March 4, 2010

Contact; Bernadette Logozar, 518-483-7403, or your local Cornell Cooperative Extension office listed below

Pre-Season Training for Farmers Market Sellers Offered at 5 NNY Sites

Farmers interested in selling their locally-grown and processed products at farmers markets in 2010 can take advantage of little to no cost tips for doing so at pre-season trainings offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension at five Northern New York sites.

Topics for the workshops include making your farmers market display work with hands-on opportunities to create displays, direct market selling of meat products, and how to comply with current food sales regulations and inspectors.

Workshops are scheduled for:
• Saturday, March 13, 10am to 1pm - Lowville, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Saturday, March 20, 10am to 1 pm – Chateaugay, Knights of Columbus Hall
• Thursday, March 25, 7-9 pm – Watertown, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Saturday, March 27, 10am to 1pm – Canton, Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Saturday, April 3, 10am to 1pm – Keeseville, Ausable Grange Hall.

Workshops co-organizer and NNY Local Foods Specialist Bernadette Logozar, a rural and agricultural development specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension Franklin County, says, “Farmers who have taken this training say these workshops provide them a concentrated time to focus on developing or improving their farmers market display, which translates to better sales and income opportunity.”

Logozar says the workshops also often offer a creative networking mix of farm and non-farm sellers.

“Particularly for agricultural producers, we focus on how to maintain proper safety and handling practices from the field to the customer – that can be as simple as placing your restocking crates of produce on tarps. A creative twist on that would be to cut a green tarp into the shape of a pumpkin leaf for displaying pumpkins for sale. These are the types of tips and ideas that come out of the pre-season training workshops,” Logozar says.

Those interested in registering for the workshops may call the Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) office for the county hosting the workshop:
Keeseville - CCE Essex County: 518-962-4810 x404
Chateaugay - CCE Franklin County: 518-483-7403
Watertown - CCE Jefferson County: 315-788-8450
Lowville - CCE Lewis County: 315-376-5270
Canton - CCE St. Lawrence County: 315-379-9192.

For more tips on selling food locally, go online to the Regional/Local Foods section of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program website at www.nnyagdev.org.  #