Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: farmer to farmer
- Sustainable Communities: community development, public participation
Summary:
This proposal was originally submitted in the context of a new festival in Cottage Grove, Oregon called “The Cottage Grove Flower Festival”. The event was being designed as a way to promote and celebrate the area’s many small and micro flower farms and to educate the community about the benefits of supporting local farms. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond this writer’s control, the flower festival efforts came to a close. The event was not going to happen.
This SARE grant proposal was reworked to capture some important components of the original application. The time period went from two years to just six months. The focus of all activities became a market research study which gathered information from rural communities as potential customers from 11 flower farms. The goal was to help farmers understand their customer’s knowledge and desires while also gathering data that might help them sell, promote and grow their business in the future. We wanted to know if the general public knew that most flowers they find in florist shops and grocery stores were actually imported from other countries, and if meeting and developing a relationship with their local flower farmers would increase the likelihood of them buying from local farmers in the future.
This writer, Cindy Ingram, owner and farmer of The Happy Hill Homestead flower farm, set out to gather and coordinate the participation of 10 farmers who grew and sold flowers. Together they implemented a two month data gathering project (July and August, 2024) which focused on the completion of a one page, ten question, anonymous survey. As a result, 519 surveys were completed by customers from 10 Oregon counties.
Project objectives:
11 Flower Farmers in Oregon asked their customers to complete a simple one page, 9 question survey. This survey asked no identifying info, just date and county. It was voluntary and not required. They answered each question by choosing yes, no or maybe. There was also room for optional comments.
The results of this survey was shared with the local, regional and national farming community via a webinar. The goal was to provide insight and opportunities for farmers to use this data when designing their future marketing and promotion strategies.