Tuesday, April 17, 2007

So many people have asked us if we’re ready to get into the dirt, if we’ve already started to plant, and if we’ve started the seeds yet. What most people don’t realize is that at this time of year I’m busy finishing the marketing for the summer. There are many little details that need tending before I can even think about getting into the field.

We’re finishing the schedule for the Produce Party. That means we’ve lined up most of the demonstrators and started planning the posters, fliers, and advertisements. We’ve even started lining up the prizes for the contests.

We’ve been very busy booking tours and groups to visit the farm and will have an out of state guest hosted by the ND Tourism Division later this month in hopes of booking some additional bus tours. This visit means assembling a package of brochures and fliers with options for visitors.

Speaking of brochures, we’ve just received a shipment of 5000 new brochures that need folding. These brochures will be circulated to the Devils Run and Peace Officer convention participants in hopes of getting more visitors to the FARM.

We’re also very busy working on our contract customers, such as restaurants and this year even a Minot grocery store. The grocery store brings with it a whole new set of challenges – packaging and labeling. It took us a while to find a supplier for the right packages for herbs and now we need to settle the labels. We’ve wanted to design and have printed some custom labels that would include our logo and have a space for the name of the herb. The containers would also have stickers from the North Dakota Farmers Market and Growers Association that advertise our product as North Dakota grown. We’ve even considered a custom sticker for the back that would include a recipe but we’re not sure we can afford that. So far, the only custom label and sticker maker we’ve found is Frontier Label. If anyone has any other ideas, please drop me a note.

Barry has been working on spring clean up – branches and leaves and I’ve been tied to the computer finishing up these details. We do have some seeds started and I was able to get the temporary greenhouse up this weekend. As soon as we can get the temperature regulated we’ll start moving our little seedlings from the bath tub out into the real world.

So for now, it’s type, type, type – order, plan, design and return phone calls. I’ll see you all out in the dirt soon enough I hope. For now, take care and enjoy the sunshine.