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Baskets to Pallets Cornell Small Farms Workshop

Are you in search of new markets? Are you considering wholesale channels such as food hubs, grocery stores, schools, restaurants, and cooperatives?

Treat yourself to a holistic training that offers strategies and skill-building for successfully entering wholesale markets with special consideration toward participants’ overall comfort and well-being. Join the Cornell Small Farms Program’s Baskets to Pallets project in a warm, light-filled space for learning, feasting, fellowship, and a walk on the farm.

This training takes place on February 19, 2020, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Hawthorne Valley Farm in Ghent, NY. At only $35.00, local-foods breakfast and lunch are included with the training. You can bring a second representative from your farm organization for free. We are able to welcome up to 40 participants.

Register Now for the Baskets to Pallets Marketing Intensive

NYS Military Veterans are eligible for up to a $100 reimbursement for this event to cover registration and travel expenses. Contact Dean Koyanagi at drk5@cornell.edu for details.

Learning throughout the day will include:

  • Food & Market Trends

  • Evaluating Market Channels

  • Relationships with Buyers

  • Communicating an Authentic Message

  • Sell Sheets

  • Cooperative and Collaborative Marketing

  • Value Chain Cooperative Panel

We also invite you to join up to 20 of your peers after the training, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. for a separate conversation hosted by the “Be Well Farming” project.

The project will treat you to a local foods appetizer banquet and social followed by a reflective conversation about how well-being, equity/fairness, and connection to community play out on your farm and in your life. In gratitude for your thoughts, we will offer a cash gift to each participant. To stay for the focus group, please register separately or contact Violet Stone at vws7@cornell.edu or 607-255-9227. For more info on the “Be Well Farming” project, read the project’s introductory blog post “Caring for Your Farm’s Greatest Asset.“

About Our Hosts

Hawthorne Valley Farm is a 900-acre Demeter-certified Biodynamic® farm. The farm produces 14 acres of vegetables and 60 acres of grain. They milk 65 cows and raise beef, pigs and broiler chickens. Their products supply the Waldorf School , their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, and their Greenmarket and Farmers Market booths in New York City & the Hudson Valley. They operate an on-site creamery, bakery, and wholesale fermented and meat products through New York and western New England.

The Institute for Mindful Agriculture, based at Hawthorne Valley Farm, offers programs designed to repair the ecological, social, and spiritual disconnection in food and farming.

Menus, Catered by Simon’s Catering

Breakfast

  • Local Goat Cheese & Mushroom Quiche with flaky pie crust, local eggs, spinach, and caramelized onions

  • Freshly Baked Currant Scones

  • Local Pork Breakfast Sausage Links

  • Fruit Platter

  • Tierra Farm Coffee, Tea & Juice

Lunch

  • Chicken Marbella braised in white wine with prunes and green olives

  • Stuffed Delicata Squash with wild and basmati rice, local shiitake and oyster mushrooms

  • Wild Hive local white beans, onions, roasted garlic, and lots of fresh herbs

  • Quinoa and French Lentil Salad with roasted local sweet potatoes, pecans, and Samascott’s apples

  • Mixed Local Green Salad with shaved fennel, roasted local beets, and toasted pepitas with red wine vinaigrette on the side

  • Flourless Chocolate Cake with chocolate ganache and fresh whipped local cream

“Be Well Farming” Focus Group Appetizer & Social

  • Charcuterie Platter with local cured meats and cheeses, dried fruits, fresh fruit, olives, pickled veggies, house-made beer mustard, water crackers, and crostinis

  • Hawthorne Valley Plain and Maple Yogurt served with house-made granola

Register Now for the Baskets to Pallets Marketing Intensive

Violet Stone

Violet is the coordinator of the Baskets to Pallets project, which seeks to prepare small and mid-sized farmers to enter intermediated market channels such as food hubs, groceries, schools and cooperatives.  She also serves as the NY SARE Coordinator and can help farmers and educators navigate NESARE grant opportunities.