Farmer Spotlight: Terra Firma Farm Creamery
Ever since she was young, Farmer Brie dreamed of creating a life with animals. Today, running a mixture of chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, and dairy, Terra Firma Farm Creamery is committed to using environmentally sustainable practices to feed their community.
Established in 2004 as a non-profit community Farm, Terra Firma is located in North Stonington, Connecticut. As one of the newest members of the Barn2Door Farmer Advisor Network, we recently sat down with Brie on the Direct Farm Podcast to get the scoop on how she’s built a thriving direct-to-market operation with Barn2Door.
A Commitment to Giving Back to the Community
Terra Firma was established with the mission to reconnect youth to agriculture and the community to the land. Focused on sustainable practices, Brie described sustainability “as the ability to move forward - economically, environmentally, and emotionally.” As a first-generation Farmer and businesswoman, the importance of thinking 10 - 30 years ahead about the future of Terra Firma is important: “we want to make sure it stays healthy for as long as possible. The business has to make correct decisions to stay sustainable in everything we do. This also impacted our decision to sell direct with Barn2Door, because sustainability is moving forward with change and selling online.”
In January of 2019, as an incentive to support food-insecure families, Brie launched Terra Firma Farm Gives Gallons (#TFFGIVEGALLONS). Purchasing milk from other local dairies, processing it at Terra Firma, and delivering it to the local food bank is a way to support other Farmers and feed the community:
“TFF Gives Gallons is based on the national idea of a Customers can buy a gallon of milk and instead of them receiving it, we deliver it to the local food bank. Our Creamery was started through a Kickstarter - we raised $50,000 to purchase the pasteurizer and bottler to rebuild the Creamery. We launched this program to give back to the community - donating milk to the local food banks and supporting other Dairies that aren’t bottling their own milk. We’re able to pay them more for their product. It’s kind of a three-way win for everyone.”
Pivoting to sell online with Barn2Door was the tipping point to TFF Give Gallons taking off. Each week, Brie noticed that more Customers would add additional gallons of milk to their cart. With Barn2Door, the ease of online purchasing has fueled growth of the program.
How Product Diversification Led to a Sky-Rocketing Delivery Service
Milking cows every day means that there's a product to be sold every day. Brie shared how Terra Firma has always held a strong position at their local grocery store. When the wholesale market declined last year, Brie had already been looking at Barn2Door to sell direct to consumers, to move more products, and keep up with the times - launching her business into the digital world.
“Amazon, Hello Fresh, and Butcher Box have paved the way for people becoming used to food arriving on doorsteps. As this trend increased, more people began to expect food deliveries. That’s when we decided it was time for Terra Firma Farm to deliver our products. The idea behind delivery was how can we make it easier for our Customers to get our milk. The answer was home delivery.
From a business side, it allowed us to offer our Buyers a convenient way to access our milk. Having a Farm store open all day is attractive to Customers, so setting aside delivery times where people can order anytime was key. It’s a great time management decision because now the orders are handled all on their own. We deliver milk orders at set times as opposed to having interruptions throughout the day to take care of specific Customers’ requests.”
Adding a variety of products to offer for delivery contributed to Terra Firma’s success. Offering products they were already producing, including proteins and a wider variety of milk, yogurts, and ice cream, was a game-changer.
“The reason we added other products to our delivery service was to increase our revenue, spread out the delivery charge, and offer our customers a convenient shopping experience. If someone is only going to buy milk from us once a week, that will get old. They’ll still need to go elsewhere to do the rest of their grocery shopping. So the thought was if we grew our product offering, we would become the default one-stop-shop for our Customers.”
The more Brie added to the program, the more orders they received. Besides Terra Firma’s products, Brie also teamed up with local businesses and producers to add bread, vegetables, chocolates, and more. Offering these products on the online store allowed Customers to fill their carts for the week and have an entire grocery experience directly from Terra Firma.
“Once we figured out what people wanted, delivery took off. Paying attention to what customers are asking for and making sure you can find it locally is important. We only partner with businesses that stay in line with who we are and what’s important to us.”
Most of Brie’s partners only sell one to two products. “If we’re able to co-op all of these other Farms and offer Customers a variety of products from different local producers, we’re creating an online farmer’s market in one stop. The convenience it offers our Customers is unmatched. It’s been great for smaller Farms who don’t have the time to do marketing or the resources to have a delivery program. It’s been great for us to work together!”
Saving Two Hours A Day, with Barn2Door + Routific
As one of the first Farmers to sign up for the Barn2Door + Routific integration, Brie is already saving more time delivering more products. “The most time-consuming side of delivery is planning the routes. The goal is to deliver as many stops in the shortest time. Now I click one button, and it sends all of my orders from Barn2Door to the routing software. Then, I select the driver, and it sends them the deliveries for the day. All of a sudden, one little button click is saving us two hours every day - that’s huge!”
The integration has also made organizing and executing delivery day easier for Brie and her team. “The app is amazing where my drivers can communicate directly with the customer letting them know when their order was delivered. It’s more convenient for us because it’s easier to communicate that information. It’s also more convenient for them because they know their order status. The ease that Routific lets us do this is great - and it lets me get more things done!”
The Outcome Selling Online with Barn2Door
Since pivoting online, Terra Firma has experienced exponential growth and demand for their products. When asked about her experience with Barn2Door, Brie said: “I wish I knew how awesome it was going to be. If I knew two years ago that our demand would grow this fast - I would’ve had more cows in the parlor! The trend right now is online - for everything. People are changing how things go, and for farming, online sales are important because of how convenient it is.”
Brie also uses the Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and Tax integrations to help the business run smoother, allowing more time to do important things. “Joining Barn2Door is probably the best thing I’ve done for my business since we started. Our revenue has gone up, we have way more customers, and we’re moving more products. People are drinking more local milk and eating more local meats. But also, I’m able to eat dinner with my kids now. I have an entire team with Barn2Door helping us every step of the way!”
We’re honored and humbled to work with Farmers like Brie - who are committed to creating a lasting impact on our world by serving the local community. If you’re curious how Barn2Door can help your Farm grow and manage direct sales, watch this 5-minute video.