OUTSTANDING IN HER FIELD It’s Produce, Ma’am by Sarah Harrison, Co-Owner of Mazak Farms We are a small farm, which grows and sells various certified organic products, mainly produce. Our produce, like all other produce, can go bad because, well, it’s produce! Who hasn’t been guilty of filling your fridge’s veggie drawer to the
to reach the owners? Is it because it feels powerful to make a veiled threat? Is it because some people just need something to be mad about? Perhaps, all the above. It is trendy and ‘insta worthy’ to shop local and buy direct from the farm, which we are very grateful for. However, that trend doesn’t seem to recognize that the local businesses that people like to support have limited resources, and as much as we all try, we aren’t perfect. Should we expect from our local business the product we pay for? Absolutely. Should we, as local businesses, be expected to bear the burden of people’s unrealistic expectations? Absolutely not. We simply don’t have the resources to indulge in that. Remember, when you buy produce, use it! Keep being outstanding in your field.
top on grocery day only to discover a week or so later you now have a drawer of, ‘Oh shoot, I forgot to use that’? Someone once told me that the veggie drawer in your fridge should be called the ‘drawer of good intentions’. Isn’t that the truth? We had an experience this growing season with a customer who purchased produce from us. About six weeks after her purchase, she reached out to lodge a complaint because the produce had turned bad. She demanded a refund and made a passive- aggressive threat to share her experience of ‘poor customer service’ online. Poor customer service? Interesting! When you buy a bunch of bananas at the grocery store, and they go bad a week later, do you think, ‘I bet those farmers overseas were trying to cheat me? They gave me bad bananas’? No! Of course, you don’t! Because we all know that in time, produce goes bad. It makes me wonder why we seem to have different expectations of our local, small producers. As we said in our response to the upset customer, “‘It’s produce, ma’am. It goes bad if you don’t use it”. I’m pretty confident she would not have expected a refund from the multi-million-dollar grocery chain for produce purchased from them that has turned, so why is there an expectation from the small producer? Is it because it is easier
Real Agricultural Elgin Living Fall 2024 cover Overlooking a Par 3 at Dutton Meadows Golf Club in the fall. Photo by Geoff Rae
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Real Living • Fall 2024 • Page 13
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