Tuesday, June 17 - Farmers' Market on the Internet????
Does anyone know of websites where fresh produce is posted and sold. Kind of a daily farmer's market thing on the internet? The grower posts what they have ready and how much, customers can log on daily to do their shopping, contact seller and then either pick it up or have it delivered? Many growers in one area could get together on this. Think it will work? I'm sure this probably isn't a new idea, I just haven't seen any and would like to see how others have set up their sites.
Sounds like a great idea. As for farmer's market on the web... there is a website for farmers market... several actually, but they are simply the names of the markets and the farmers names and their produce they bring to market. I had seen a conglomerate website with several farmers selling produce or meat and you could order through that website, but I really didn't save the website. It was to be a farmer's market on the web... like you say, but it invited all farmers to participate. But it was made for mailing out food... which isn't practical at all for me. So that is likely why I didn't save the website. It would work for some dry products like cookies, granola, but produce would need to be packed so carefully and meat... you'd need a refrigerated truck... Just too much work for one little me. But your idea of making a website and taking orders sounds wonderful. Our local coop does this somewhat with email. She coordinates with the coop warehouse, but then she does additional sales... like mulberries/ $1 pound, you pick... She'll coordinate a honey sale and let us know the prices, she'll order wheat from a wheat producer to save marketing costs... etc. She does it all by email and we email her with orders or call her. Problem with email sometimes is that my specific email addy gets caught in spam alot, so I would miss out... I would assume my order went in, but it didn't. I guess a shopping cart of some sort would work better than email. You could always put a disclaimer on the site and say that do not assume your order went through unless you get a confirmation email... if you don't hear within so many hours, then please call...
?? Just ideas. Good luck. Hope you find something that works. I had contemplated doing that... selling produce and baked goods from the farm, having an order date and a pick up date... With the price of gas now, though... that idea sort of fizzled out! LOL
I am a homeschooling mother of four. We live in Northern Minnesota. We have a few animals-cows, horses, donkeys (my favorite) and chickens. . I love it. God has blessed our lives richly.
