The end already?
This time of year can be quite bitter sweet. You're anticipating a change in season while remaining determined to end summer on a positive and profitable note. Fall will still bring a big bounty for most farmers but you need your customers to know that it's not quite time for "pumpkin flavored everything" just yet.
The power of preserving.
There are far more vegetables capable of being preserved than your run of the mill items. There are entire meals that can be made chock full of #paveggies and then frozen to last you through the winter.

Find a way to not only remind your customers of this but encourage and enable it. Here are a couple marketing points to drive home this message and boost sales at the end of your summer.

  • Organize your own canning/preserving class or partner with a local culinary professional and "sponsor" the event by providing vegetables for the demonstration. Offer your vegetables for sale at a discount exclusive to participants after the class.

  • Position yourself or a partnered local culinary professional as a canning/preserving expert and offer canning consultation for your customers where you can share your favorite recipes and let them know what and how much to buy of each ingredient.

  • Collaborate with a local store that sells canning equipment and offer cross-promotional coupons for example, when your customers buy certain vegetables, they receive a % off canning products at the store AND/OR when their customers buy canning products, they receive a % off bulk vegetable purchases.

  • Collaborate with a local eatery and plan a canned/preserved dinner for fall, which will feature a menu of dishes that were preserved in the next week or two or dishes that include many preserved ingredients.

  • Offer discounts or special promotions on canning/preserving vegetables when bought in bulk. Encourage friends and family to "share the bounty" so they remember to take advantage of the discount even when they can't use all the produce themselves.

  • Share content that demonstrates tips and recipes for canning and preserving. Consider borrowing something from paveggies.org.





Graphic of the week.
Remind your customers how grateful you are for the purchases they've made all summer long. Set an "end of summer sales challenge" that you can reach together and encourage them to continue supporting local as the summer winds down and families enter back to school mode. You can display a count publicly for everyone to see like "500 tomatoes sold in one week".