Welcome to my farm plan.
This is a comprehensive dream that has been brewing in me for a little while now.
Enjoy.
THIS IS A VERY ROUGH DRAFT WITH TYPOS AND LOTS OF DREAMS
Molly B.’s Farmstead Apothecary
Mission: It is our mission to provide quality, beauty, sweetness, and environmental stewardship to the sensual experience of food and farming. We wish to create an experience for our customers, our plants, our animals and ourselves that embraces the craft of pleasure and artisanal living while maintaining ecological principles.
Vision: Molly’s Farmstead Apothecary is a Flower, Bee, and Goat farm and market. We produce cut flowers and essences, bee products, and fresh goats products for the local community. We have an on farm market, sell wholesale cut flowers, and have a stand at the local farmers market. We keep a dynamic flower and bee sanctuary that works together symbiotically to create the most quality and thriving honey and flower population in the area. We keep happy goats that produce the freshest milk in the area. We are committed to providing healthy relationships within the ecosystem of our farm, and thus promote as much biodiversity as possible. We are committed to low impact environmental stewardship that you can taste. We grow heirloom seed varieties and implement traditional farming practices as much as possible. We at Molly’s Farmstead Apothecary, believe in the “old ways” and are committed to operating on an old time signature so that when you smell and taste our products you are transported back to times of old. Our on farm market is a place that can take you back to the old times. We believe in the art of farming and food and cultivate that in all that we do. We eventually want to share this with our customers in the way of a cooperative on farm restaurant with an emphasis on traditional small farming and “local” food systems.
Values: We value quality, “hand crafted” practices and products that embrace the old ways of farming, food and tradition. We value bee’s and their importance in the natural world and especially agriculture and thus regard them as sacred. We value “local” food systems and wish to cultivate a more localized atmosphere in our community by creating a “local” culture around our product. We value health and innovation in our products. We value land stewardship and use practices that increase productivity and biodiversity at the same time. We value sustainable business practices and cooperative relationships with other farmers and the community at large. We value an atmosphere that is not exclusive and make our products and practices available to all walks of life. We value education and opportunity to learn about flowers, bee’s, goats and all that we stand for.
Goals:
-To spread ecological awareness.
-To provide beautiful flowers for people to bring the natural world into their home, workplace, etc.
-To provide aesthetic integrity for our customers.
-To feed our community happy goat milk products.
-To give bee’s a sanctuary.
-To ethically harvest bee products to sell to our customers.
-To have reverence for the “old ways” in the way we farm and market ourselves.
-To find a second, third and fourth use for all that we harvest.
-To establish a place for people to come to slow down and experience a dying culture that is fundamental to human existence.
-To eventually have a small restaurant at our market that is a cooperative with local farmers to provide an environment for people to appreciate local food and culture.
-To have learning resources and opportunities to members of the community that have interest in what we do.
Product description:
We sell seasonal cut flowers and bouquets at our market and farmers market stand. Some annual varieties, some perennial, we use mostly heirloom varieties. We also sell flower essences, soaps, salves and some tinctures.
We sell fresh goat milk and cheese and use goat’s milk in some of our value added soaps and lotions. We also breed our goats annually.
We sell honey, infused honey, beeswax and propolis. We use bee’s products in our salves and lotions and sell other value added honey products.
Pricing strategy:
We put most of our financial emphasis on flowers, selling at our market and our farmers market stand. We specialize in handpicked bouquets which we do price a bit higher. We also do a minimal amount of large wholesale bulk orders to florists and a couple people who want to DIY a wedding.
The goat and bee products are a secondary but also a viable revenue source which we sell on farm and at market stands, we sell quality hand crafted products.
We do make a lot of value added products in which we sell on farm and market stands/ to some local stores. These value added products are a huge revenue source for us as well because it ties together all of our products into one. Eventually our market cooperative restaurant expansion will bring revenue in as well.
Distribution:
We distribute our products mostly at our on farm market, as well as the local farmers market. We sell some of our honey, milk, cheese, and value added products at local grocery stores and co-ops.
Logo:
Customers:
Our typical customer is somebody who is looking to find a place that is separate from main stream culture and is seeking to find local alternatives to food and products. We hope to have an outreach program to school children to come see our flowers and bee’s in hopes to cultivate ecological learning. Our customers are loyal and capture a broad demographic.
Promotion:
We promote ourselves by being involved in the young farmer movement and community outreach. We make ourselves known by attending community events and having a very specific aesthetic culture that draws people in. We take pride in our marketing strategies which help cultivate the art of living in a healthy and magical way.