What does your support really mean?…
It has been more than too long since I have sat down and written a piece in our Dairy’s Berries ‘journal section’. Today however, is the day to do so and it has actually come with a degree of inspiration from my newly founded curiosity with Instagram along with thoughts around how the up and coming strawberry season will pan out. Normally, I would stick to writing about our practices around how we grow our strawberries but today I am writing from a more deeper, I guess emotional place so please bare with me as a bounce around with this piece.
I have never really been fussed with social media and never had Instagram before starting up our Dairy’s Berries venture. I have to admit I have not been the most active user of social media but lately I am seeing a lot of ‘suggested pages’ coming up on our Instagram feed and I have started jumping on a bit more frequently. They are all people local to my community and run with the themes of food forests, sustainable living and growing food for local communities. All that stuff that is right up my alley. It is through following these pages that it got me thinking of how we started on our journey. The enthusiasm that is shared on these pages is, I think, what I am enjoying the most and it takes me back to how Fraser and I felt when we first started on the journey with Dairy’s Berries.
We were two farmers who had a passion around growing our own food in a particular way- that was healthy for us, and followed our values of having minimal impact on the environment. This passion organically grew into an idea that we could share this with others and this was when Dairy’s Berries was created however, although we had that initial vision, it has not just happened because of us, it has continued to steadily grow because of you and your support.
Three years into this journey, we feel like we have come along way. I still remember the first ‘trial’ season where we would pick our berries between milking’s and drive down to our closest little township and sit on the side of the road selling our strawberries. At this stage we had not even thought of the name Dairy’s Berries. We were just two people with too many strawberries to eat ourselves and hoped someone would buy them. In those days we had tourist buses stopping for their pit stop and it was these tourists that would buy our strawberries. One day a bus load of Japanese tourists stopped and an elderly couple came over and bought a bag of berries (yes we had flat bottomed paper bags back then; from very humble beginnings we came).
They then went back to the group and all of a sudden a frenzy of tourists came over, all wanting their own bags of strawberries. They were taking photos and selfies with the strawberries and even asked us if we would get in the photo with them. We thought it was absolutely hilarious but it goes to show the weight that one single person or one sale rather, can have on a small business. If it was not for that initial couple, sharing with their group, we may have not sold out that day as their reaction to our berries encouraged others to come over. I think it was also the day we realized that ‘hey, maybe our berries are not bad at all!’ and it gave us the confidence to think a little bit bigger for the next season.
Another day as we sat on the side of the road we had the most amazing couple who lived in the village come over as they were walking to the dairy. At first it was simply that they were curious as to who we were and what we were selling. Never the less off they went with a bag of strawberries and boy, they really spread the word. Every week without fail that couple came to us with an order for them and their friends and after three years I feel like we owe them the world for their kindness and support. From this it cemented that people genuinely really wanted to buy not just strawberries over the strawberry season but they wanted to by our strawberries. Again, this built our confidence and lead us to invest a little bit more to go a little bit bigger once again.
Referring back to that initial year we also were luckily enough to have our local school (which both Fraser and his dad attended) came on board, opening up the opportunity to do a fundraising event where they were able to give us the exposure within our local community. With this came more support and we were blown away that other local businesses started sharing what we were doing and even recommending us to another local grower who were able to stock and sell our berries last year. It showed us that other local businesses were more than willing and wanting to support other local businesses which is an amazing notion to see….and be a part of. From this we hope that one day we will be able to return this favor to someone else that is starting out.
Whether it is a like on social media, spreading the word to a friend or simply coming over for a chat when you see us out and about, it has a huge impact on a small business such as ours. It does not always have to be a purchase, because believe it or not the positive encounters we have with those within our local community plays a huge part in what keeps us doing what we are doing. After all this venture started off as having a passion of supplying high quality food (strawberries) locally and sharing our knowledge along the way. In fact, it was for sharing our knowledge and ideas that this ‘journal section’ was developed for.
In reference to the Instagrammers I have started following, what I have noticed is over time and with the support I see they have been getting through comments and likes and questions from others they are thriving. It just goes to show people love sharing what they are passionate about and when they feel supported (especially by their local communities) they naturally want to share and/or provide more. In combination to this your support encourages local business to be the best that they can, to provide the best quality, the best service and continue to grow and develop their own knowledge and ideas for your benefit. It’s sort of like a circular process, where support drives giving back in some other form.
So firstly, I encourage you to all support local (and again this can be as simple as a like or share on social media) and also to look beyond the surface layer of that business - to understand their why, to get to know what they are doing for their community and/or how they are giving back to other small local businesses but not forgetting those outside of other local businesses. Also please know that with every action of support to a small local business, such as ours, it often has a much greater effect than a simple monetary transaction/value, it is what keeps us going both from a financial aspect but also often from a more personal aspect.
So as our strawberry season fast approaches we want to say a pre-season thankyou for all the activity we have had on our social media pages of late, and we look forward to seeing you soon whether that is to grab a punnet or to just come over for a chat.
Finally, to all of those Instagramers, keep the posts coming and as I sit back watching I have a sense of excitement to see where this journey will take you. I have no doubt that for some of you, your passions will turn into something special within our community and once it does we will be there in support.