“Direct Marketing Is a Great Way to Start a Business”–Words of Wisdom from the “Radio Organic” Podcast

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Written by Meaghan Donovan on Monday, September 13, 2021

The CCOF Foundation is pleased to partner with Community Alliance with Family Farmers and “The Farmers Beet” to launch our new podcast “Radio Organic: Sound Bites from the Organic Community.” 

In our four-part pilot series, we’ll chat briefly each week with long-time organic farmers about marketing techniques that have helped them run successful, resilient organic businesses. As a part of each interview, we ask our guest farmers what recommendations they have for newer farmers on managing resilient organic farms.

In our second episode we chatted with John and Kyle Garrone of Far West Fungi about how they leverage their direct-to-consumer sales outlets to keep tabs on market trends, test out new products, and educate consumers about all things mushroom.

Here’s what John Garrone had to say to organic farmers and food businesses that are just getting started.

“Direct marketing is a great way to start a business. It gives you an idea of what the public demands are, and also what interests them in a way of adding value added products. And you get a lot of ideas from the public. Our original jerky recipe came from a customer. It's part of the growing process. It's a wonderful way to come in contact with your customers, it gives you a good idea of the value of your product, and what direction you might want to take it.”

Curious to hear more of episode two? Download the episode from “The Farmers Beet” podcast on iTunes and Spotify, or listen directly via CCOF’s YouTube Channel. The episode is available in both English and Spanish.

Have ideas for future podcasts? Let us know! Send us your ideas via this feedback link.

Acknowledgments: This pilot podcast series is part of the CCOF Foundation’s Farmers’ Marketing: Tools for Success series, providing tips and tools for farmers to strengthen their sales and income at farmers’ markets and other direct to consumer outlets. Funding for the series was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant AM180100XXXXG055.