Farm-Direct Markets Meat Using Freezer Drops

Farm-Direct Markets Meat Using Freezer Drops Josh Morrison and his wife Kiley make their direct market meat sales by placing freezers with retailers where they have a cluster of customers The freezer drops work so well that the couple no longer spends hours matching delivery schedules with customer needs Josh Morrison provided a detailed account of the transition in a recent edition of APPPA Grit the publication of American Pastured Poultry Producers Association members In 2017 the couple established Earnest Roots Farm and began selling beef pork broiler chickens and eggs at a local farmers market They switched to deliveries when they set up an e-commerce site through GrazeCart Vol 45 No 5 After dealing with delays and no-shows when attempting deliveries the Morrisons decided to try freezer drops Focusing on customer clusters they sought out locally owned small businesses with which they could work “After several visits to their stores I would pop the question ” says Morrison “Hey would you be open to hosting a freezer drop for us? To which they typically responded ‘What in the world is that?’” Morrison explained that it entailed placing a 7-cu ft freezer in their store In exchange they would get paid for the power the freezer would use in a year The hosting store would also receive a percentage of sales that went through the freezer “So far the store owners all use this credit to become our CSA members or buy products from us ” says Morrison Earnest Roots customers go to the e-commerce site to place an order select a drop location and make a payment Once the order is packed and tagged the tag number and invoice are emailed to the customer When an order is dropped off at the store the customer’s name and tag number are added to a clipboard The store owner is asked to verify these details when the customer picks up the order “The first freezer drop we established was in 2021 ” says Morrison “Today we have four freezer drops with hopes of adding more ” In addition to the freezer drops the Morrisons expanded sales by shipping statewide These two initiatives have reduced delivery time and extended customer reach “The freezer drops have been a good fit for us by allowing us more time to spend on other things instead of driving all over ” says Morrison Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Earnest Roots Farm 240 Angel Way Ashville Ala 35953 ph 256-504-5557; earnestrootsfarm@gmail com; www earnestrootsfarm com or American Pastured Poultry Producers Association Issue 142

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.