Get to know each other! · The Lord's Lettuce Access

Get to know each other!

Hey cool kids club!

Thought it might be cool to introduce ourselves and share where we are at with our businesses and what we need help with!

My name is Heather! My husband (chance) and I live in eastern Colorado with our 3 kids.

We own a landscaping business which is where my love for plants really took off.

I took the CSU master gardener course in 2017 to learn more about plant diseases, pest, etc. so I could better help our employees understand how to plant trees properly, diagnose plant problems and so forth.

We moved out to the boonies in 2020 and started our journey of becoming more self sufficient.

I started a garden and learned a lot my first year through failures.

By 2021 I had established a pretty good sized garden and was giving away produce by the boxes.

In 2022 we bought our first home and moved even further East. I actually dug up all my strawberries, grapes, blueberries etc and brought them here with us.

However 2022 wasn’t actually a great year. Because we had moved further east and were basically in the plains now with 0 wind block, my garden struggled. It was a whole new growing climate.

I dove deep into learning about microclimates and how I could create my own little microclimate where plants would actually grow. I studied up on companion planting and how it directly correlates with microclimates. Like using borage, carrots, tomatoes and marigolds together! The borage keeps tomato horn worms away, marigolds attract beneficial insects, tomato shades the carrots and keeps the carrot white flies away.

Before I knew it my garden was once again flourishing and I was giving away produce. I would actually save all the big Sam’s club boxes and load them up and make them look pretty 😂

So one night I’m loading up this produce box for my son’s teacher and I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if I could sell these pretty boxes? But not just produce oh no… I would include bread, canned goods etc. only problem was I had never baked or canned anything other than pickles. lol

So naturally, I decided I would try to bake one of the most complicated things out there first.. sourdough! I didn’t even have a starter y’all …

So I start watching YouTube videos….

Get my water & flour and start my starter. The first 3 weeks I babied this starter. Finally, I go through a two day process of making this loaf. Autolyse, stretch n folds, bulk ferment the whole 9 yards. Bake my first loaf and it’s flat like a biscuit. So I go back to YouTube…. Watch one million videos (my poor kids had to watch it too) 🤣 3 months and 100 loaves later and I finally did it!!

So now I’m scratching my head thinking what else can I bake? People NEED things like sandwich bread, rolls etc and people WANT something that’s healthier and doesn’t include all the nasty preservatives. I can do that!

People NEED fruits and vegetables and people WANT options that are chemical free. I can do that!

So now I’ve got this huge window of opportunity with things that people not only WANT, that they NEED.

But how exactly do I get these products from my home to the consumer?

I started looking into farmers markets after trying to just sell on Facebook and not gaining much traction. Plus driving to town to deliver 1 -$9 loaf or $10 worth of veggies wasn’t worth it.

Our very first farmers market comes and it’s snowing! Of course, thanks Colorado ..

but we decide to go anyway. My husband drove to town to grab us a canopy and we set up shop. We had the canopy and a table with a table cloth. No fancy display. Not even a sign saying who we are.

I didn’t expect a whole lot of traffic tbh since it was cold and snowy, but I kid you not we sold out within the first hour!!

I also wanted to put out feelers for fresh produce boxes so I put out a clip board with a sign up sheet and basic information. I didn’t want to do a CSA because I felt a lot of produce goes to waste when consumers end up with beets they won’t eat. So I wanted to offer these boxes that were customizable based on what we had in stock that week. I got around 30 people who wanted to sign up.

I went home and started to come up with a plan. I would offer 3 different boxes a small, medium and large. But how would consumers be able to choose what they want in their box?

I talked to a couple other folks at the next farmers market and one gal mentioned this website host she uses for farmers , which is how I ended up with the current website.

By the next market I had printed out business cards with the website on them and I talked away!

Yes I had to explain because folks were used to CSA where this option was pay as you go for what you want and need type thing. You could build your own box with produce, bread, cottage canned goods, soap etc. I would deliver for $5 or you could pick a central pickup location (I talked to a local business and was able to set up in their parking lot once a week) I would bring all the boxes to that one spot with names labeled on them and folks would just meet me.

So first week of June comes around (when boxes start) and it’s a win! But I’m spending a ton of time working and not making a ton of money. I was basically making $10/hr for the whole season lol 😂

So at this point I’m starting to realize my value and the value of the products I’m providing, so I raise my prices. Still not making a huge profit but it was at least worth the long days I was spending away from my family baking, gardening and doing deliveries.

My Facebook started to grow as I posted pictures of goodies, garden, markets etc. so that was good but Facebook still wasn’t bringing in income… more like just showing people I’m busy. Letting them know what market I’ll be at etc.

But once the produce season came to an end my sales dropped majorly. If I didn’t have produce along with my other products it wasn’t really worth it.

Which led me to the idea of opening the roadside stand. I can provide what’s available to people near by. But yes it’s not a lot of money.

This next year I really want to work on selling the value of my products it’s not easy to grow a chemical free garden and using top quality ingredients in baking cost $$. Pasture raised animals actually cost more too! With rotational grazing and overseeding. Seed cost $$$ but I struggle with still wanting our goods to be affordable for average families and it’s hard to be both!!

I want to purchase a greenhouse to extend the season for produce. I have big grow tents inside right now but I can’t fit everything I want to grow.

Plant starts were a huge money maker last season. We had pre orders and sold at markets. I want to scale the pre order side of things and am kicking myself for not building an email list. If I had saved all these emails I would have a head start.

I also want to generate more income revenues that don’t require a ton of work, like social media.

I did get the offer to be monetized on Facebook but weary about putting my card detail on Facebook so I haven’t done it. Lots of hackers these days!! lol

I stumbled upon The Lords Lettuce about a month ago? And love Shannon! She’s authentic and isn’t afraid to talk about the struggles and success. Because running your own business comes with both just like anything else.

I think you guys are a great example of just get up and do it!! Watching your videos has helped my confidence tremendously when it comes to social media post!!

Happy to be here and excited to grow!!

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