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They should teach this stuff in high school, but they don't. Teach People How To Garden Whether it's gardening, orcharding, maple sugaring, raising critters, making cheese or baking bread, you've got a rare skill in today's world. When you share it you help people feed themselves while promoting your market and your farm at the same time. This article is about gardening in particular, but it could just as easily be applied to any of the scores of skills possessed by the members of farmers' markets. 
It is amazing how many people either don't know how to garden at all, or have tried it and want to learn more. And they don't necessarily trust a store clerk who has a product to sell or who may be busy with other customers. Novice and veteran gardeners are eager to hear a “professional gardener” give some advice on the basics. There are any number of organizations that would love to have someone speak to their group, especially in the late winter and early spring, about the nitty-gritty of gardening, going in to as much detail as the audience can handle. Local weeklies often pick up the story that you're going to give a talk, and often follow up with a story of how it went (see photo, from the Rolling Thunder Express, 28-Mar-2011).The simple subject of choosing a garden location can take up 15 minutes of a talk all by itself. There are soil types, drainage considerations, closeness to the house, hours of sunlight, what they intend to grow, past uses of the spot, and what, if anything, is growing there now. Instead of only giving answers to audience questions, use some of those answers to show the audience how to think about the subject. It may take a few hours to get an outline of your talk down on paper, but once you do, you can use it for more than one talk. Making an outline also helps you to think about what your talk will cover, and in how much depth to go into for each topic. There is likely to be a wide variety of experience in the audience, so it is sometimes best to go “off script” to respond to audience questions. An outline is also a good way to initially present to the organization the kind of talk they would be booking you for. Many organizations are looking for a free speaker who would fill a program for their members and perhaps bring in new members if the public were also invited. Some of the organizations might be quite excited about the possibility of having a real farmer talk about the ins and outs of gardening to their membership or at a public gathering they organize. All you would have to do is to talk about what you already know. Towns in Transition, Granges, garden clubs, churches, and other local civic organizations are groups likely to welcome your proposal to give a talk on any and all aspects of gardening. Be sure to indicate the months you are available. From a larger perspective, you are sharing the hard-won knowledge you have gained with a public which has become disconnected from our agrarian past, from the time when self sufficiency life skills were not only common, but were expected of any good citizen. You are sharing a skill which will help people feed themselves. How does this promote your farmers' market? In your bio (which often accompanies the announcement of your talk) and in your introduction, be sure that the fact that you sell at one or more of the local farmers' markets. During your talk, mention that you do things in a certain way, because that's the way shoppers at the farmers' market like it. Mention several times that people are welcome to drop by your farm to see how things really look in place, or to drop by the market to ask a question about something you didn't cover here. Months and years from now folks will be telling their friends, "Oh, I learned that from that nice farmer down at the farmers' market." |
