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.

Triple bottom line

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We don’t just do it for the money… Assuring our ethics is displayed in our economics. The “Triple Bottom Line” is concept that has gained popularity and credibility since its first introduction in the mid 1990’s. TBL, or 3BL, refers to the social, ecological and economic bottom lines of any business, whether for-profit or non-profit. […]

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Farm Supplies

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Where to find… Onion bags, plastic bags, wooden boxes, scales, apple ladders, scissors, clamshells, pint and quart containers, and other packaging, marketing and farm supplies. Know of other good sources? Tell us about them so we can share! Cardboard Trays, Locally Produced. Need corrugated trays for your customers to use? Trays are 17¼ x 13 […]

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Farm labor: Finding the help you need

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The task of finding people to help with your farm work can be broken into two parts: Finding workers, and Filtering the workers you do find. And at the end we talk a bit about interns.   Finding Workers To find folks to help with your workload, here are some ideas that might help. Try […]

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