Farmers’ Market encourages ‘agripreneurs’

The Boulder Valley is growing a new breed of small farmers, and Mark Menagh is trying to get their produce, herbs and flowers into your kitchens.

Menagh, manager of the Boulder Farmers’ Market, dubbed these folks “agripreneurs” and describes them as “someone who is growing more than their family can eat.”

Rather than antagonizing their neighbors with an overload of zucchini, agripreneurs are welcome to sell their produce at the farmers market in downtown Boulder, which is open Saturdays and Wednesdays during the growing season.

“I’m reaching out to anyone who’s growing things in Boulder County and have never tried to sell before. I’m offering the market’s resources to get into it,” Menagh said.

Incentives include a reduction in fees and temporary memberships for a single day at the market.

Normally membership is $100 for the first year at the market, $50 for subsequent seasons, and 5 percent of sales. Much of the 5 percent pays the city sales tax.

A temporary membership costs $10 per market day and 15 percent of sales, Menagh said. “For an agripreneur I can be flexible on the fees, and the farmers will give them advice.”

Menagh even has a program for rank newbies, who just want to try selling once to see if it’s for them. Once a month, when the market hosts arts and crafts fairs, “I can provide whatever they need. Sometimes it’s a tent and a table.” The new folks set up shop at One Boulder Plaza, along with the featured restaurant of the month.

Six agripreneurs have been regulars during the current season.

This is Sheila Payne’s fourth year at the farmers’ market. Payne lives on an acre in eastern Boulder County, and every year she devotes a little more of her yard to farming.

“I started with the flowers in my perennial beds and a few annuals. Then I changed my personal vegetable gardening to larger volumes,” she said.

Payne began to plant more than she and her teenage sons could consume. Over the years she’s added numerous items, and this year her farm, which she calls Far Out Gardens, has produced spinach, a variety of greens, Swiss chard, cilantro, four kinds of basil, snow peas, three types of green beans, 10 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, hot peppers, carrots, garlic, onions, radishes, four kinds of patty pan squash, three kinds of eggplant along with pumpkins and winter squash.

As if that’s not enough, she also grows potted herbs including thyme, sage, parsley, marjoram, cilantro and oregano.

The single mom doesn’t waste anything. She built her first cold frame out of a trampoline frame that her kids had outgrown and enjoys recycling old shoes – Crocs and cowboy boots, mostly – into planters.

Despite her minifarm’s volume, Payne still maintains her day job as a safety and environmental protection engineer at IBM. To keep up with the work, she hires her boys to garden and man her table at the Boulder Farmers’ Market. “Their high school careers have been helping do the farmers’ market,” she said.

Payne’s goal in farming is to supplement her retirement income, and she anticipates retiring when her sons are out of college in “theoretically four years.”

She makes money – grossing $9,000 during the 2005 growing season. But there’s not much profit because she pays her kids for their labor. “I don’t call it chores, I call it a job. We don’t have discussions about CDs or designer jeans; they work and then it’s their money to spend. It’s taught them a lot of responsibility and how to be salespeople.”

Bunny Henderson turned her one-third acre in North Boulder into a farm she calls Pots.

The retired English teacher sells primarily herbs, dried and potted, tulsi tea (also known as holy basil) and some potted decorative plants.

Henderson has been at the farmers’ market for six years, and it’s something she planned on doing even before she retired.

But she isn’t doing it for the money. “It’s a hobby that pays for itself,” Henderson said.

Henderson’s husband, Gene, a retired school bus driver and former Boulder cop, brings in a little cash by selling handmade wooden folk toys at the Pots stand. “This year we might be up to $3,000 with the toys,” Henderson said. “If we had to live off this money we’d starve to death.”

The main payoff is the social aspect, she said. “The farmers’ market is just such a great place to be. I get to see former students and people. And everyone is always in a good mood.”

Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at 303-440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.

How to sell at Whole Foods, Wild Oats

This summer natural grocery chains Wild Oats and Whole Foods instituted programs to promote locally grown products in their stores.

The programs also have processes to help small farmers put their produce on shelves next to the major providers.

Whole Foods’ “Go Local” program allows agripreneurs with a product they’d like the store to sell to contact the company’s distribution center in Denver through go.local@wholefoods.com, said spokesman Scott Simons.

“It’s set up for smaller producers who may not have all the savvy or experience yet working with retailers,” Simons said. “Typically, if they can produce enough for one store then we’re going to be OK. The challenge with farmers is that often they reach out to us when the crop is ripe and ready. We actually need to hear from them much earlier than that, so we can guide them through the process and put their product in our plan so stores know it’s coming.”

Part of Wild Oats’ “Choose Local” campaign streamlined the company’s new products procedure at its home office,´ said spokeswoman Christa Coleman. “It’s faster and easier for local companies to come in and supply products to our stores.”

Growers who are interested need to call a category manager or buyer in the Boulder home office at 303-440-5220, she said.

The process, which includes going through the company’s standards department, takes a couple of weeks, she said.
Like Whole Foods, providing enough to supply one store is sufficient, she said.

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