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Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association
Newsletter #258May-June 2010
Volume 25, Number 5
Fresh Facts
Inside this issue:
Members News 2
OFFMAs Website 3
Learnings from
NAFDMA4
Hiring for the team 5
8 things I wish every-
one knew about
email
6
Jane Eckert Con-sultations 7
Upcoming Events 8
Presidents Message
Rock Picking, Stair Climbing and
Attracting the Right Applicants
It is that time of year again when we welcome back previous
staff and hire new. Over the years Ihave started a file folder that
contains numerous ideas about hiring and interviewing. Here are
afew thoughts from that folder and credit where it is due.
Attracting the right applicant:Employee Referral have a hard
working outgoing employee? They most likely have a
friend or know someone who is also hard working and outgoing
that they could refer. You couldalso reward that employee with a
bonus half paid when they are hired and the other half after afew
months (encourages your previous employee to mentor the new
employee) Lori Colborne
Customers who better to promote your farm than a loyal customer
becoming an em-ployee? Mid-August we put signs on our cash
registers that say, Love Stroms? Now hiringfor We have application
forms available at the registers. I saw this idea while visiting
Sprin-gridge Farm
Application Form An application form can tell you much more
about the potential em-ployee than a resume. For example: Have you
been to our farm before, desired position (listthose available) and
availability. This helps you sort through those applying and save
time inter-viewing. We have ours available on our website as well
as comments from current staff abouttheir experience at Stroms. - I
saw this on Saunders Farm website and asked for a copy. E-mailme if
youd like to make a copy for your farm.
Interviewing:When interviewing I ask questions that tell me if
they are teachable and a team player. Someexamples are:Why are you
applying here? If it is because of their Mom Id question whether
they really want towork whereas if they want to work outside and
contribute to the team it gives you a difference inmotivation. It
also lets you see if they know anything about your farm.Give me an
example of a WOW moment with a customer at a previous job (if they
havent had aprevious job have them think about a time when they
were volunteering or with family). Ask thesame about a difficult
customer and how they handled it. Ask for an example of a group
projectthey worked with. How did that go? How did they communicate
their goal and any problems thatarose?A practical way to observe a
person is to have a work day on your farm. This happens at ourfarm
every April in the form of rock picking. One girl had a manicure
the day before obviously
not meant for farm life (not that I dont enjoy a good manicure
but there is a time for everything).Jesse, from Springridge Farm,
interviews on the second floor of their barn. Jesse, quickly
walksup the stairs and if the interviewee follows just as quickly
they have just passed phase 1.
When interviewing we let them know they will receive a review
after two weeks. Thisgives us a chance to see how they are doing,
areas they are strong in and what they can workon. It also gives us
the chance to see if work on the farm is for them. Not everyone is
cut out forthe physical labour or customer service farm life
involves. We look at it as a learning experienceand our hard
working staff thank us for it.Happy Hiring,
Amy Strom
OFFMA President
Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh
experience.
Love Networking?Mark your calendarfor Tuesday, August
10thOFFMAs Annual
Networking Picnic atWhittys Farm,
St. Catharines, ON
See their new winery,ride pedal carts,
watch a puppet show.
Dont miss this event.
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MEMBERSHIP NEWS
Page 2 Fresh Facts
New MembersA warm welcome to OFFMAs latest
members. We hope you feel at home
and comfortable to contact other
members for support and sugges-
tions.
Highmark Farms
Carmen Theofilou
Bradford, ON
705-458-2423
Kent Kreek Berries
Jeff & Paula Zelem
Simcoe, ON519-426-0924
Associate MembersSigma Promotions
Nikki Pett
Newmarket, ON
905-476-4300
Toorshi Foods Inc.
Hratch VartanianScarborough, ON
416-916-6880
The OFFMA office will closedfor the week of June 21. Cathy
and Gary will be exploring
Manitoulin Island.
ClassifiedsFOR SALE:Producers of fine maple syrup since 1876.
Jakeman'sMaple Syrup Products are synonymous with great'taste,
quality, innovation, and packaging'. A widerange of maple syrup
products - Maple syrup, MapleCream Cookies, Maple Shortbread, Maple
SugarGranules, Maple Sugar, Maple Spread, Maple Can-dies, Maple
Butter Popcorn, Maple Tea, Maple Cof-fee, Maple Icewine
Sauce.Available in any volume quantities. Federally Li-censed maple
syrup plant. Products are CANADIANand sold in retail outlets
worldwide.For more information contact: Bob or Mary
Jakeman,1-800-382-9795 or [email protected] - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Water Wheel
planter and 48 plastic mulcherIdeal for planting
watermelons/cantalope. Waterwheel planter has 24 spacing. Asking
$2,000. Con-tact Peter Jennen, 519-692-5971
[email protected]
WANTED:Looking for a Pear/Kiwi concentrate or syrup that is
used as a wine flavouring. It is difficult to get now
without getting the entire wine kit which we don't
need as we use it in the non-alcoholic cider. Any
info would be greatly appreciated.
Garry Geissberger, [email protected]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- -Looking for wholesale egg cartons, strawberry &raspberry
containers and plastic produce bags. Doesanyone know of an economic
Ontario supplier?Thanks!Sara Rozema
[email protected] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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Looking for a grape juice concentrate supplier. If youknow
someone, please contact Marlene OBrien at
519-482-1666 or [email protected]
Classified ads are free to all OFFMA members.Classified ads will
be printed in the next newsletter and onthe web site in the
classified ad section. Make use of thismembership benefit, if you
are looking to sell or purchasean item, send the relevant
information to the OFFMA office.Well make sure it is posted.
Congratulations to Harvest Ontario on its
10th anniversary. Harvest Ontario has been
promoting local food since its inception 10
years ago. We are proud to be a partner in
this publication. Copies are now available atHome Hardware
Stores across the province.
The 2010 membership list has been
included with this newsletter. Pleasehave a quick look to make
sure your
contact information is correct. This isthe list we use as a
basis for communi-
cation with you.
The list has been developed as a net-working and communication
tool for
our members. Do not distribute to thegeneral public.
A customer must
buy you before
they buy from you.
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Page 3Newsletter #258
OFFMAs Website, OntarioFarmFresh.com
Social Media WorkshopsOFFMA will be offering a Social Media
Workshop atKemptville College on July 13. If you are wondering how
tomake the most of Facebook and not sure if tweeting isreally your
thing, be sure to sign up for this workshop.Cost is $90 + HST.Space
is limited because we are in a computer lab, westill have a few
openings at this point.The participants at the Guelph workshop were
very im-pressed with the program and went away with
relevantinformation they could apply immediately to their
busi-nesses.
Its a keeperNew members are encouraged to savetheir newsletters
in a binder for easyreference in the future, but this tipwould
apply to all members; new or
old.This issue especially is a keeper.It has 2 articles brimming
with hiringtips and tricks that can be applied anytime of the
year.Newsletters can also be found on ourwebsite in the members
only sectionsif you have misplaced your copy of aparticular
issue.
In the last 2 years we have invested a con-siderable amount of
funds in the OntarioFarm Fresh web site. The primary goal ofthe
site was and still is to attract the public
and interest them in visiting an Ontariofarm. More people
visiting more farms andbuying more food and experiences onthose
farms. This website is a gateway toyour own websites. It was the
first glimpsemany people will see of an Ontario farm.The secondary
goal was to have a placefor members to review resources and
com-municate with each other.
Media BulletinsWe have been working with Faye
ClackCommunications to develop and distributemonthly news bulletins
to targeted media tokeep them abreast of new information,
newproducts and new experiences that can befound on the farm. A
copy of these mediabulletins can be found on the website, inthe
media section and are available to youto use to promote your own
farms if thetopic corresponds to your situation.The OFFMA office
works with Faye Clackto develop these bulletins so if you
havesomething happening on your farm thatyou feel would be
newsworthy, let us knowand we will see if we can fit them into
abulletin.
TemplatesA new addition in the members only sec-tion is a
template to assist you with a press
release and an event advisory. Check itout, download it and keep
it handy so youwill be able to refer to it when you want toget some
additional media coverage.
Monthly draw for a prize basketConsumers are en-couraged to sign
up fora monthly newsletter.From April to Octoberone name will be
pulledfrom this list and pre-sented with a basketfilled with
Ontario prod-ucts. If your business isinterested in sponsor-ing the
basket for amonth this year, let theoffice know and we
willcoordinate that oppor-tunity. A link to your web site will be
fea-tured on the home page.
Enhanced member pagesAs an OFFMA member you have the
op-portunity to present a snapshot of yourfarm with pictures and
videos to consum-ers who visit the OFFMA website. This isbeyond the
basic contact information andcan be used as a enticement to get
addi-tional visitors to your farm. Search for Clo-
vermead, if you want to see a good exam-ple of what can be done
with this technol-ogy. Detailed instructions were distributedin
February.
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Page 4 Fresh Facts
Learnings from the North American Farmers Direct
MarketingAssociation(NAFDMA)NAFDMA 2010: Lancaster convention
highlights.Kerry Engel, NAFDMA Board of Director www.nafdma.comThis
years convention took place in Lancaster County. We had a three day
tour prior to a threeday conference. Lots of learning and tons of
networking. Just thought Id share a few insights fromthe innovative
farmers who were on my bus.
Go mobile.
Put wheels on yourbins. It makes movingproduce into the
coolerthat much easier at theend of the day. Thisorchard had a
smallelectric pallet moverthat they used to make
moving a cinch.
Sell less. Make more.
Youll make moremoney selling pie by theslice or half. The
halfclam shell package willcost you a bit more soyou need to know
yourcosts but selling smallerportions does yield big-
ger returns.
Fast Comfort food.Cherry Crest sells pea-nut butter & jam
sand-wiches and mac ncheese. You couldhave some fun localiz-ing
these to your farm.Make your own jamfrom your berries and
Alberta noodles orcheese in your signa-ture dish.
Enter from the back.
Filling shelves from be-hind is smart. The oldestproduct is
always outfront. This way you donthave to be in the
aislesrestocking shelves whilecustomers shop. Its all
done behind the scenes.(Think how milk is sold.)
Add an inexpensiveactivity.
Activities dont need tobe complicated or costa lot of money.
Youcan make a big bangwith something as sim-
ple as a slide. Kids andadults alike love a giantslide!
Birthday parties arehot.Take a cooking classand turn it into a
birth-day party. Its gainingpopularity. Customerservice is key!
Re-member that Mom is
the customer not thebirthday child. MakeMoms experience thebest
ever.
Mark your calendar. Join us in Baltimore, February 4-11, 2011
for the next NAF-DMA convention. Details will unfold later this
summer. www.nafdma.com
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Page 5Newsletter #258
The warm and dry spring in Ontario has setthings in motion a few
weeks early and allowedfor direct farm marketers to get a head
start on
the season. This time of year also involveshiring staff to be
part of the farm team.
Charlie Touchette, Executive Director of theNorth American Farm
Direct Marketing Asso-ciation (NAFDMA) www.nafdma.com wrote
anarticle a few years ago titled: A Finer Point ofHiringthat
focuses on the importance of hiringwith the team approach in mind.
With permis-sion, here are some excerpts from that articleto
consider when putting your farm team to-gether:
one of the finer points of hiring is the ap-preciation that each
new hire is part of a team.And often overlooked is that its the
team, notthe individual that really propels a business.The team
concept is nothing new. But, whenwe sit across the table to
evaluate an individualwho is a candidate for a job, too often we
losesight of that team function.
Every functional team needs three compo-nents, a visionary, an
implementer, and a fin-isher. People possess varying degrees
ofthese characteristics. But each of us is proneto have more
strength in one of these over the
other two. To satisfy the whole business objec-tive, a team
needs to have all three of thesecomponents with as much natural
balance aspossible.
A visionary is one who:-always sees the big picture- is
concerned with process andhow all the pieces fit together-always on
their toes looking fornew ways to get a job done ornew elements
that will make thebusiness better
-they love to start new projectsand usually moving on to the
nextbig thing well before yesterdaysnew idea even gets
started
An implementer is one who:-wants to get to work and wants tokeep
working-they get joy out of life by being inthe trenches-they love
a day when it has no staff
meetings, no long discussions about theway things could be, and
no interruptionsin the flow of work
-fulfillment is a full days work with some-thing tangible to
show for it at the end
A finisher is one who:-wants to get the jobcompleted, on
time,and with outstandingquality-has an enhanced ap-preciation for
order andcleanliness-seek out loose endsleft by others and
com-pletes the task
We all fit into one ofthese categories more clearly than
theother two . . . Imagine a team made uponly of visionaries it
would have numer-ous projects all happening at once though none of
them are completed, andonly a few of them are ever productive.The
business with too many implementersis very productive but not very
progres-sive; and the business with only finishersis immaculate and
pristine but it may notbe meeting its full potential in
productivity
or return on investment. As hiring time ar-rives yet again, dont
limit your attention tothat candidate across the table, or howwell
you think theyll do the job you have inmind for them. Consider how
well that per-son would balance your team and promoteyour business
productivity.
The Business Management Unit of theOntario Ministry of
Agriculture, Food andRural Affairs has developed a fact
sheettitled: Creating and Implementing a Hu-man Resource Management
PlanOrder
No. 07-005. This fact sheet along withother farm business
related resources canbe found at: www.ontario.ca/agbusiness
Hiring: Make sure you have the team in mindBy Dorene Collins,
Marketing and Customer Service Lead with OMAFRA
Better is better,before bigger is
better.
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Page 6 Fresh Facts
8 things I wish everyone knew about email-an excerpt from Seth
Godins blog
1. Change your settings so that emailfrom you has a name, your
name, not ablank or some unusual characters, in the
from field. (ask a geek or IT person forhelp if you don't know
how).
2. Change your settings so that the bot-tom of every email
includes a signature(often called a sig) that includes yourname and
your organization.3. Change your settings so that when youreply to
a note, the note you're replying tois included below what you write
(this iscalled quoting).
4. Don't hit reply all. Just don't. Okay, youcan if you really
want to but make sure you
know who all that e-mail is going to. 5. You can't recall an
email you didn'tmean to send. Some software makes youthink you can,
but you can't. Not reliably.
6. Email lives forever, is easy to spread
and can easily show up in discovery for alawsuit.
7. Please don't ask me to save a tree by
not printing your email. It doesn't work, itjust annoys the
trees.
8. Send yourself some emails from afriend's computer. Read it.
Are the fontstoo big or too small? Does it look like astandard
email? If it doesn't look like astandard, does this deviation help
you orhurt you? Sometimes, fitting in makessense, no?And a bonus
tip from Cory Doctorow, whogets more email than you and me
com-bined: When you go on vacation, set up an
autoreply that says, "I'm on vacation untilx/x/2010. When I get
back, I'm going todelete all the email that arrived while I
wasgone, so if this note is important, pleasesend it to me again
after that date.
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Page 7Newsletter #258
Jane Eckert is coming to OntarioJane will be returning to
Ontario from August 9th to the 13th. Shewill be consulting with
OFFMA members right across the province.(This will likely be the
last time we will hire Jane for these consulta-tions).If you are
not familiar with Jane, she is a national speaker, authorand
agritourism expert, is principal of Eckert AgriMarketing
(www.eckertagrimarketing.com), a firm that helps farmers sell
prod-ucts directly to consumers and develop their operations into
touristdestinations. Her visits will be a three step process.
Step One: Pre-Visit
-You will be sent a pre-visit survey to complete, and to
specifically identify your goals for an on-site consultation.-You
will also be asked to send Jane any samples of your newspaper ads,
brochures, flyers,press releases, tourism pieces, television
commercials etc. to be reviewed prior to her visit.
Step Two: On-Site Visit
Jane will:
meet with the principals to discuss the goals for this visit and
your vision for the future.
take a tour of your location in order to review the layout,
product selection, signage, traffic
flow and general appearance of the farm/ranch and offer
suggestions as to how to im-prove.
review your responses to the pre-visit survey in order to fully
understand your currentbusiness, marketing strategies, target
customers and ideas for future growth. She willdiscuss the areas of
greatest growth potential and offer ideas about how to maximizeyour
selling season and maximize profitability.
discuss your past promotional and publicity efforts to market
your farm/ranch and makesuggestions about how to maximize these
efforts.
Step Three: Marketing Assessment
Following the visit, you will receive a comprehensive written
report summarizing her first-handobservations, with recommendations
that will grow your business in line with your primarygoals.
Cost to you for this incredible opportunity is $300 + HST and
assistance with her transpor-
tation. Normally you would be paying closer to $1500 for this
type of consultation. If you areinterested, let the OFFMA office
know, there are still a few spots left at this point.
You Have the Power
You have the power to set your sights on a goal and then do what
is necessary to reach it.You have the power to take an ordinary
moment and give it extraordinary value.
You have the power to surprise someone with a sincere act of
kindness thats totally unex-pected and completely delightful.
You have the power to give a helping hand and an encouraging
word to those who need it most.You have the power to
appreciate.
You have the power to express your self and you have the power
to listen.You have the power to teach and you have the power to
learn.You have the power to look at a problem and to find within it
a positive opportunity.You have the power to see whats wrong with a
situation and to take steps that will make itright.Everyday you
have the power to make a positive difference.
-Ralph Martson
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Upcoming EventsJune 17 & 18 Comprehensive Elderberry
Conference & Farm Tour, Jefferson City &
Hartsburg, Missouri For more info contact terry Durham at
573-999-3034
or visit riverhillsharvest.com
July 13 Social Media Workshop, Kemptville College, contact Cathy
Bartolic at905-841-9278
August 10 Annual Potluck Social at Whitty Farms, St.
CatharinesNov. 7-9 Bus Tour in Central Ontario, contact Cathy
Bartolic at 905-841-9278Dec. 3 Haygrove Tunnel Conference,
Lancaster, PA. Visit haygrove.com or call
1-866-HAYGROVE for additional information.
April 4-7, 2011 Bus Tour to UK, contact Cathy Bartolic at
905-841-9278
Page 8 Fresh Facts
Ontario Farm Fresh
Cathy Bartolic, Executive Director
2002 Vandorf Rd. Aurora, ON L4G 7B9
Phone: 905-841-9278
Fax: 905-726-3369
E-mail: [email protected]
www.ontariofarmfresh.com
2010-11 OFFMA Board of DirectorsAmy Strom, President
Stroms Farm
Jesse Lauzon, Vice President
Springridge Farm
Mark Saunders, Past President
Saunders Farm
Paul Brooks, Brooks Farms
Jay Howell, Brantview Apples & Cider
Anne Just, Kurtz Orchards
Marg Land, Annex Publishing
(Associate Member)
Colleen Pingle, Pingles Farm Market
Geri Rounds, Rounds Ranch
Steve Smith, Smiths Apples
Dorene Collins, OMAFRA
(Advisor to the Board)
The last word.Membership is a Resource for You
Over the last couple of years, Ontario Farm Fresh has
experienced tremendous
growth in membership. We now have a broad spectrum of farm
members - pro-ducers of honey, maple syrup, cheese, ice cream,
meat, fruit, herbs, vegetables,
and organic products. Many farms have also created quality
added-value prod-
ucts from what they grow and are interested in wholesaling these
items.
We also have more associate members who provide a wide variety
of supplies
and products that runs the gamut of bags to pastries to go
karts. Associate mem-bers are businesses who have decided they want
to support the direct farm mar-
keting industry and we appreciate their efforts to do so.
If you are looking for supplies, new or additional products for
your farm market,try sourcing products from your fellow members
both farm and associate mem-
bers. Make the most of the valuable resource you have in the
Ontario Farm
Fresh membership list. A current copy has been included in this
newsletter.
Congratulations to these
members celebrating
significant milestones intheir farm business careers
this year.
Empire Valley Farm Market is
celebrating its 25th anniversary.
