Ahhh, the good life. Many of us enter farming to connect with the land, care for our families, and provide a better life for animals than we’ve found elsewhere, essentially, to be a good steward. It’s not all sunshine and gentle rains though. “Days off” are rare to non-existent, and profit margins are often thin. Marketing the goods produced can easily become a third full time job for the small farmer. Could there be a better way?
Co-founders of Agruity, Don Drury and Barry Jarvis decided to try and help alleviate some of the burden on producers. They created Agruity.com as an online sales platform that allows producers to directly market to individuals as well as larger buyers like restaurants. It is free to the seller, the buyer pays a very small surcharge, and the best part is it is working.
We will be gathering at Chimera Café, the centerpiece of this local food fairytale. Owner of Chimera, Rob Stuart, tried out some local, natural, organic chicken on their special menu from 413 Farm in Adair and it was a huge success. He approached the farmer, Angela Faughtenberry, and asked if she could up her production to deliver 12,000 chicken breasts this year. Sounds great but there is a lot more to 6,000 chickens than two breasts apiece; that is where Agruity came in. Working with Angela, Don and Barry were able to find buyers for the remainder of the birds at other local restaurants with a sustainability mission.
Join Don, Angela, local chefs, producers, and friends on July 16th at Chimera to hear more of the story.