Robin's Outdoors

Previously published in Lancaster Farming.

CALAIS, Maine — While visiting the farm stand at Tide Mill Organic Farm in Edmunds, Maine, one day, Jana Markow learned of an opportunity. Carly DelSignor Bell was looking for a distributor for her farm’s products. Markow, a wife and mother of two school-age children, is home all day. She thought maybe she could run a buying club out of her home.

“Carly is the force behind this,” Markow said.

Calais Farmers Marketplace opened in the spring of 2008 with the help of a grant from The Heart of Maine. The grant helped Markow purchase a commercial-sized stainless-steel refrigerator and freezer. They’re located in her attached garage, just outside the kitchen door.

Markow’s customer base started with older professionals and retired people. It has spread to a mix of everyone, especially young families.

Calais is located on the border of Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. St. Stephen has a small CSA and farmers market, offered in the warmer months, but no local buying clubs. Customers are crossing the border to pick up their orders every Thursday afternoon. The exchange rate on the dollar is favorable to the Canadians right now, approximately equal to the American dollar.

There are 14 farms supplying the buying club this winter. The variety is impressive. You can order maple syrup from Chandlers Sugar Shack in Topsfield and fresh vegetables from Robb Hill Farm in Alexander and Beauregard’s Farm in Big Lake Township. Blueberries are available from Lamb Cove Farm in Robbinston and Bridges Blueberries in Calais. If you didn’t stock up on blueberries in August when they were ripe, you can order frozen berries to get you through the winter. Tide Mill Organic Farm offers meat, vegetables, milk and more.

Goat milk products from Gardenside Dairy and value-added blueberry products from Hatch Knoll Farm, both located in Jonesboro, are available. Other farms include Dogwood Herbs in Perry and Olde Sow Farm in Lubec. Pete’s Seafood, a seafood vendor from Addison, is also a supplier for Calais Farmers Marketplace. Several farms, including Vinton’s Eggs in Calais, provide eggs each week. Orders are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you want eggs each week you need to order early.

Markow is looking for value-added producers, honey and more seafood to add to what she offers her customers. At the rate the club is growing, she needs more vegetable and fruit producers, too. Value-added, seafood and meat products have to meet Maine state regulations.

Producers must have their list of available products to Markow by Saturday morning. She compiles the lists and sends the e-mail out to the 170 potential customers on her list. They return their orders on Mondays. She compiles each producer’s order and e-mails them.

Thursday is drop off and pick up day at Calais Farmers Marketplace. Producers start dropping off early in the morning. They let themselves into the garage if it’s very early, put everything that must be refrigerated and frozen away, and leave the rest on tables. All deliveries have to be in by 1 p.m. Markow starts preparing orders early. A farmer might have several orders for each vegetable or fruit. The total weight of each item can be packed together for delivery to the buying club. Markow will weigh and pack each order individually.

After all orders are filled, any excess is put out for display and can be purchased. It’s a great system for farmers who don’t have to package every order and customers who forgot to order something or didn’t realize they were going to want extra that week. It’s hard to resist pint and quart containers of fresh fruits. One recent week saw jars of jams and honey and samples of goats milk cheeses on display.

It’s hard to stay out of the way when pick-up begins. Customers are in and out of the house between 3 and 5:30 pm. Rectangular baskets containing nonperishable items cover the dining room table off one side of the kitchen. From the garage on the other side, Markow gathers items from the fridge and freezer as each customer arrives. Markow works mainly from a small island in the kitchen, gathering orders and accepting payment. She does a lot of dashing back and forth.

One customer picked up his order with his young daughter in tow. When business was complete, he and Markow made arrangements for their children to go sledding together the next day. Knowing who’s involved in the food you eat takes on several meanings at Calais Farmers Marketplace. There are more than customers here; there are also friendships.

The club has gone through rapid growth. In early February, Markow is taking 25 to 30 orders each week, approximately the same amount of orders as early last summer. As word of mouth spreads and the growing season starts, her customer base will continue to grow.

She has a Customary Home Occupation permit from the City of Calais (population 3,447). Markow lives in a residential area where houses are close together. The driveway holds only two vehicles, so there are often several cars parked on the side of the road at once. Business is brisk enough to have caught the attention of local police recently. They stopped for a moment to ask customers who were coming and going at the time what was going on. A simple explanation of the buying club satisfied them and they went on their way.

Space is limited all around. Being spread out between two rooms and having the refrigerator and freezer in the garage, and limited parking space, is inconvenient at best. This spring, Calais Farmers Marketplace will move to Growing Concern, a landscaping and garden center on Manning Street in Calais. Markow is going to be a part-time employee there and will run the buying club out of the storefront. There’s plenty of room to move inside and more parking space.

Why does a stay-at-home mom start up a locally produced food buying club?

“I like helping local farms. I’m at home and have the time. It’s not a career. If you’re looking for a semi-volunteer thing to do, bringing local food to local people is a good thing to do,” said Markow.

Information about the club flows freely from Markow. Her busiest weeks were during last summer. It didn’t happen often, but sales broke $1,000 a couple of weeks.

“That’s a lot of money staying in the community,” she said.

Advertising is limited. “It’s expensive. I have other things to pay for out of what I make doing this.”

She sent out a press release and has posters on public bulletin boards. Word of mouth is the most productive means of advertising.

There are no membership fees or minimum purchases. Markow charges each vendor 10 percent of the week’s sales and takes that in products from the farm. Vendors and customers pay a 5 percent fee which she takes in cash. She buys envelopes, stamps and checks, pays for electricity to run the refrigerator and freezer, bags and other supplies.

Susan Lehnen has been a customer of Calais Farmers Marketplace since its beginning.

“It’s important to support local farmers organic farmers,” she said. “I feed my family well; they have better food. And it promotes a sustainable lifestyle in the community.”

Markow always welcomes new customers and producers into Calais Farmers Marketplace. She recently had a couple from mid-coast Maine make the trip to Calais to learn about starting a club of their own. I

For more information, contact Markow at 207-454-0724 or calaisclubyahoo.com. Calais Farmers Marketplace is on Facebook.

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