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Episode Summary
For many small-scale farmers, one of the strategies to sell produce is through CSA programs, and although there are a lot of pros to going down the CSA route, there are also a lot of cons, one of which is the sheer commitment to growing consistently for the entire season—and that can be daunting, especially for newer farmers just getting to know the ropes.
In this episode of Carrot Cashflow, first-generation farmer Vannah Roddy shares her subscription model that isn’t as daunting as the traditional CSA model, one that works particularly well with new customer acquisition.
Today’s Guest: Vannah Roddy
Vannah Roddy is a permaculture designer and first-generation urban farmer who grows on multiple urban plots in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She also offers consulting services for home gardeners and off-grid homesteaders as Encompass Land Design.
Relevant Links
Encompass Farm – Website | Instagram | Facebook
Encompass Land Design – Website | Instagram | Facebook
In this episode of Carrot Cashflow
- Diego introduces the episode’s guest, Vannah Roddy (00:28)
- Entering a competitive market as a new farmer (02:07)
- How Vannah built her initial customer base (03:18)
- Generating customers from recipe-centric email lists (04:04)
- How the recipe-centric emails work for Vannah (05:24)
- The difference between the veggie box and traditional CSAs (06:27)
- Crop planning for different customers’ sign updates (07:45)
- Veggie box customer breakdown (09:22)
- One-box customer hook (10:17)
- Veggie box logistics challenges (11:02)
- Managing pickup locations to get the customers their produce (12:03)
- Multiple pickup locations for a relatively small customer base (16:02)
- How to get that customer base really sticky (16:53)
- A growing business and the ideal customers (18:53)
- Strategies for scaling up (19:52)
- Purchasing more in addition to the veggie box (21:36)
- Managing which crops to grow for the veggie box model to work (23:41)
- Better cashflow with the veggie box model vs. traditional CSAs (25:50)
- Where to find Vannah Roddy and Encompass Farm (27:28)
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