It's getting easier for small farms to sell their fresh produce to gourmet restaurants in Washington D.C. A new business in Madison County called Fresh Link is saving farmers time and helping their profits grow. Susan Vidal is a small farmer in Madison County. She used to sell her produce mainly at farmers markets but now what she grows can be found on dinner menus at 50 different gourmet restaurants in Washington D.C.
"It's the perfect position for a farmer to be in. You know, all the books tell you that you should always have your crops sold before you sow it. Finally we do. It's great," Vidal said.
Vidal and about 34 other farmers around Charlottesville and Madison and Orange County sell their freshly picked produce through Fresh Link.
Mollie Visosky started the company nearly two years ago.
"So we deliver twice a week and we work on all of the marketing, the sales, the distribution for those family farms," Visosky said.
Fresh Link is a way for small farms to conveniently sell more produce and even plan their growing season with restaurants. Vidal is able to sell three times more fruits and vegetables.
"All we have to do is deliver our greens to her cooler and she takes care of trucking it up to D.C. and interacting with all the chefs and that has made a huge difference for us because we couldn't do all that," Vidal said.
This year gross sales for the company hit $300,000. Visosky said $200,000 of that went back to the growers.
"So we would like to hone in our model, perfect it and hopefully help replicate it in other cities," Visosky said.
The produce that's sold to the restaurants is very fresh. It goes from the field to the restaurant in 24 hours or less.
Reported by Jennifer Von Reuter
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