Farms and Breweries Get Fresh

Used to be the local Farmers Market was the place to go to pick up your fresh veggies. But that takes quite a bit of time and effort. Then came Farm Direct – subscribe on line then go pickup your weekly bag of farm fresh produce. I guess some farms deliver.

 

Seems that a large percentage of folks who seek out farm fresh produce also seek out brewery fresh beer, so some smart farmers are closing the gap and making breweries the pickup point for the weekly goods.

 

Take Three Chimney Farm in Burlington, VT for example. They started their summer brewery pickups last year at Foam and added Switchback Brewing Co. halfway through the year. This year they added Burlington Brewing Co. and Zero Gravity, so now Burlingtoners have four fresh suds-dealing locations at which to pick up their fresh farm produce, each designated on a different day of the week. Now that’s convenience.

 

Says Tim Wall at Three Chimney, “The farmers market is a great Saturday/Sunday event to bring the family to but is not always practical when buying and planning your produce for the week. The local co-op (grocery store) is another option to buy locally sourced produce in Burlington. However, the farmer doesn’t get direct support from the customer and the food isn’t as fresh. Our solution is built for young professionals and people who want the convenience of ordering produce online with the benefit of grabbing it after work at their local brewery. They can support us and purchase farm-direct while gathering at a brewery to see friends.”

 

 

Of course the breweries love it too. Naturally, people are going to have a brew when they get their veggies. It becomes a pleasant routine.

 

In fact, the veggie pickups are the very reason that Curtis Johnson at Long Lot Farm Brewery in Chester, NY opens his tasting room on Monday evenings. His cousin, Laura Nywening runs Peace and Carrots organic farm right next door to him and their weekly subscriber pickups are scheduled for Mondays. It became such a habit for customers that Curtis kept his Monday nights open throughout last winter – even though there were no produce pickups.

 

Three Chimney Farm has approximately 300 subscribers and usually processes about 20 orders per week; they can order the small option for $20/week that will usually contain 4-6 different types of veggies, or the large option for $35/week usually containing 7-10 different types of veggies. Orders can be a la carte also.

 

https://www.threechimneyfarm.com/
http://www.peaceandcarrotsfarm.com/