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Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association

Newsletter #266

March 2011Volume 26, Number 3

Fresh Facts

Inside this issue:

Membership News 2

A Day with Hugh

McPherson3

Awards Banquet 4

Ideas to boost sales 6

Upcoming Events 8

New OFFMA

Board of Directors8

Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh experience.

Happy New Year!

Ive always thought of March as Farmers New Year. The days are noticeably longer, the sunis that much stronger, and going outside starts to make sense again. Weve recovered fromthe Holidays and can just make out the start of the season in the not-too-distant future. ByMarch, were looking forward to opening again! To tell the truth, Im not a big fan of January.Its cold real cold and grey. Did I mention the darkness? Why start fresh in a month likethat? Around here, I pick March as the start of the New Year.

March is also the start of the New Year for OFFMAs Board of Directors. Newly elected Direc-tors include: Leslie Forsythe (Forsythe Family Farms, Markham), Brian Hugli (Huglis Blueber-

ry Ranch, Pembroke), and Hollis Murphy (Murphys Farmstead, Alliston). Welcome, welcome,and welcome! Thank you for agreeing to give your time and your insights to OFFMA.

This years Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Convention week served as a great kick off to myFarmers New Year. Going into this years convention, my personal goals were simple: learnlots, meet new people, and stay up too late with old friends. Check, check, and check. Thoseof us who attended OFFMAs pre-convention workshop A Goal Without a Plan is a Wish withHugh McPherson are now full of ideas and inspiration. The OFFMA Annual Banquet was aterrific evening. This years honourees included Spirit Tree Estate Cidery (Farm Market of theYear), Whittmores Farm Market (Leadership Award) and Anita Stewart (OFFMA AmbassadorAward). Take time to visit their websites and see why all three winners are so deserving.OFFMAs Direct Farm Sales sessions at the OFVC were packed as always, full of great speak-ers and innovative ideas. OFFMAs Peer Networking Groups also kicked off at this years con-

vention.

Wishing you a very Happy Farmers New Year! Heres to March and to the start of somethingfresh

Jesse LauzonOFFMA President

This is the year of the survey.

If you were at the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable Convention you may have

already been asked to fill out a membership survey. Three years ago

OFFMA did a survey with its members and their consumers. The re-

sults were fascinating and very useful to our industry (they can be

reviewed on our web site). We are once again looking at surveying

our members and their consumers to gauge how far we have come in

the last three years. No one likes completing surveys but this one is

very important, please take a few minutes and answer the questions.

You will be sent the questions, electronically and through the mail.

Anyone who answers will be have their names put in a draw for a

chance to win two seats on the annual OFFMA Bus Tour.

Thank you for your participation.


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MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Page 2 Fresh Facts

Thank you to everyone who has sent

in their membership dues for 2011.

For anyone who has not sent payment

for their membership this is the last

newsletter you will receive. An OFF-

MA membership is the best value youcan get , dont miss out. ACT NOW!

A HUGE Welcome to our new members!!!

This organization is only as strong, only as

current, only as innovative as its members.

Take time to become an active participant,

you will definitely reap what you sow with

this group.

Dleco Farm

Dali Wang

Niagara-on-the Lake, ON 905-321-6807

Heritage Lane Produce

Gregory & Victoria Boyd

Langton, ON 519-875-3177

Kemp Country Farm Market

Bill Kemp

Consecon, ON 613-394-2382

Stewards Blueberries

Lee Steward

Burford, ON 519-458-4176

Royal Rose Garden

Jovan Ugrnov

Princeton, ON 519-836-7008

Murphys Country Produce

Brian & Brendan Murphy

Binbrook, ON 905-692-5733

This is your newsletter. If you have an idea you

would like to share, a book you have found very val-

uable or a blog that is insightful, please let us know

so we can tell the rest of the membership. In the

words of Bill Redelmeier, you need to remember

that we as on-farm marketers are not competing

with each other. We are competing for our consum-

ers time with the movie theatres, the soccer prac-

tices and the shopping malls.

Results from the Cider Competition

New this year at the Ontario Fruit & Vegetable

Convention was a Cider Competition.

There were 13 entries and 9 judges who scored all

the entries. The 6 ciders with the highest scoreswere resampled to place the top 3.

Here's the winners:

1st - Thomas Wilson and Nicole Judge, Spirit Tree

Estate Winery, Caledon

2nd - Hector and Mark Delanghe, Delhaven

Orchards, Cedar Springs

3rd - Ralph Ferri, Al Ferri + Sons, Brampton.

Congratulations to everyone

who participated!

A couple of ideas to ponder from Linda Stanley, Re-search and Marketing Director at John Stanley Associ-ates

1. Winner of best promotions - National Apple Month inthe USThe winners were Timothy Hassel of Ferguson and Has-seler Inc. This store exhibited 12 different varieties of thefruit. What was unique was his promotion of "Vote forYOUR Favourite Apple." This engaged consumers andencouraged them to buy more varieties of apples andhence sales increased. There are lots of other productsin retailing where this technique would be a winner.

2. SPUD-tacular Potato Display

Build the biggest and get it into the Guinness Book ofRecords and the public will come. That is what has hap-pened this winter in Spanish Fork, Utah during Febru-ary's Potato Lovers Month. This store used 240,000 Ida-ho russet potatoes to build the worlds largest potatodisplay in a store. Most of the potatoes were in 10 poundbags for sale. What a great way to get international mar-keting exposure.

An acre of attitudesby Seth Godin

Everyone is given an acre of attitudes at

birth. It's yours to tend and garden and

weed and live with. You can plant bitter-

ness or good humour. Feel free to fertilize

and tend the feelings and approaches that

you want to spend time with. Unless you

hurt someone, this acre is all yours.

Probably worth putting up a decent fence,

so that only the attitudes that you choose

will have a chance to put down seeds, but

it's certainly a bad idea to put up a wall,

because a walled garden is no good to any-

one passing by. You get to decide whatcomes through your fence gate, right?

Watching out for invasive species

spending sufficient time on weeding and

pruning and staking seem to be incredibly

powerful tools for accomplishing the life

you want. I refuse to accept that an atti-

tude is an accident of birth or an un-

changeable constant. That would be truly

horrible to contemplate.

Happy Spring. Good luck with your garden.


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Page 3Newsletter #266 March 2011

A Day with Hugh McPherson

The pre-convention workshop this year was titled AGoal Without a Plan is a Wish; essentially it started outas a planning workshop..Can you think of a moreexciting topic to get people to attend a full day work-shop? No, we couldnt do that to our members. We hadto make sure Hugh shared some of his experiencesfrom other areas of his business as well. The day withHugh McPherson ended up encompassing planning,hiring processes, a little bit of customer service andassistance with making decisions around adding newattractions. We also had time for a detailed questionand answer period.

Here are some take home tidbits that will give a little bitof insight into the day but also a few tips that you canuse in your businesses. Hugh approached goal plan-ning from the point of view that the goals you want,have to be so attractive or magnetic that you are in-

spired to work towards achieving them. He provided uswith worksheets and excerpts from his personal experi-ences with goal setting.

Quick steps to makinggoals magnets1. Become disturbed.Specifically define the dis-sonance between yourcurrent position and yourposition upon reachingyour goal.2. Reframe your benefits.

Specifically assess andbuild your probability be-liefs, social beliefs, andability beliefs as they relateto your goals.3. Create direct relation-ships.Write out the positive out-come of achieving yourgoals.4. Define your investment.Write down the time, money, resources and efforts youare willing to invest in achieving your goal.5. Define the price of nothing.Write down and calculate the cost of doing nothing inrelation to your specific goal.

Ultimately what will it cost youif you continue to ignore it?

The next mini-session wasformally called Herding Cats:Effectively Hiring & ManagingYour Employees. Hugh actu-ally found a U-Tube videoabout herding cats.quitefunny actually. Like most on-farm marketers, Hugh hires alot of teenagers. He hasworked out a system wherebyhe is able to eliminate theapplicants who are not com-mitted to doing their best. The insert explains to allapplicants in simple terms what the hiring processconsists of, and what they are expected to do if

they are hired at Maize Quest (Hughs on-farmbusiness). He walked us through the process he

uses and what he sees as the pros andcons of that process.

Hughs philosophy around customerservice can be summed up in the title hechose for his next mini-session; One,not everyone: Exception-based Custom-er Service. Essentially he feels that hecan have more of an impact if he offersa gift to a customer on a random basisversus handing out free apples to every-

one as they enter the park for example.His logic is that if you can make an im-pression on that customer, they will tell4 people who in turn will tell four peopleabout the great time that was had at thefarm. Isnt that what we all want? Defi-nitely something to ponder.

If you were in any of the sessions onWednesday at the Ontario Fruit & Vege-

table Convention, you know that Hugh is full ofenergy and enthusiasm. He was like that ALL dayin the workshop. No snoozing in this program. Youcouldnt help but leave energized yourself andconfident you had a few more tools in your toolboxfor the upcoming year.

Working on

Maize Quests Team

How the process works:- Interview with a manager

- Group Orientation (youth must

bring parents) if selected

-Training and trial period if select-

ed

Things you should know:

-There are more applicants thanopenings

-The next few interactions are an

audition, not just an application

-Availability + quality = hours

Things you must do:

-Make people happy-Put guests first

-Smile, no matter what

Decide what your priorities are andhow much time youll spend on them.If you dont, someone else will.


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Page 4 Fresh Facts

On the eve of the Fruit & Vegetable Con-

ference in this season of award shows,

Ontario Farm Fresh held its Annual

Awards Banquet at the Hernder EstateWinery in St Catharines, Ontario.

It was a night to remember with celebri-

ty farmers such as Paul Brooks of

Brooks Farms acting as Master of Cere-

monies, and President Amy Strom of

Stroms Farm, Chris and Christy Hi-

emstra of Clovermead Apiaries, Steve

Smith of Smiths Apples and Farm Mar-

ket, Mark Saunders of Saunders Farm

and Jesse Lauzon of Springridge Farm all

presiding over the festivities.

With cameras

clicking and

flashing,

along with

cheers and ap-

plause, the farm

fresh heroes/stars

of the evening

were Tom Wilson

& Nicole Judge of

Spirit Tree Estate

Cidery who were

presented with the

Outstanding FarmMarket Award and

Frank, Mike, and

Suzanne Whitta-

more of Whit-

tamores Farm

Market who were

presented with the

Leadership Award.

In 2005, Tom & Nicole of Spirit

Tree, after selling the original farm

on which they ran a successful farmmarket and pick-your-own opera-

tion, set out to find a perfect loca-

tion for a new venture. They had a

vision of what they wanted to

achieve a unique destination with

an environmental conscience where

they could feature their own prod-

ucts as well as those of local artisans. At the

centre would be a wood fired oven producing

artisanal bread and pastries as well as ap-

ples taking centre stage. Taking their time,

doing their research, taking courses in bread

and pastry baking and cider making, they be-

gan putting everything together in an environ-

mentally friendly straw bale building which

included geothermal heating and cooling. In

short, they have fulfilled their vision and are

operating a successful artisanal bakery and

cidery. The response from their customers has

been remarkable. Many have become theirgreatest advocates. This is extremely hearten-

ing for any on-farm marketer but especially so

for ones who have decided to veer off the com-

mon highway.

Frank, Suzanne, and Mike Whittamore were

representing the entire family including par-

ents Gilbert and Evelyn Whittamore. The Whit-

tamore Family

have been lead-

ers in the direct

farm market

business forover 50 years.

In the mid

1950s Gilbert

Whittamore

decided, in or-

der to salvage a

crop of straw-

berries, to open the gates of the farm to the

public and became one of the first to start a

pick-your-own operation. From those small be-

Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Farm Fresh AwardsBy Gary Johnson

Outstanding Farm Market Award winners; Tom Wilson

and Nicole Judge from Spirit Tree Estate Cidery

Mike, Suzanne and Frank Whittamore representing the Whitta

Family and accepting the Ontario Farm Fresh Leadership Awa

Pride is not

a four letteredword.

-Anita Stewart


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ginnings, the Whittamores on an ongoing

basis, year to year, continue to diversify

and add new things to their farm market

enterprise agritainment - (pumpkinland,

mazes), food service, school tours and

more. There have been many challenges

along the way with the Pickering Airport,

The Rouge Valley Park and the Greenbelt

just to name a few land challenges, but

Mike and Frank met each one head on and

preserved as best they could. Truly, the

Whittamores Family has been one of the

leaders in our industry.

Anita Stewart, culinary activist, author,

communicator and food lover was awarded

the inaugural Ontario Farm Fresh Food

Ambassador Award. The award was creat-

ed to recognize an individual who has

made a public commitment to promote

local food and local food producers. Thisaward was designed to also recognize

someone who, because of their beliefs and

actions, has inspired others to support On-

tario farmers. The winner is someone who

walks the talk, someone who believes in

the Ontario agricultural industry and is

proud to sing the praises of those who toil to

bring top quality, fresh, healthy food to our

tables.

The award recognized Anita for her public

commitment in promoting local food and

local food producers. She is the original

locavore.

As the evening wound down, the stars

continued to shine at various post-award

parties.

Jesse Lauzon presenting Anita Stewart with theOntario Farm Fresh Ambassador Award

The OFFMA Board decided this year that the Outstanding Farm Market Award was

not enough to celebrate all the good things that were happening out in the country-side on our members farms. It was decided that we needed some additional ways torecognize the excellence in our midst, thus the Leadership Award was born. SteveSmith headed up the creation of the Bronze RoosterOntario Farm Freshs veryown Oscar. Jesse initiated the goal to bring in others outside of our membershipwho also worked on our behalf by promoting local food, and local farmers to theconsumer.

Despite the new categories for awards, the Awards Banquet would not have beenpossible without the support we received from our sponsors. The new awards, theshuttle bus, the lovely venue would not have happened without sponsors. As mem-bers, please consider supporting the sponsors who support you.

A very big thank you to

Dawn FoodsDarling Insurance

Flanagan Foods


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Page 6 Fresh Facts

STEP 1.SHOW ME WHAT I COULD SERVE FOR

DINNER TONIGHT! Consumersthink by mealoccasion.Make it easyfor your shop-pers by sug-gesting menusbased on whatyou really wantto sell. Displaywhat theyneed.

So if you wantto move allyour steaks,your mush-rooms and your

asparagus in early May, come up with amenu, the recipes to put it together and adisplay plan to merchandise the items nice-ly together.

Dont forget to add the fresh bread and adessert item (maybe grilled apples with ma-ple syrup) and the consumer will really think

about buying most of the items for the din-ner. You have given the consumer the giftof dinner pre-planned. Research showsthat by 4:00 oclock 75% of Ontarians donot know what to have for dinner that night.

Action tips: Be sure to offer a printed meal plan

sheet with directions to pull off thisdinner. Plan it out now, create abinder and have a set of featuredmenus ready for each Saturday and

Sunday all season long. Add a fea-ture sign that says this is the bestfrom Mother Nature right now!

Add a nice display plate of the pre-made meal for show.

Dont forget about the old favourites.Create a merchandising display whentomatoes are in season by adding thebacon, fresh lettuce, mayo and freshbread for the favourite BLT sandwich.Also show off the sandwich on a nice

Steal this Recipe and Boost On-Farm Market SalesBy Judy Scott Welden, Chief Communicator, Nutritionist, Welden Scott Communications

plate with a cover. Remember weeat with our eyes!

STEP 2.DR. OZ AND THE TV FOOD SHOW AREA BIG INFLUENCE.Check these sites often to see what isrecommended and take advantage of it inyour market store. For example, print offthe recipe for OZ FAMILY BEET SALADand put it beside your beet display or DR.OZS VITAMIN C SMOOTHIE and put itbeside the strawberries. If you have akitchen and are preparing ready-madefood items for sale, make up some of the

recipes and sell them with the name OZFAMILY BEET SALAD along with the rec-ipe and watch it fly from the cooler.

Action tips: Set up a small health and recipe

resource centre and order free pub-lications from the health unit, healthorganizations, commodity boardsetc. Order in Canadas Food Guideand other publications now, so youwill have them ready for the sea-son.

Make signs that have list of foodsthat are suitable if you are a diabet-ic, have high blood pressure, celiacdisease etc. This cheat sheet willbe helpful for your Consumer.

You may want to group three orfour fruits and vegetable togetherand have a separate display calledFoods friendly for those with highblood pressure. Below have a bas-ket of apples, berries, root vegeta-bles. Make up your merchandising

plans now for the health consciousconsumer so your staff can imple-ment quickly and easily in the busyseason.

STEP 3.YIKES, THE ONLY THING I CAN MAKEIN MY KITCHEN IS RESERVATIONS!Dont assume your consumer knows theirway around the kitchen. Many do, butalso many dont have a clue. Treat every-


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one like they are a newbie to the kitchen.This means if you want to sell your food,make sure you have signage, tips sheets,recipe directions to give the consumerconfidence. Remember consumers wont

buy a food if they dont know how to cookit. I recently had a lady tell me the onlyway she knew how to make mashed pota-toes was from a box. That is how hermother made them and that is all sheknew. I encourage you to put your braininto Cooking 101 mode and put up displaysigns on how to cook corn, how to cook acauliflower and especially how to cookmeat.

Action tips: Make up recipe directions and lami-

nate sheets. This way you will havesigns ready to display near the cau-

liflower when it is in-season, nearthe corn, potatoes etc.

If you have a computer or small TV/VCR, find videos from sites such aswww.beefinfo.org Information Cen-

tre or the Chicken Farmers of Cana-da on how to cook beef or chicken.Make up your own DVD using thesevideos that can be played on a con-tinuous loop to help give the con-sumer confidence that they cancook the product so they will buythe product.

Start this work now, so you are readywhen the season gets into full swing.

Judy Scott Welden is a national speakerand producer/host of a new TV showcalled Food for Thought. For more info,visit ww.weldenscott.ca


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Upcoming EventsApril 4-8, 2011 Bus Tour to UK, contact Cathy Bartolic at 905-841-9278 SOLD OUT,

but a waiting list is being created

OMAFRA Workshops and CoursesGrowing Your Farm Profits, 40 workshops being offered until March 31, 2011: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/busdev/gyfp/index.htm

Quest for New Farm Value Value Plus workshops, 10 workshops to be offered up to March

31, 2011: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/busdev/conference/quest/index.html

On-Farm Food Safety Workshops

March 10 Markdale

March 16 Elora

March 24 Bloomfield (Prince Edward County)

Contact [email protected] or call 1-877-424-1300

OCTA Social Media WorkshopsMarch 22 Norfolk County

March 23 Collingwood

March 24 Simcoe County

Visit www.ontarioculinary.com for further information

July 26 OFFMAs Potluck Social, Murphys Farmstead, Alliston, watch this

newsletter for additional information

Nov. 6-8 OFFMAs Annual Bus Tour, details to be sent out in August/September

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

2011-12 OFFMA Board of DirectorsJesse Lauzon, President

Springridge Farm

Steve Smith, Vice President

Smiths Apples

Amy Strom, Past President

Stroms Farm

Leslie Forsythe, Forsythe Family Farms

Jay Howell, Brantview Apples & Cider

Brian Hugli, Huglis Blueberry Ranch

Marg Land, Annex Publishing

(Associate Member)

Hollis Murphy, Murphys Farmstead

Colleen Pingle, Pingles Farm Market

Geri Rounds, Rounds Ranch

Dorene Collins, OMAFRA

(Advisor to the Board)

TheLastWordthismonthgoestotheOFFMABoardsnewandreturningmembers.Thesepeopletaketime

awayfromtheirbusinessesandfamiliestoworkonyourbehalfandguidetheindustryintothefuture.Thank

youforyourdedicationandcommitmenttoOntarioFarmFresh.

JesseLauzon,SpringridgeFarmPresidentMilton,[email protected]

SteveSmith,SmithsApples&FarmMarketVicePresidentPortElgin,[email protected]

AmyStrom,StromsFarmPastPresidentGuelph,[email protected]

LeslieForsythe,ForsytheFamilyFarmInc.,Uxbridge,[email protected],HuglisBlueberryRanch,Pembroke,[email protected],BrantviewApples&Cider,St.George,[email protected],AnnexPublishingAssociateMemberSimcoe,[email protected]

ColleenPingle,PinglesFarmMarket,Hampton,[email protected],RoundsRanch,Elmvale,[email protected],MurphysFarmstead,Alliston,[email protected],OMAFRAAdvisortotheBoardGuelph,[email protected]

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