurance” has come up and it looks grim for the small farmer (once again!). The market master has come to the conclusion that we will […]

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