Episode 494: How does Rooted Farmers’ marketplace work? An update from founder Amelia Ihlo and insights from farmer-florist Haley Billipp of Eddy Farm and Connecticut Flower Collective

Growers' bunches from Amelia Ihlo of Reverie Flowers and Rooted Farmers Today, we have two great guests involved in Rooted Farmers. You first met Amelia Ihlo, founder of this innovative platform for selling flowers,  a little more than a year ago when Rooted Farmers launched. What a year to launch, right? As the resilience of flower farmers large and small was tested in 2020, it was surprisingly a good year for launching the new Rooted Farmers platform. Here's the "buyer view" showing varieties and availability on Rootedfarmers.com New ways to showcase floral inventory for wholesale or retail sales - on Rootedfarmers.com Recently, when I had a chance to see a full demo of all the new features that have been built into the inventory and sales tools that Rooted Farmers offers, I asked Amelia if she would share an update with Podcast listeners. At the same time, I suggested we invite a customer, aka a user of the platform, to share the farmer point of view. Amelia immediately recommended our second guest - Haley Billipp of Eddy Farm in Newington Connecticut. It was serendipity because ever since meeting Haley a few years ago at a gathering of Connecticut flower farmers and florists, I've wanted to learn more about Eddy Farm and her involvement in the new Connecticut Cut Flower Collective. Intuitive pricing prompts are one of the newest features on Rootedfarmers.com Here's a bit more about both women: Amelia Ihlo, founder of Rooted Farmers Amelia Ihlo is the owner of Reverie Flowers, a Slow Flowers member farm based in Etna, New Hampshire. Reverie grows specialty cut flowers, forages for abundant native species, and is wholly committed to sustainable practices in every decision that we make. In 2019, Amelia began shaping the idea for Rooted Farmers and you can hear the story in Episode 438 from January 2020. Slow Flowers endorses the Rooted Farmers platform and we are happy to announce that for 2021, Amelia is extending the free membership credit to Slow Flowers members. Use the promo code SLOWFLOWERS2021 when you sign up. We will have these details and some screen shots of how the platform works in today's show notes, as well. The Billipp family at Eddy Farm (c) Jim Billipp Owned by Andy and Haley Billipp, Eddy Farm is a 60 acre, fourth generation family owned and operated farm in central Connecticut, just minutes from Hartford. Haley and Andy grow a mix of vegetables and cut flowers, and sell produce and cut flowers through their roadside farm stand. Eddy Farm offers event floral design and on farm floral design workshops, as well as selling crops to restaurants and floral designers. Left: Harvesting lisianthus at Eddy Farm (c) Tiny Human Photography; a floral installation by Eddy Farm (c) Haley Billipp Andy and Haley have known each other since they were tiny, as their mothers and fathers were good friends. They met up in Boulder when they both moved there after college. They soon moved together to a little house on the Colorado plain and began hunting and growing all the food they ate. They learned to preserve and butcher and grow, and when Lucy offered them a place at the farm in Connecticut, they knew it was the next logical step for the kind of land based life they wanted to live, and here they are! They now farm and raise two young children at this very special place. There is a rich history behind this modern-day agricultural enterprise --Read more of their story here. How sellers manage their customer offerings on Rootedfarmers.com Thanks so much for joining me today as Amelia, Haley and I discussed new ways for growers to sell more flowers -- both at the wholesale and retail levels. It's an exciting time and I wanted to remind you that I published a story about Rooted Farmers as part of a six-part Slow Flowers Journal series that ran last fall  called: "New Floral Marketing Models and Platforms." I'll share a link to that article for you to check it out and learn e...