98 Interview with CSA Farmer Jordan MacPhee

March 10, 2021 by Corinna

Looking for another example of a successful CSA farmer? I interview Jordan MacPhee of Maple Bloom Farm on Prince Edward Island. He shares how his farming business morphed from a CSA-focused business, to a more diversified approach over time. He also shares how he vets his add-on share vendors so that he can offer lots of products from other farm businesses to his clientele. And he shares how he grew his email list to over 2000 using Facebook ads!

Who is Jordan MacPhee?

Jordan MacPhee is the owner of Maple Bloom Farm, a mixed vegetable and microgreens operation located in New Dominion and Grand Tracadie, Prince Edward Island off the east coast of Canada, zone 5b. Maple Bloom Farm‘s mission is to grow food and community in cooperation with other local farms and in harmony with the natural environment. In 2015, with 5 years of farming experience under his belt, Jordan and his now wife Catherine started Maple Bloom Farm, funding their first year using a traditional-style CSA of 45 members, which made up more than 80% of farm sales their first year. Now Jordan runs the farm with his father while Catherine works off the farm. The farm is hiring two employees this year to help grow enough food to meet their growing demand from farmers’ markets, restaurants, and a growing membership in the farm’s free choice CSA which now operates in both the summer and the winter. The CSA has nearly tripled in size since 2015 to 125 members for the currently running winter CSA, making up about 30% of farm revenues in 2020.

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Some of the resources mentioned in this episode:

• • • Find my Facebook group for farmers! I jump in here every month to teach farmers tips and fundamentals of marketing.
    • To register for my free webinar “CSA Retention Secrets: 5 Strategies to Turn Your Members into Raving Fans” on March 14, at 4 PM EST, go to www.mydigitalfarmer.com/retention. Are you a CSA farmer recently flooded with lots of new CSA rookie members, and you’re secretly wondering how to make sure they stick for the long-term? With COVID-19, CSAs around the country are seeing record sales — with many farms selling out earlier than ever before. But what happens after the crisis goes away? Are your new members in it for the long haul? How can you take this captive audience and get them to fall in love with you for the long-term? In this free webinar, I share 5 strategies you can set in place within your operation to build undying customer loyalty that increases your customer retention and gives you the peace of mind you’re looking for.  This webinar was the same presentation I gave at the 2021 MOSES/Growing Stronger farm conference. It’s SO good, and you’ll walk away feeling inspired!
    • Both Jordan and I use Local Line as our ecommerce CSA solution. You can try out the tool using my affiliate link here, and you’ll receive a premium feature for free.
    • Jordan mentioned the A to Z Storage Guide that he used to help support his members. You can purchase this PDF download here. It comes complete with a Canva template so you can customize it for your farm.

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My hope is to feature guests periodically on the show. If you know someone who is innovating in the area of marketing as a farmer, please send me an email at corinna@mydigitalfarmer.com.

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