As market farmers, we are always looking for new income opportunities. We also love to share the many facets of our business with other farmers. As a way to do both, we decided to try holding a workshop at our farm about our winter growing using hoophouses. In all the preparation for and holding of said workshop, we learned some things we’d like to share with you.

Fist, make sure that you really want a group of people you probably don’t know as guests for a day. If you are market farmers, you probably already spend a lot of time with people, but unless you have a retail outlet on your farm, you are usually relating to those folks somewhere other than your home, and it’s very different.
Okay, you’re sure that you want to host a group. The next step is to decide who constitutes your intended audience. Are you holding a workshop for customers to learn a little about gardening, for farmers to learn about some specific crop(s) you raise, for prospective farmers to get a feel for what market farming entails, extension/university personnel, or some other group I’ve missed? Your audience will determine the content and date of your workshop.

Now, let’s set a date. In 2000, we wanted to hold a workshop about our unheated hoophouse growing. We set a date in September, reasoning that it gave interested farmers enough time after the workshop to allow them to erect a hoophouse and grow over the winter. Good idea, bad timing. We had only a handful of interested farmers. In September, most market farmers are still busy growing, harvesting and marketing and don’t have time for a workshop. This year we set the date for October 20th, after frost for most farmers, and had enough response we set an overflow for November 10th. The date might not have been the only reason, but it is a very important consideration.

You also want to set a fee at this time – before any promotion. Think about food costs (whether refreshments or meals), printing costs for handouts, postage for letters, rental on a Porta John, advertising, etc. Then, add a reasonable profit for yourself. Remember that you will be doing a lot of tasks just for the workshop, and pay yourself. We also wanted to keep it reasonable enough for farmers to be able to afford it. And, set an upper limit for the number in the group. We decided a group of 25 was the largest we could have and still do a good job of teaching. Your ideal size might be larger or smaller.

Getting the word out
Promotion will be your next step. We were fortunate enough to be invited to some speaking engagements where we were able to promote our workshop. We also added information about it to any articles written about us and by us. We made a page on our website that promoted it and had a registration form. Many farming publications have a free service of announcing conferences and we took advantage of those. If we had not had the speaking engagements, we would have placed ads in two or three farming publications that we read, starting about 5 months before target date.

We’d like to suggest that if you are running a daylong workshop, including one or more meals, that you require pre-registration and have a cut-off date about 2 weeks before the event. That allows you to be able to gauge the supplies you will need for your guests. You might also check your community’s requirements when cooking and serving a meal for a group.

As registrations came in, we added the participants to a simple database and sent them a confirmation letter. This could be done on paper as well. The important thing is to keep a record of who’s coming. It also allows you to tell ‘at a glance’ how full your workshop is. Towards the end, you’ll probably get phone calls asking whether the workshop is still open, and this way, you’ll know. We asked for name(s), address, phone and email address so we had a variety of ways to keep in touch.

About 90 days before the workshop, we started gathering the information we wanted to include in participants’ packets. For us that included some resource information we put together, information from Ag Extension, a sample of Growing for Market, a seed catalog and other vendor information we thought might be helpful. Vendors are really helpful about sending you information – it’s good publicity for them, so ask. At this time we also began the process of determining the ‘curriculum’ for the day, and made notes on 3×5 cards of the critical points. It’s easy to forget important information in the excitement of presenting.

At the two-month mark, we decided on the meals we wanted to serve and started working on a shopping list. Here, don’t forget cups, plates, bowls, eating utensils, and any serving pieces you might need for a group that you don’t have for your family. These can be bought or borrowed, but you need to think about them. You might also want to price having the meal catered. It’s a lot of work doing the cooking and conducting the workshop.

Eight weeks out is also about the time you need to think about the tasks that need to be done on the farm and/or in the house to prepare for a group. Since we farm alone, and Alison has a public job, a lot of “clean-up” jobs get put off “until later”. And since we grow year-round, “later” hadn’t happened for too long, and it took some time to catch up. For us, the real bonus was getting the farmstead looking the way we wanted it to, because “company was coming”.

About 3 weeks out, it starts to get a little crazy. There’s no way you’ll ever get all the things on your list done. Don’t give up, just prioritize and figure some tasks will be left undone. Your participants will feel a lot less intimidated if it isn’t perfect anyway, so don’t sweat it. At this point, you also might send a reminder letter to everyone, include a map, lodging and area attraction information. Call to rent a porta-john now too, if your numbers are too high for your home’s facilities.

The final countdown
The last week: You’re in the homestretch (and wondering why you ever had this bright idea). We spent that week finalizing what we wanted to teach, and…cooking. Each night we had a list of what needed to be cooked ahead. On Friday, Alison spent the day cooking and Paul doing last minute “essential” chores. If at all possible, try to be finished by dinnertime Friday, so you can have a leisurely dinner and get to bed early.

Saturday morning, 5:30, up and at it. Our workshop started at 8:30 and we had folks as much as 45 minutes early. We had breakfast beverages and a light meal for them so they could help themselves. We also had a fire going in our chiminea, which made a focal point for the group to gather around. As people arrived, we checked them off our list, handed out packets and nametags, and pointed them to the food. By the time the workshop started, they were like a group of old friends.

We had family and friends to help with the logistics of feeding and cleaning up. You’ll probably need at least a couple of people to help with that. We also underestimated the energy that we’d consume and were wiped out by the end of the day. But, it was so much fun, we think we gave folks a lot of good information, and we met a lot of really nice people we’d never have met otherwise. Will we do it again? We really haven’t decided yet. Watch GFM for an announcement.

Alison and Paul Wiediger, frequent contributors to GFM, are the owners of Au Naturel Farm in Smiths Grove, Kentucky. Since this was written, they have given more workshops. They can be contacted at wiediger@msn.com