Today we’re back with Field to Front Door 🎙️
David, Martin and Wallace catching up right in the middle of what can only be described as peak peony madness.
A big part of this episode focused on the realities of direct selling during the busiest part of the season. We got into subscription boxes, picking peonies at exactly the right stage, managing labour, and the challenge of trying to get a product from field to customer as fresh as possible.
There was also a fascinating discussion around logistics and delivery. David shared the story of dealing with thousands of parcels during peony season, the impact of bank holidays, working with DPD and the reality that one delay can suddenly create hundreds of customer messages, emails and problems to solve.
We also spoke about tractor runs, community events and how those sorts of gatherings help connect farming with the wider public. Alongside that there was plenty of chat around direct selling, customer loyalty and why looking after existing customers is often more important than constantly chasing new ones.
One of the strongest themes throughout was value. Not just the value of a product, but understanding what it is actually worth, building trust with customers and creating systems that allow farmers to keep more of the value from what they produce.
We’re going to keep this going fortnightly for now and see where it takes us. If you’ve got ideas on what we should cover or who we should bring in, send them our way.
Enjoy! 🙂