Web to table? Farmers ease fears

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Farmers are used to working in the dirt.

But toiling and tilling in cyberspace?

As COVID-19 continues its grip on Chatham County, some local farmers — particularly those who participate in local farmers’ markets — have been working quickly to adjust to offering their produce online.

Farmers traditionally sell wholesale to retailers, directly to restaurants, at farmers’ markets and through programs like CSA — Community Supported Agriculture — which connect farmers to residents who buy memberships to receive a box of fresh produce each week during the growing season. But since restaurants have stopped in-room dining and as farmers’ markets (and their customers) practice social-distancing, more and more farmers are choosing to adapt by adding an online component.

If you would like to learn more about local farmers' markets, check out our story here.

Kristin Bullpit of Copeland Springs Farm at The Plant in Pittsboro has sold produce from her local farm operation at the farmers’ market in Apex and a mini-market in Briar Chapel. But after pandemic restrictions led to the cancellation of those markets, she added an “online ordering” element to her website.

She’s joined a growing trend.

Kristen Scheckelhoff of Red Roots Farm in Silk Hope has been using an online store for several years now to sell non-produce promotional items like t-shirts and shopping bags, as well as CBD oils. The farm sells its produce at farmers markets in Chatham County and, prior to COVID-19, to several local restaurants.

“This year, given the increased demand for no-contact payment options, we’ve expanded our online store to include produce,” Scheckelhoff said.

James Jacobs of Twelve Oaks Farm, in Chatham’s Asbury community, sells his processed canned goods, including pickles and salsas, at farmers’ markets in Chatham County. He’s one of a number of local farmers who have taken advantage of classes offered by local N.C. Extension agent Debbie Roos to learn how to pivot to e-commerce.

Roos has been hosting workshops using the Zoom online meeting platform to teach farmers how to create a free online store. In two workshops late in March, more than 400 farmers learned from Roos how to create an online store, and Roos said she is open to doing more workshops if interest continues to grow.

Jacobs started the process to create an online store two weeks ago and expects to have it up and running by the end of April.

“It really is the new frontier for farmers to sell their products,” Jacobs said.

The transition to online stores has its own challenges.

“The website isn’t exactly what I need as it’s geared toward restaurants, but I think I’ve worked it out,” Bullpit said. “The real challenge is getting people used to pre-ordering and adjusting planning. When orders come in, I need to harvest, clean and package the produce. I don’t want to do it too early or do too much. If no one orders, I don’t have an outlet without the farmers market.”

Scheckelhoff said opening up to online orders made inventorying difficult.

“It’s challenging to keep track of inventory, since we don’t know the exact number of radish bunches or heads of cabbage that will be harvestable until we go out in the field to actually harvest them,” she said. “And since we typically harvest produce the morning of market, we’re constantly worried about over-selling something through pre-sales, so we end up underestimating quantities for the online store. We update the store with our best guess the day before a farmers’ market (three times a week), and have to scramble to update the inventory if we find we’re long or short on something.”

Accepting online orders is far less personal than face-to-face sales at farmers’ markets, according to Jacobs.

“Probably the biggest challenge is connecting the current customer base to the website,” he said. “Many customers really enjoy going to the markets and spending time with the farmers that produce the goods. Although early into the season, I noticed some frequent visitors to the market have shown up towards the end of the market and missed out on produce due to pre-sales.”

Bullpit said she’s seen a “big increase” in interest from people wanting to source their food locally. And farmers are working hard to adapt to the demand even with the challenges of converting to online stores.

Jacobs echoed that sentiment.

“It’s great that I have seen a reasonable amount of new comers to markets and those interested in growing some on their own produce since the ‘stay at home’ order has been in place,” he said. “Since the ‘just in time delivery’ has been disrupted in a way, those that adapt to new practices and ways of acquiring food will be best set for the future. The longer the current measures are in place the more people will be set in a habit of not going back to the way things were. We make habits and those habits make us.”

Bullpit thinks buyers will adjust.

“I think people will be used to it and will like it,” she said. “It will make planning easier once we work through it. Farmers are always working, but they are working really hard now with all these changes.”

“We’ll definitely continue to use an online store platform going forward, but once the pandemic is over, I doubt we’ll continue to update the produce list three times a week and take pre-orders for every market,” Scheckelhoff said. “It adds a lot of time to our market prep every week, and we’re a small operation — two farm owners and one part-time employee — so we’re always short on time.”

As the farmers continue to work and produce through the pandemic, the changes they are making now are helping to sustain both their farms and the sales to the customers.

“The costs and challenges associated with the online store have definitely been worth it, though,” Scheckelhoff said. “It’s a great feeling to head to the farmers’ market knowing that you’ve already sold a certain amount of produce; that guarantees it’s worth the drive and reduces some of our anxiety over deciding how much to harvest and when.”

There will be mistakes, Bullpit pointed out.

“We all need to be flexible,” she said. “We are all learning as we go and everyone is working really hard to get food to people. We really appreciate people who appreciate what we grow.”

Jacobs thinks that this may fundamentally change how society views food production.

“I understand not everyone is able to afford the prices that local goods come at,” Jacobs said. “There is a problem when you can go back 75 years and find most products could be regional and affordable. With pricing now available by most farmers who have now offered some online ordering I ask you to compare with what local distributors are offering. You might be surprised the cost is not much different. It is an issue also considering the importance of food and that so much of it comes from places not within the continental U.S.

“When a crisis hits whether it be natural or man-made; self-reliance as a nation becomes ever so clear,” he said. “We have one of the most diverse landscapes of any nation in the world that can produce about every type of produce consumed in the United States.”

Casey Mann can be reached at CaseyMann@Chathamnr.com.