Welcome to Upstate Locally Grown, an online Market that has a fine reputation and is used as a model across the state.
You were approved for Upstate locally Grown because of your good practices and your pristine reputation.
What we do for you: Upstate Locally Grown has earned a State-wide=2 0reputation of excellence and has been used as a model for other on-line markets across the state and country.
We are known and endorsed by Whole Foods Market, Greenville Carolina First Saturday Market, Chef Keith Snow, and many chefs and food eateries across the Upstate.
We are trusted by the over 400 Upstate families who have chosen to receive our weekly email. we are listed in Local Harvest as well as many “Green” sites who list us nationally. People come to our website to find the best growers in th e Upstate, YOU.
- What we do: We promote local, sustainably grown products. The grower or producer must be known to us, be interviewed, have an on site visit, and must abide by our policies. We regularly host Meet your Grower Days and we promote you every day on our website. At our Farmer’s Market Booths, we hand out brochures to everyone telling about your peoducts and where to find all 40+ of us. People come to our booths looking for your fine food.
Our members are conscientious about what they eat, how it was grown, how the flock is treated, and what is in the food they eat, as well as how our practices affect the earth and its environment. Never before has this awareness been so at the forefront. We are in the right place at the right time. Never has “sustainable” been so correct. Our market is mushrooming, and your products make a fine contribution to this growth.
Following are the current policies and practices of your Upstate Locally Grown Market.
- Our goal: to provide the freshest, purest, most sustainably grown food available in the upstate, Farm-to-Family.
- Our Motto: “win-win”..You win, I win, the members win through our cooperative efforts.
*Your personal Website: You may feel free to use as your personal website. We are part of the Locally Grown network, consisting=2 0of many markets across the country. We pay a 3% surcharge for use of the fantastically practical software. - We reserve the right to withdraw our support of any grower who knowingly misrepresents any of his products in any way.
- State and Federal Regulations: Technically, we are not selling from our farms, so you must comply with state and Federal regulations, as if at a Farmer’s Market. We will gladly forward copies of the requirements, or you may contact DEHEC. All eggs, meat, and dairy needs to be transported and stored at the required temperatures at all times. All labeling must comply with State and federal rules.
- Sustainable Agriculture: You do not have to be certified organic to sell at this market. We allow naturally grown, sustainably grown, cage-free, free-range, pastured, antibiotic-free, pesticide free, self-produced local foods. There may be exceptions, and, if so, then, these products must be clearly ide ntified as conventional, or else containing conventional ingredients. All products must be cleared with the market before listing.
- Market Forcast: Ordering will be open to the members and guests from Friday evening @ 6 pm until 8am Monday Morning. We will need to have your market forcast ready before the Friday 5pm deadline.
- Newsletter: You are invited to phone me (Donna) @864-901-2692 to let me know what you have for the current week. This will enable me to point out to the members what is new, or what we would like for them to notice, as I write the newsletter.
- Delivery: have your produce at Whole Foods Market by 2:15 Tuesdays for sorting and packaging of orders.
Drop-off of Products: You must have your products either to me by or before 11 AM Tuesday or to Whole Foods Market by 2:15 pm, Tuesday labeled. We will meet outside to sort and pack.
- Special pick-ups: You have the option of having one of the market helpers (including me) to pick up your products from you. There would be a 5% additional service charge reflected in your comission.
- Labeling: There is a labeling system built into our program. Please use it, or else your own system. If you need help, instructions, or if you wish for me to print your labels, please let me know when you call in your products. There will be a one percent service charge for the market to print your labels.
- Grower’s fee: Your initial $40.00 fee20covers your interview, being entered into our system and an on farm visit by your peers.
- Coaching: We will coach you in working the Upstate Locally Grown Market Web Site and make sure that you have your products listed. (Please review the “about” section, and all coaching on the pages you visit on the site. they are very helpful.) Please get any new product approved before adding to the market.
- Maintaining your product listings: You are responsible for weekly changing the quantities and acurate informati on about the products.
- Contacting the member when there is a question or if you wish to substitute: This is your web site, and your market booth. Your contact with our members will build customer loyalty.
*Being at Pick-up:The market welcomes and encourages your support and your presence at pick-up.
Your presence at the pick-up builds customer trust. The more often yo u are there, the better relationships you build, which increases demand for your products. “Put a Face on your food”.
If you come to the pick-up site with extra products to sell, you must work with us to pack the orders, if necessary. You may sell your extras only after we have completed our pre-ordered business. Please keep these extra products clearly separate from the pre-ordered products, possibly on a separate table. You are responsible for collecting for your extra products. Bring change.
Pay: As Market Manager, I have been a volun teer….I do not charge for my time. (there is not enough left over for a salary with our persent system) Your table fee goes toward running the market; ie: gas, insurance, (both auto and market umbrella insurance) printing expenses, telephone expenses, calculators, Market Helper veggie vouchers, advertising, promotions and tastings, Farmer’s Market booths and equipment. I co-ordinate the market as a whole, and the advisory board and I make final decisions about operating policies.
The more that you do for the market, the less ti me that I have to spend on it. The less you do for yourself and I do for you, the more time that it takes me, or a market helper.
- Table Fees: You set your own price. We are in the process of setting up a sliding scale “table fee” based on your contribution to the workings of the market as a whole. The more you work for us, the less is tacked on to your price.
- Prices: Your prices should be in line with comparable products. We do not allow undercutting. We are win/win, and the competition is friendly. The demand for our products far outweighs the supply. Customers will always have their favorite growers, and it might just be you.
- Guest growers at our booths:
if you would like to be featured as a guest grower at Upstate Locally Grown’s booth, please contact us. Currently, you may sell your products by invitation only, taking turns, if you are willing to work in the booth for the enti re time that day, and are willing to work along with us in promoting USLG and your fellow growers by helping to sell the products there at the booth. You must take an inventory of your products at the beginning and end of the market and you will be paid for your sales at the end. You should be ther to help ste up and to break down the booth, regardlless of whether you have sold out of your personal products. You must be scheduled to guest the booth: contact Libby Young,
Stacie, assistant market Manager:
Richard Taylor, Market Board:
Market Administrator and Manager: Donna Putney