Christina
Mehlhorn
June 20
A Return to the Market
Today was spent at the farmer’s market once again. As a result of this, not much focus was physically put on the growing aspect. However, one business lesson was emphasized throughout the afternoon: the effect of interpersonal connection in business, especially business expansion. Maura and I originally believed that we were going to have packaged products to be selling at the market, unlike the week before. Upon arrival at the farm, this proved to not be the case. Despite the fact that we didn’t have a plan, we grabbed some live trays and headed out to the market to just simply connect with people and talk to them about the plans to expand. I believed that having the live trays again was going to be counterproductive, due to the fact that we told people during the last market to come back for greens the following week. I thought that the entire time at the market would be spent telling returning prospective buyers that we wouldn’t be able to fulfill their needs. At first, I
watched many familiar faces walk past the table towards the table with produce from a farm in Groton, Massachusetts. After a little while, many completely new faces began stopping at our table. I would say about half of the people who stopped knew a little bit about microgreens and the rest knew nothing about them. For those who knew some information, stopping allowed them to share what knowledge they had on the topic. This facilitated deep conversation between the customers and the two of us about greens the shoppers have tried in the past and which ones were sitting right in front of them in live trays. Speaking with them face to face allowed the customers to get a feel for how important this work is for the people involved with the farm. Furthermore, trying the greens gave them first hand experience with how that passion truly influences the quality of the microgreens. For those who did not have any prior knowledge on microgreens, I could tell
how the nerves they originally had when stopping slowly faded when Maura and I spoke to them in a down to earth way without complicating the conversation with aspects of the business that weren’t directly related to their inquiries. Each person that stopped took a card and said that they are planning to return in the following weeks to purchase microgreens. Maura and I also noticed the effects of this strategy in our success with reaching out to Boston schools to begin the finalization of an educational project that Homberg has been working on for a while. The more opportunities that a school gave either Maura or I to speak and connect over the common interest of teaching students in an experiential way, the more likely we were to get a confirmation for our involvement in their upcoming school year. So far, Maura and I have both gotten one school each on board with the project. I am certain the success can be attributed to interpersonal connection.