Kevin and Charuth
Loth know that it takes more than a diverse crop offering to be successful
– it also takes diverse marketing and a niche.
The Loths have four main ways they market their organic crops: through
a farmers’ market, through a Community Supported Agriculture
(CSA) business, at their on-farm store and to local chefs.
“We feel like being really diverse is really important to us,”
Charuth said. “We’re really the only people in this area
who do what we’re doing. There are a lot of people who grow
for farmers’ markets, but they grow the mainstays.”
On their Lincoln, Neb., farm, the Loths grow a diverse range of crops
that includes salad greens, baby spinach, fennel, arugula, baby french
breakfast radishes, dill, cilantro, basil, specialty tomatoes, peas
beets and carrots. They also do cut flowers and beddings plants. They
use two greenhouses and two hoophouses for season extension. The rest
of the year, their 10-acre field is home to their vegetables.
The hoophouses give the Loths a jump on their marketing season, which
Charuth said allows them to sell diversely and be successful.
“It’s really amazing what you can do with a couple layers
of plastic,” she said. “We’re able to grow spinach
and lettuce in January – and that’s in Nebraska. It’s
not that the crops don’t freeze (in the colder months), but
as soon as the sun comes out in the morning, they thaw. Certain plants
are able to tolerate that again and again and still have really good
quality.”
In all, the Loths have about one-half an acre of greenhouse that enables
them to grow all year long. The farm is only closed two months out
of the year.
What they put in the greenhouse each season is decided by what their
customers request, Charuth said. Some people have been buying produce
from the Loths since the farm first opened 10 years ago.
“We get pretty tired of growing salad mix, but since people
are starving for it, we do it,” Charuth said. “We pre-wash
it twice, so it’s convenient and pretty much ready to eat. The
convenience food items are really popular…Basically, we just
kind of look for the niche, and we have a pretty easy time marketing
it.”
The Loths do most of their advertising by word-of-mouth, and they
haven’t had any problems keeping their customer pool full.
“Since we’ve been doing it (farming) for 10 years, we
have a name,” Charuth said. “If people new to the area
ask ‘Where’s a good place to get organic vegetables,’
someone tells them about us. We’ve done very little actual advertising.”
They do have a mailing list of 1,000 people and 70 people signed up
for their CSA, which operates only in the spring and fall. Add to
that the hundreds of people Charuth said come to their farmers’
market stands, and the Loths have their crop spoken for.
“The farmers’ market is probably our biggest market –
about 80 percent of (our product) is sold through the farmers’
markets in Lincoln and Omaha,” Charuth said.
At each of the farmers’ markets, every Saturday during the summer,
Shadowbrook Farm has two stalls with four people working. And Charuth
said they have long lines all day long.
The products the Loths offer are new and unfamiliar to customers at
the Lincoln and Omaha markets, but Charuth said they don’t have
any problems selling what they grow.
“A lot of people (in the area) travel and were ready to see
these products grown here in the area,” Charuth said. “We
came along at just the right time.”
Though they sell most of their crop through the farmers’ markets,
the Loths also have their CSA.
“The idea of CSA is that the consumer puts money forward at
the beginning of the season when a farmer doesn’t have much
money coming in and is putting money forward for seed,” Charuth
said. “If you could get your customer to pay up front and give
you the capital to invest in the season, then they would share the
risk of the farmer… It’s kind of a neat relationship –
slightly more risky than going to a supermarket.”
Most CSA’s operate through the whole summer growing season,
but at Shadowbrook Farm, they only offer it during spring and fall.
“It’s a little less investment, and people are willing
to do that more quickly,” Charuth said. “Our timeline
is so spread out, and we’re not doing that much that time of
year – farmers’ market season has ended or hasn’t
started yet. We’ve extended our season and gave us another outlet
and didn’t interfere or make it more complicated.”
And during the regular summer season, if their customers want fresh
produce, Charuth said their other options – farmers’ markets
and their farm store – give the customers plenty of opportunity
to buy fresh. For four pickups in the spring, Shadowbrook Farm charges
$80. For five pickups in the fall: $150. As part of the consumers’
investments in the CSA, they receive a newsletter that also includes
recipes.
Another selling point for Loth produce is its organic certification.
The farm has been certified since 1998. The paperwork, Charuth said,
is the hardest part of being certified. They have to track everything
that is done to the produce – from compost to crop rotation
to heating dates – and pay a fee, which is a certain percentage
of their growth. The farm is also inspected annually. These are some
of the reasons that they can charge more for their organic produce.
Charuth said a question that comes up often is if being certified
organic is important.
“We have found that 60 percent of our customers don’t
care one way or the other,” she said. “They trust us as
farmers, and the fact that our produce is fresh, local and of good
quality is more important to them.”
For the other 40 percent who want to make sure the produce they purchase
is organic, Charuth said having the certification is proof that helps
ensure their customers’ trust.
”The other 40 percent feel strongly that we continue being certified
organic, and this is mainly because they feel that it gives them authenticity
of our claims that our farming practices are sound,” she said.
“It is one thing to say we are organic and another to prove
we use only organic methods to produce our products. It is a seal
of quality that has much more clout than the term ‘natural’
used so loosely on food labels.”
Another concern Charuth said she has is that there are farms going
out of business and not many young people going into farming.
“Young people don’t feel there is any hope in farming
because Mom and Dad both have to get jobs off the farm to make ends
meet,” Charuth said. “Because of this, very few young
people are investing their education on a livelihood that doesn’t
pay.”
But Charuth said there is hope in the type of farming that she and
her husband do – small scale, diverse, intensive growing with
direct access to their customers.
“Our gross incomes from 10 acres of diverse vegetables are comparable
to incomes coming from 200-acre farms that produce row crops,”
she said. “So for a small family farm with few acres, this type
of marketing makes sense.”
Raising their family on a farm has been invaluable to the Loths, Charuth
said.
“I think has been a great way to raise our family,” she
said. “It’s grueling, at times stressful, but you are
still able to see your children grow up around you. A lot of kids
don’t see their parents working, so they don’t have that
work ethic instilled in them from an early age.
“At least our children see us living our dream – I hope
they appreciate that someday looking back on it.”
