Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association

Fresh Facts
Providing knowledge and leadership to grow the farm fresh experience.

A word from the President: Newsletter #331

Sept 2018
September! Kids are back to school. Leaves are starting to change colour. Nights are Volume 34, Number 6
a little cooler.
It is the month of colourful mums, squash and gourds, pumpkins and “indigenous” corn
(or whatever it is called now days) and of course my favourite, apples.
Many of you have told me over the years that your year is almost made or broken de-
pending on the weather that we get over the next 6 to 8 weekends. I am sure that no Inside this issue:
one else but farmers could deal with a business proposition that is that risky but it is
something that we have learned to live with. And since I have no control over the Membership News 2
weather I have no magic solutions to offer to help lessen this risk.
Obviously the more we are able to diversify the better off we are. But if we are selling Member Profile 3
an experience there is only so much we can do. May I suggest that one thing many of
us could do is to invite a number of third party people, people with some retail and mar- Identifying Winners 4
and Losers on the
keting experience to your place over one of the busiest weekends and have them look Retail Shelf
at your operation with a fresh set of eyes. Perhaps not even with you following them
around. Simply ask them to spend a number of hours walking around and experiencing Some tips for your 5
toolbox
all avenues of what you have to offer and take some notes.
Make it clear to them that you are not looking for a pat on the back but rather for new Are you a retail 6
ninja?
ideas both operation-wise as well as product-wise. Perhaps they will discover a meth-
od in which you could actually accommodate a hundred more families a day without Banning Plastic 7
adding any staff or ruining the experience for your present guests simply by streamlin- Bags
ing your parking or entering process. Maybe they will have ideas that will automatically Upcoming 8
add an average of 3 to 5 dollars or more to every family’s purchase made on your prop- Events
erty. Perhaps they will find efficiencies in your work force where you can actually pro-
vide the same service with several less staff. Or maybe they will suggest that extra staff
will actually pay dividends for you.
Many of us, if we are honest get blinded by familiarity. Added to that, we are creatures
of habit and we find comfort and familiarity in the status quo. But we all know in this
day and age, maybe more than ever before, that the status quo often kills. Especially
so in an industry that is so dependent on a few weekends.
And here is another suggestion that may very well help your operation to improve in the
coming year. OFFMA is doing something a little different this year. Instead of our tradi-
tional November bus trip we are planning a 2 day networking/planning retreat in Strat-
ford. We have hired a facilitator who will guide us through a wide variety of prac-
tical issues that impact us all. The registration form has been included in this
newsletter. Be sure to sign up quickly as there are limited spaces available.
My wish for each of you is that you enjoy the season. Keep in mind that more
than anything you are selling memories, memories that the families you serve
will carry with them for years. And hopefully there will be a few for you to keep
and cherish as well.
I am wishing each of you a happy and profitable harvest and hope to see you in
Stratford.

Steve Martin
OFFMA President
Page 2 Fresh Facts
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
A HUGE THANK YOU to our Potluck
hosts; the Howell Family from
Brantview Apples and Cider.
Jay Howell and his family have cre-
ated a beautiful orchard they can
share with the public through a PYO
operation. Their three children want
to be involved in the farm so they
have diversified into hard cider and
an events venue.
Thank you for your generous hospi-
tality. It was a wonderful afternoon
of fellowship and networking.
Classifieds
FOR SALE
Our own grown & pressed ciders &
fruit blends as well as jams.
No preservatives, pure, natural,
great shelf life & delicious.
Please contact Bayfield Berry Farm
for more information 519-482-1666
or salesberryfarm@tcc.on.ca
Mapleton's Organic Dairy
Looking to scoop ice cream?
Bulk ice cream and soft serve fro-
zen yogurt available.
info@mapletonsorganic.ca
FOR SALE
Frozen pitted sour cherries available
for wholesale and retail from
Delhaven Orchards, 519-676-4475
or delhaven@ciaccess.com
FOR SALE
2L and 4L plastic baskets, made in
Canada, sturdy handles, strong dura-
ble plastic, weatherproof, reliable de-
livery. www.shouldicefarm.com
Contact: shouldice1@bell.net,
613-838-4203
FOR SALE
“The Amazing Book of Mazes” by
Adrian Fisher. Hardcover, 2006 edi-
tion, 264 pages in excellent condi-
tion. Asking $20, contact Cathy at the
OFFMA office, 905-506-0371 or
cathy@ontariofarmfresh.com
OFFMA Office has moved!
The new address is:
PO Box 250
Gormley Post Office
Gormley, ON L0H 1G0
905-506-0371.
A warm welcome to these New
Members...
John Soltes
Sun Valley Farms
Winona, ON
289-237-3893
www.sunvalleyfarms.ca
Sun Valley Farms is a family owned
and operated fruit farm since 1955.It is
now owned and operated by the 3rd
generation, and the 4th generation
works on the farm in the summers. In
2003, pick your own cherries was start-
ed and has been offered to the public
every year. The cherry trees are all
grown on a full-dwarf root stock so they
are very easy to pick. They are the
closest cherry farm to the GTA. They
also grow and sell apples and pump-
kins at their market.
Hannah Wong
Luminous Grounds
Frankford ON
647-230-6460
Luminous Grounds is a new farm ven-
dor at Nathan Phillips Square Farmers’
Market. They sell a variety of vegeta-
bles, herbs, and fruit.
This is your newsletter, make the
most of it. Want to review a book
you have read? Write an article?
Share a tip with fellow on-farm
marketers? Let the
OFFMA office know and we will
make it happen.
 Newsletter #331 Page 3

Member Profile: McCamus Maple Syrup Hits the Sweet

McCamus Maple Syrup has been in the business of producing Maple Syrup for
over 100 years, but it was the spark between a baseball player and his college
sweetheart that took McCamus Maple Syrup to the next level. Brad McCamus
was in the United States on a university baseball
scholarship and then went on to play Triple A base-
ball, but sometimes you can’t take the farm out of the
boy. He decided to return to the farm. In the mean-
time, Amanda McCamus (the college sweetheart) was
building a career in Quality Assurance with a mining
company and then eventually Pepsico Foods. Eight-
een years ago, they came back to Canada.
Brad partners with his brother Barry, and father Rob in
cash cropping as well as the maple syrup.
Step by step, they are expanding the maple syrup
business. Five years ago, Brad tried a trial run as a
vendor at Nathan Phillips Square Farmers’ Market,
but he didn’t think they were quite ready for the kind
of marketing he wanted to do.
In the meantime, they entered their maple syrup prod-
ucts at the Royal Agricultural Winter Farm in 2014 and
hit a grand slam in winning the C.P. Corbett Trophy –
Highest Point Total & Premier Exhibitor Trophy for all
maple syrup grades and their maple butter with a
score of 100 out of 100.
Two years ago, ready with their branding and the
products they wanted to sell, Amanda started coming
to both the Nathan Phillips Square Farmers’ Market
and the Metro Hall Farmers’ Market and established a
loyal customer base. They sell all the different grades
of maple syrup, as well as maple nuts, maple sugar
(granular), maple candy, lollipops, and maple butter.
With tourists in mind, especially at Nathan Phillips
Square, they sell maple syrup in bottle sizes under 100 ml. as this is allowed in
airline carry-ons.
Their future plans include a CFIA application to export their maple syrup prod-
ucts and to sell to restaurants. They are also in the process of developing a
farm store.
Brad and Amanda have certainly found the sweet spot not only with maple
syrup, but also with life. They have three children, Joy 3, Wes 5, and Wyatt 8.

Marketing Tips from Amanda McCamus

1. Be organized with labels and money. Customers time is valuable. This helps
you “be quick”.

2. Simplify – Don’t have too many items or choices. Customers get “lost”.

3. Earth Friendly - Be aware when purchasing packaging, sample cups, bags etc.
Customers are very conscious of the environment and try to make Earth
Friendly choices. You should too because 1) They will get offended and not buy
and/or 2) It is just the right thing to do.
 Page 4 Fresh Facts

Identifying Winners and Losers on the Retail Shelf

By: Jessica Kelly, Direct Farm Marketing Specialist, OMAFRA

If I were to ask you what your highest performing product is, how would you re-
spond? The one you most frequently see in customers’ baskets? The one with
the highest percentage margin? There is no silver bullet to solve the juggling
act of product mix and product pricing. Instead we should strive for constant
improvement and hope to build our understanding along the way.

Menu analysis is a concept used in the food service industry – and perhaps one
that could be adapted for use in your business. At its core, menu analysis is
about using two parameters – popularity and profitability – to classify products
into four categories as shown in this matrix.

The simplest measure of popularity is

simply the total quantity sold. That said,
if your sales data permits you to examine
patterns in sales – for example, if five
customers each bought a jar of jam or
whether a single customer bought all
five) – you may glean even further insight
into how to market your products and
where to place them in the store.

You’ll notice that profitability is measured

as gross profit in this matrix (selling price
minus cost of goods sold). Why not use
margins* or mark-ups* as a measure of
profitability? Although margin and mark-
up can be useful metrics for pricing strat-
egy, it is important to remember that they
are percentages. Percentages don’t pay
bills, dollars do!

Admittedly, applying this framework to a

farm market is not as straightforward as it
might be for a restaurant, particularly for
“Dog” products. A restaurant can simply
Source: Gordon Food Service, https://www.gfs.com/en-us/pos- change their menu and stop ordering cer-
data-schools tain ingredients from their suppliers. Un-
fortunately, a farm cannot raise hogs that
are all bacon or cattle that are all tenderloin, nor can crop input expenses be
recovered once they are on the field. When costs are sunk, as they often are in
farming, recouping some income from less desirable products, is better than
none at all.

As with most business decisions, there are elements of both science and art.
Perhaps you have a low profitability product that moves small volumes, but it’s
an important item to some of your very best customers. Not every product can
be a “star,” but if you’re going to have a “dog” on your shelf, you want to have a
sound strategy backing you up.

*Do you need a refresher on the difference between margin and mark-up? Search for Markup
versus Margin by The Financial Storyteller on YouTube. It will be 3 minutes well spent!
 Newsletter #331 Page 5

Some new tips for your toolbox

(Quick easy ideas that can make a difference to your business)

The 20-20-20 Rule for Your Eyes

Many of us spend a good deal of our time staring at screens from lap-
tops, computers, smartphones, gaming systems and television. This
can put a lot of strain on our eyes and cause eye fatigue. When using
your screens give your eyes a break.
Use the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and
focus your eyes on something at least 20 feet away.

The Website Grader

Here’s an awesome tool for you to quickly check on how your website
is performing.

All you do is put your web address into the space on this website.

It will give you a quick report on the health of your website.

It's called Website Grader and it's free and it can be found at
www.website.grader.com

Leslie Forsythe from Forsythe

Family Farms set up this trough
when she heard about it from
one of her customers.

There is also a sign that says

“Help us water our plants”.
Kids and adults alike are en-
couraged to grab a jug and wa-
ter some of Leslie’s nearby
plant and flowers.

Maybe not so great for some

areas this year that are getting
above average rainfall but defi-
nitely an idea to try during a
drought when it seems impossi-
ble to keep up with the water-
ing.

Got an idea that works on your farm, send it along to the OFFMA office
and we will try and include in our next newsletter.
Page 6 Fresh Facts
Are you a retail ninja? Do you want to be?
The 4 brothers at VG Meats have been
working in the Ontario meat business
their whole lives. Starting this fall Cory,
Chad, Kyle and Kevin Van Groningen are
going to be posting videos to provide
some information about retailing, pro-
cessing, and growing meats. Cory says,
“it always costs to learn something valua-
ble, we’d like to
share some of the
things we have
learned, hoping
that we could save
others from mak-
ing costly mis-
takes”.
The Van Groning-
en’s can see all
aspects of the Ontario meat business
and that gives them what they call their
super power; x-ray vision through the
figurative walls that exist between pro-
duction, processing, distribution, retail,
and the consumers segments of the
meat business. Getting a tremendous
food product to your consumers is ex-
tremely challenging as you well
know. There are traceability require-
ments, commodity fees and checkoffs,
transportation requirements, packaging
regulation, processing police, wait times
for processing, nutrient and ingredient
labeling, consumer preferences, mer-
chandising, employee needs… etc.
Add to the complexity the fact that any of
these regulations, fees, requirements,
paperwork, preferences, and needs can
change depending on the level of scale
and where you fit in the food chain. The
VG boys have seen it all and intend to
simplify meat retailing to three or four key
observations that just might make you
better at a very small but important part
of your life’s work… retailing.
In order to sign up for a series of videos
from VG Meats, head over to http://
vgmeats.ca/retail-ninja/ and plug your
email address and name into the web
form. When a video is ready you’ll be
notified by email.
VG Meats is a member of OFFMA and
currently provides products and services
to seven OFFMA Members and here is
what they are saying about VG Meats.
"The VGs have been providing excellent
products and service for our farm
store. We would certainly recommend
that other OFFMA members contact one
of the boys to talk about how you might
be able to buy their products to sell in
your farm store". Cindy Gerber, Oak
Ridge Acres
“The Van Groningen and Van Casteren
families have a mutually beneficial, long-
standing relationship that has contributed
to the success of both of our business-
es. VG Meats partners with local Ontario
farmers which creates a consistent and
high-quality supply of local meats. We
are happy to have VG meats as our part-
ner in healthy living.” Shane Van
Casteren, Nicholyn Farm
VG Meats has developed a line of Con-
sumer-Packaged Local Meats. The VG
Boys would like to speak to you about
selling these products in your store re-
gardless of the current makeup of your
farm and store. If you want to chat with
Cory, Kyle, or Kevin you can email them
at cory@vgmeats.ca, kyle@vgmeats.ca,
or kevin @vgmeats.ca.
VG Meats won the 2015 OFFMA Innova-
tion Award for their Tender True
steaks. VG Meats was also honoured with
the Premier’s Award in 2015 for the devel-
opment of their Chop School which trained
unskilled workers to be butchers. The Van
Groningen brothers grow pastured poultry
and beef on their farms and work with other
Ontario farmers, to deliver beef, poultry,
lamb, and pork. All the processing, sau-
sage making, and packaging takes place at
their family’s abattoir outside of Simcoe,
Ontario. The products are distributed
throughout the province and some of their
production is sold directly to consumers
through two retail stores that the Van Gro-
ningen’s operate with their staff. You can
find other videos that are available to the
public on YouTube, go to YouTube and
search for VG Meats.
 Newsletter #331 Page 7

Banning Plastic Bags—a challenge to on-farm marketers

Congratulations to Burnham Family Farm Market for deciding to lessen their
reliance on the plastic bag as one of their business goals for 2018.
Thank you to Anne Burnham for sharing this information about the effect of
plastic bags in their consumer newsletter.
As an industry we rely on plastic, a lot. It may seem impossible to remove
plastics from our businesses but there are little modifications that can be
made to reduce the use of plastics. What can we do as an industry? I am
throwing out the challenge to all OFFMA members. If you have adapted any
steps at your on-farm market to help reduce plastic usage, let the OFFMA
office know so we can share with other members.

Excerpts of "From Birth to Ban: The History of the Plastic Shopping Bag
A rare novelty in the 1970s, plastic shopping bags are now an omnipresent
global product, produced at a rate of one trillion a year. They are showing up
in the darkest depths of the oceans to the summit of Mount Everest to
the polar ice caps – and creating some major environmental challenges.

1982 – Safeway and Kroger, two of the big-

gest supermarket chains in the United States,
switch to plastic bags. More stores follow suit
and by the end of the decade plastic bags will
have almost replaced paper around the world.

1997 – Sailor and researcher Charles

Moore discovers the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch, the largest of several gyres in the
world’s oceans where immense amounts of
plastic waste have accumulated, threatening
marine life.

2011 – Worldwide one million plastic bags are

consumed every minute.

2017 – Kenya bans plastic bags, making it

one the most recent of the more than two doz-
en countries that have sought to reduce plas-
tic bag use through fees or bans.

2018 – #BeatPlasticPollution is chosen as the

theme of World Environment Day.

For additional information, have a look at

these sites:

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/birth-ban-history-
plastic-shopping-bag

https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/recycling/blogs/kenya-enacts-worlds-
toughest-plastic-bag-ban
 Page 8 Fresh Facts

Upcoming Events
Sept. 11-13 Outdoor Farm Show, Woodstock, Ontario
Visit www.outdoorfarmshow.com for further information

October 12 Deadline to register for Strategizing in Stratford—Don’t miss out!

Ontario Farm Fresh October 30 Farm 2 Fork at Landman’s Gardens, Grand Valley, Topic is On-Farm
Cathy Bartolic, Executive Director Dinners. Contact the OFFMA office if you are interested in joining us.
PO Box 250 Gormley Post Office
Gormley, ON L0H 1G0 Nov. 2—11 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, CNE Toronto, Ontario
Phone: 905-506-0371 Go to www.royalfair.org for additional information
E-mail: info@ontariofarmfresh.com
www.ontariofarmfresh.com
Nov. 12-14 Strategizing in Stratford, The Power of Planning and Collaboration,
2018-19 OFFMA Board of Directors review, re-group and get re-energized. Registration forms are included
Steve Martin, President
Martin’s Family Fruit Farm with this newsletter. Contact the OFFMA office at 905-506-0371 or
Kristin Ego MacPhail, Vice President info@ontariofarmfresh.com for more information.
Ego Nurseries Ltd.
Leslie Forsythe, Past President Dec. 19 Deadline to apply for the Foodland Merchandising Award, contact
Forsythe Family Farms
Paul Baxter, Associate Member Jessica Kelly for additional info, Jessica.m.kelly@ontario.ca or
Baxter’s Kitchen 519-846-3404
Nicole Judge, Spirit Tree Estate Cidery
Erin McLean, McLean Berry Farm
Colleen McKay, Your Farm Market
Jordan McKay, Willowtree Farm
Dana Thatcher, Thatcher Farms
Strategizing in Stratford
Karen Whitty, Whitty Farms The Power of Planning & Collaboration
Jessica Kelly, OMAFRA Advisor November 12 to November 14

Angela Leach will be facilitating two

days to review 2018 but most im-
portantly to plan for your best year ever
in 2019. Topics to be covered will be fi-
nance, human resources and customer
service.
More details can be found on the registration form that is included
with this newsletter. The Parlour Inn in Stratford will be our venue.
It is a cosy, vintage inn with limited accommodations and a great
price. Book early, don’t miss out.

Sharon Muzylowsky—Apple Land Station

Many OFFMA family members gathered at Apple Land Station
on August 19 to celebrate a beautiful lady who wanted us to re‐
member her life and not feel sorrow at her passing.
Sharon Muzylowsky from Apple Land Station passed away un‐
expectedly and suddenly on July 9th at the farm. Sharon was a
generous, welcoming, talented and loving person who has left
us far too soon.
Ernie and Sharon participated in many OFFMA bus tours and
workshops. They helped several new members get their feet on
the ground and get their businesses off to a good start.
We will miss you dearly, Sharon, but know that you are watching over us from up above.