How to get it
Restaurants and grocers, and what we plan to supply
Supplying kitchens and small grocers is further out, and it waits on volume we can promise every week.
We plan to sell to restaurants and small grocers. Kitchens between Omaha and Des Moines, and the kind of local shop that would rather carry something from an hour away than something from a thousand miles away.
It is further out than the other ways of buying from us, and for a straightforward reason. A chef building a menu around an ingredient needs it to arrive every week at a consistent quality, and that is a promise a farm has to earn before it makes it.
What follows is what we intend to offer and what has to be true first. If you run a kitchen or a shop and want to be part of that conversation early, we would very much like to hear from you.
What we intend to offer a buyer
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A short list, in real volume
Better to supply three things a kitchen can rely on every week than fifteen that come and go. We would rather grow deep on a handful of crops that a chef actually builds around than offer a catalog we cannot keep filled.
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One drive, not a supply chain
The farm sits directly on Interstate 80, roughly fifty five minutes from the Omaha side and about an hour from most of Des Moines. Produce that is picked and delivered inside a day arrives in a different condition than produce that has been in transit.
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A crop plan you can influence
A chef who tells us in winter what they want in July can have it planted for them. That kind of arrangement is one of the real advantages of buying from a small farm, and it is far easier to do well than most people expect.
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Storage crops for the off months
Garlic, onions, squash and potatoes hold for months, which makes them the easiest thing for a farm this size to supply reliably outside the growing season. They are likely where a wholesale relationship starts rather than ends.
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Flowers for the front of house
The floral side can supply arrangements for a dining room or a shop counter on a standing basis. A restaurant that wants both the produce and the flowers from one local farm is exactly the kind of relationship we are built for.
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A straight answer about volume
If we cannot supply what a kitchen needs, we will say so rather than overcommit and fall short mid season. A chef who has been let down once does not come back, and that reputation travels faster than any amount of good produce.
What has to be true before we sell wholesale
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1
Reliable volume first
Selling to a kitchen means committing to a quantity every week for a season. That takes beds in full production and a harvest we can predict, which is why direct sales and markets come first in the plan.
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2
Storage and handling in place
A cool room and proper handling are what let produce leave here in the condition a chef expects. That infrastructure is part of what we are building at the back place, and it gates this channel more than anything else.
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3
Start with one or two kitchens
The sensible beginning is a small number of buyers who want a short list of things, done properly, for a season. Getting that right is worth more than a long customer list we cannot serve consistently.
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4
Plan the following season together
Once a relationship works, the good version of it is a conversation each winter about what to plant. That is where a small farm and a good kitchen become genuinely useful to each other rather than just convenient.
Why this channel is worth building slowly
Wholesale looks like the obvious way for a small farm to move volume, and it is also the fastest way to get into trouble. The commitment runs one direction. A kitchen that has built a dish around your produce needs it on Tuesday whether or not your week went well.
That is why it sits later in the plan than markets and direct sales. Those channels let a farm learn its own capacity with a great deal more forgiveness, and a farm that knows its real numbers is the only kind that should be promising a chef anything.
There is a version of this that is genuinely good for both sides. A kitchen an hour away that plans its spring menu with the farm that will grow it has something no distributor can offer, and a farm with two or three of those relationships has a floor under its season.
The geography helps more than it usually would. Being on Interstate 80 between two metros means a delivery run is genuinely practical in either direction, which is not true of most farms this size in this part of the state.
Questions people ask
Can I buy from you wholesale now?
Not yet. The farm is still building the production and the storage that a reliable weekly supply depends on. We would rather have the conversation early and start when we can actually deliver than take an order we might miss.
What would you supply first?
Most likely storage crops such as garlic, onions, squash and potatoes, because they hold for months and are the easiest thing to supply consistently. Fresh produce and flowers follow once the beds are in full production.
How far would you deliver?
The farm is on Interstate 80, roughly fifty five minutes from the Omaha side and about an hour from most of Des Moines, so both directions are practical. How often a run happens depends on how many kitchens are on it.
Could I ask you to grow something specific?
Yes, and that is one of the better reasons to buy from a farm this size. A chef who says in winter what they want in July can have it planted for them, which is not something a distributor can offer at any volume.
Do you supply flowers as well as produce?
That is the intent. The floral side can put arrangements on a standing schedule for a dining room or a shop counter, and a single local source for both the produce and the flowers is a genuinely useful thing for a restaurant.
How should I start a conversation?
Get in touch and tell us what you use and roughly how much of it. Early conversations shape what goes in the ground, so a kitchen that talks to us now has real influence over what is available later.
Elsewhere on the farm
Run a kitchen or a shop?
Tell us what you use and roughly how much. Conversations that happen now are the ones that change what gets planted next spring.
Get in touch