Lessons in marketing teach farmers art of the deal

Tammy Bruckerhoff is teaching a group of farmers and gardeners about marketing. Showing electronic slides as examples, she's trying to illustrate the elements of an aesthetically pleasing display meant to attract buyers at a farmers market. She stresses appealing to the senses.

"And what are the five senses?" she asks the class.

There's mumbling. Most of these people would rather spend their days getting dirt beneath their fingernails than fiddling with sales charts, marketing techniques and PowerPoint presentations. But they're here to learn.

Tuesday they came from as far away as Marble Hill, Mo., and Perryville, Mo., to take notes on improving and expanding their business at farmers markets. The University of Missouri Outreach and Extension and the Missouri Department of Agriculture sponsored the workshop at the Cape Girardeau County Extension Office in Jackson.

Julie Bricknell of Pocahontas answered Bruckerhoff's question.

"Feel," she said, illustrating her point by brushing the fingers of one hand over the other.

Bricknell is a rookie on the local farmer's market circuit. She started out peddling her pottery at the market in Cape Girardeau last year. When her garden produced a surplus of dill, she decided to give it away next to her pottery display at the market. Much to her surprise, people wanted to pay for the dill. She came to the workshop to learn how to expand and bring other wares from her pottery wheel and garden to market.

"Someday I'll retire," said Bricknell, 48. "When I do, I'll have more time to concentrate on this."

While many in the audience share Bricknell's view of the markets as more of a pastime, they're a livelihood for others in attendance.

Kevin and Janet Johns, owners of Cates Orchard in Dudley, Mo., farm more than 45 acres and sell peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, pumpkins, potatoes and sweet corn. They usually divide sales between their own outlet at the orchard, local stores and taking their product to local farmers markets. For them, this is business.

Last year, hail-damaged crops prevented the Johnses from selling their usual allotment to the stores. This put an even greater emphasis on the sales at the farmers markets. That's just fine with them.

"We'd rather sell at the farmers markets," Kevin said. "We like selling directly to the customer. That way you can see they appreciate the quality their getting."

This workshop is an attempt to promote and develop farmers markets in this area, said Bruckerhoff, who works as a horticulturist with the Missouri Department of Agriculture.

The three-hour workshop also offered information about growing tomatoes in high tunnels and about the Missouri Vegetable Growers Association, and provided tips on techniques that have worked for market veterans.

"It gives local farmers a chance to meet each other and see what else is out there," Bruckerhoff said.

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137