1 Year in Review Using Barn2Door with Daphne, Agricola Family Farm
In this episode of the Direct Farm Podcast, we're exciting to host Daphne of Agricola Family Farm in Cleveland, Texas. Listen as she share her farm's story as a second generation farmer and experience with using Barn2Door over the past year.
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Rory: 0:26
Welcome to the Direct Farm Podcast. I'm Rory your host. got a great conversation for you today with one of our farm advisors, Daphne Bicaise of Agricola Family Farms. Daphne, it's great to have you on. About a year since we last talked to you. those who haven't heard about your farm, could you maybe talk about your farm's story, your family's story, and how you started Agricola Family Farms?
Daphne: 0:49
Thank you so much for having me today and, I hope that this will be helpful to a lot of people. Uh, It's a bit exciting, especially like to kind of have like the one-year check-in. So my family we're actually originally from the Republic of Congo. We moved here in 2010. And my parents have always farmed, so this is nothing new to me. I even went to school and I studied agriculture. So I do have a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, in agronomy, hoping to go for a Masters sometime down the line. I have a couple of siblings, I'm the oldest of five. We've always loved doing agriculture. It's just a way for us to give back to the community. But it's also a way for us to get to make a living. That's how my parents paid their bills. Even I too the fact that I
Rory: 1:32
Yeah.
Daphne: 1:33
mom, I'm having to then develop a microgreens business. So, it's to just living also being able to share a passion with other people. everything we grow is organic. We believe in strictly sharing the food that we grow as natural as possible, and as organic as possible. You know, I, I think that's how all the healthy tips and all the healthy benefits comes through and are shared with customers as well.
Rory: 2:00
You guys have done a really great job of connecting with your local community. I think that a lot of times can be a challenge for farmers, but that is a huge market. A lot of times, farms can sell out of all their products just by serving their local small towns local rural areas. so could you maybe talk about how you guys have tackled that challenge of connecting with your community and establishing your farm within the community?
Daphne: 2:24
So two, we had to change, pretty much two communities, which is the Houston community where we originally moved to back in 2010. And then also the Cleveland community, which is about almost an hour and a half drive from Houston. So you have two different people, Cleveland, where we are right now, it's very much more country. So you kind of have to come back to the Houston area to do your business. But thing is social media, especially attending farmer's markets. That is a good way for you to know who your customers can be, those people in a specific area buy, and then Houston, such a big community so it was really easy for people to support us because once we tell them this is what we're doing and we try to be as honest as possible. We love to grow vegetables. We want to be able to offer fresh food to your table, to where you don't have to go to the store, perhaps even drop it off in front of your door.
Rory: 3:19
That's really cool to hear. That's definitely a very unique way to utilize social media build that relationship and get your name out there. So I was kind of curious, if a customer isn't familiar with a product that maybe you've decided to grow, how do you
Daphne: 3:30
some
Rory: 3:31
to try new things and not be discouraged by ingredients or products that they aren't used to?
Daphne: 3:36
So three things I do. One is a CSA. Sometimes like if I'm sending out an email and I say, Hey, this is what we have on the list this week. I might just drop like, into parentheses like, "This is how you can cook it. Don't be too afraid to try it." And I might even drop a link to a recipe I find online something that people here are more accustomed to. I'm still learning too. So I think it's like kind of meeting other halfway. If I'm at the farmer's market I might offer it to someone. And let them go home and try it let me know how you like it next time. And if you did, me a message, send me a video, or even post it online. Say, hey, I got this from this farmer and, I really like it. Just something fun. The other thing is I cook at home a lot, so I am always sharing recipes with people. And because most people know we're not from the US, we're from the Congo, always curious to know what we eat back home, how our culture is different from here or how similar it is. most of the time the vegetables might look different, but they always almost taste the same. But it's awesome. So far, I haven't really had any bad reviews on that. So it's been good.
Rory: 4:45
That's good to hear.
Daphne: 4:46
Yeah.
Rory: 4:46
you touched on there that I think is really cool, using those unique ingredients to be a branding or a marketing opportunity
Daphne: 4:52
Yeah.
Rory: 4:53
Hey, about this, maybe send us a
Daphne: 4:55
Yeah.
Rory: 4:56
and we can post it. And that's more content for your farm, or if they're tagging you in the post that they post, that's a good opportunity to continue to get your name out there. it has been about a year since you last came on the podcast, could you maybe talk about some of the biggest lessons you've learned through beginning to sell direct online over the course of the last year?
Daphne: 5:14
Sending emails. I know that was like one of my biggest struggle, but also I think it's helped a lot to really who is reading the message, especially when we use MailChimp and you can see who exactly open your emails every time you send it out. So that's been something new that I definitely like. And just being able to keep up with the inventory and see what people like to buy more of. I also want to say really making sure that know what you're selling inventory wise because sometimes we've had people that will order things and we didn't have it, or it sold out quickly, something happened at the farm and all the vegetables died, you know, especially because of the freeze we had back in February. keeping up the sales and keeping up with the orders. But just doing it through a Barn2Door, I think has helped me just kind of keep up with everything.
Rory: 6:05
else you guys do, and have been doing for some time now, is maintaining a pretty successful CSA. Could you maybe talk about how you go about advertising your CSA to buyers and overcoming that challenge of buyers maybe not knowing what a CSA is and how you've kind of
Daphne: 6:19
Yeah.
Rory: 6:19
push through that and make that program a success?
Daphne: 6:21
One thing first with CSA is you have to teach your customers about it. Telling them exactly that, I like to say, it's like a Netflix subscription. You can cancel it anytime you want. And just kind of educating people making them feel super special whatever comes at the farm, you get to try it first before anyone else do. That's always like what we talk about, at least in the email and also letting them kind
Rory: 6:48
Uh,
Daphne: 6:48
excited about what's coming on in the season. We can have some tomatoes or we added some heirlooms like I did this summer. We haven't done heirlooms in a very long time. So that's nice too. Just kind of giving them something excited to look forward to for the season.
Rory: 7:02
Awesome. That's really cool to hear and
Daphne: 7:04
yeah.
Rory: 7:05
connect with customers through that and and almost make it an exchange, you know, you're supporting the farm, but we're going to give you some really good high quality, healthy food products exchange. And so that's
Daphne: 7:15
Yeah,
Rory: 7:16
to hear that you've been able to brand it that way and establish it
Daphne: 7:18
yeah.
Rory: 7:19
community that way.
Daphne: 7:20
It's a learning experience every day. I mean, you know, we have to tweak stuff around. Even sometime we have to make sure that it's also affordable for the people that, you know, we're going to stuff, which we don't want to overdo it or say, oh no, $50 a box and you know, no one wants to buy. So, it's always a challenge for me to make sure that I'm understanding the market to see what people can afford. So that we continue to have those CSA signups. without having to have like any downsides to that, so.
Rory: 7:45
In kind of, in addition to that, you guys also offer a few different variations of your subscription in
Daphne: 7:52
Yes.
Rory: 7:53
as well as on different schedules.
Daphne: 7:55
Yes.
Rory: 7:55
it's bi-weekly and weekly, and then you have different size the subscription you maybe talk about how that's allowed you to reach a wider audience through that and kind of accommodate more potential customers.
Daphne: 8:07
So my goal there is to try to be as convenient as possible to people with without also making us too stressful. The biweekly has always been with us for very long time, I have at least one or two customers that just love to strictly do that. So I offer like the bi-weekly and the weekly it's like what people who eat more vegetables, salvage, perhaps the eggs, like people like to have eggs for breakfast, or I do offer Venice description for eggs too. So if you want your eggs every
Rory: 8:34
Yeah.
Daphne: 8:34
then you can do that. And the sizes, for example, some people have smaller family, sometimes it could be just a single person who wants to eat. Although most people who actually are our customers are, mostly families, but we don't also want to forget those people that still want to eat fresh food or farm fresh food, but can't afford to buy a bigger box or don't have that much space or don't eat as much. So, we want to also be able to make that possible for those people you know, who don't want to eat too much, but still want to be able to support the farm. We're also careful not to overdo, because once you give too much choices to your customer to make, get overwhelmed. So I tried to make it to the bare minimum. Last year when we started with Barn2Door was at small, medium, and a large. It just wasn't making sense and it was too much for me to work on. So I just made it easy for me and a customers, if you want a small box then you have this. If you want a large box, you have the other one, with those two sizes, you can still manage whether or not you want them weekly, you want them bi-weekly that kind of give you an idea of about how much you're going to consume, for that whole month or so I think so far it's worked out there is a lot of things I'm still doing differently trying to plan, but I'm doing it slowly, so.
Rory: 9:50
No,
Daphne: 9:50
yeah. Yeah.
Rory: 9:51
And also just that, you know, convenience kind of comes in in a lot of different ways and that sometimes convenience is how a product is packaged or how often they can receive that product. it makes it more convenient or easier for a customer to sign up. kind of area of convenience that you guys were just starting to hit on. Last time you were on the podcast, I believe was your delivery program. So could you maybe kind of update us on how that program has been evolving in the last year and where you guys are with that?
Daphne: 10:19
So, the delivery it's still there. I had to take, and this is just me super honest, because can be very difficult sometimes. I took a break to take care of my baby, but I'm still catching up on the numbers. I think we're almost a little bit over the level that we were last year. So, it's increased, although not too largely, because again, we're going through a really rough time. So, with COVID in all, like a lot of people going to financial hardships. So, we've had to a few hiccups here and there. So, I think back to farmer's market, maybe like mid March. I think so picking up again, which is really good. And I think the microgreens as an extra product is also bringing more people. So, because, so I'm trying to also see whether or not we can add that as, you know, just a single subscription or just kind of something that people can take up weekly. So that project is still underway, but I am hoping to at least increase our numbers, at least up to like, I want to see another extra 10 people before the end of the year. So because winter people are going to be home and most of the kids, especially during the school time are going to be going to school and coming back home. So they want to give them to eat something fresh and parents just want to focus more on their kids. So think it's going to come back up.
Rory: 11:38
What are some of the other changes you're kind of hoping to make with your delivery program moving forward?
Daphne: 11:43
Okay, so one thing is I'm trying to change the packaging and wanting to go, I want to say green. So right now we use like the brown bags, which is still okay. But want to be able to do something reusable. So probably customer maybe like add one or two bags for each people so that they can all have their own like back that I can just reuse every other week or every week or so. And adding the new products like, the
Rory: 12:04
Um,
Daphne: 12:05
that's one other thing. So right now I have one day of delivery. I had somebody who was working with me not too long ago. However, I'm planning to hire another person, who can help out with doing the delivery so that we can do twice a week. Another thing is I want to try to grow new things. Like I mentioned before. So kind of see what
Rory: 12:26
Uh,
Daphne: 12:26
like to eat focused on focus more on that because this year was really a test run for me. since I didn't go to work, I stayed home kinda to look at what my parents were doing and what we can do differently to bring more customers in. And so changing some of the crops that we're growing how we harvest them and adding extra delivery route.
Rory: 12:47
Do you guys utilize any kind of delivery fee or like a minimum purchase amount that, that allows you to receive delivery?
Daphne: 12:55
We do a $5 delivery. If you are over an hour away from the
Rory: 13:00
Okay.
Daphne: 13:00
So you are near the farm, it's a free delivery charge. Anyone forward and I started that a couple of months ago. you're a new customers, you are getting your first free delivery. So, that's like free of charge and you kind of just get it for free and then we start you on the next delivery. And most of the time people don't really mind it. You know, especially if we're coming from a really drive and the prices are pretty much the same, really. just, again, like I mentioned, just kind of giving them an incentive
Rory: 13:29
Uh,
Daphne: 13:29
so that, you know, the next time they can sign up again and get something else. But if you can have your groceries dropped off in front of your home, that's going to be awesome. So I know I love it. So hopefully other people too will.
Rory: 13:41
Another part of your guys's brand that, that you touched on last time you were on the podcast was kind of, being honest with your audience about kind of just the ups and downs of farming, you know, there's good days and there's bad days. And
Daphne: 13:52
yeah.
Rory: 13:53
that's really cool and definitely unique to your brand because you maybe just talk about that authenticity helps you connect with your audience and stay top of mind with your customers?
Daphne: 14:03
One thing, It all comes really to, like I mentioned, you have to be as honest as possible. You know, every time, at least since the baby was born, I've been taking him to the market every time with me. He hasn't missed the really, unless if, you know, we're all sick, then we all come home and people love that. They love to see your whole family there. It's a sense of, you know, a respect, but also admiration. You know, being able to just be open about it. sometimes they don't see the baby, it's like, where's the baby today? Oh, he's coming. It's just taking a little bit nap. But also. You know, if things are not going to well at the farm, like, you know, some dogs perhaps broke into the fence and they ate the chicken and things like that. You know, we'll tell people, Hey, this is what's happening right now. You know, there's, there's not much we can do, but you know, if you wanted to help us, you can either come in and us a fence or you know, we're going to have to take a break a bit and order more chicken and things like that. Especially if we have people who's supporting our CSA, trying to be as honest as possible to them. Like what can we do to fix it? Because we don't want to lose those customers. We still want them to come back. So either we move over the delivery is, but most of the time they're like, oh, it's okay. You know, it's not too much dollars do. Okay. Which just kind of waiting over. But you know, I'd always tell them even when I was pregnant, when the baby was born, as soon as it was three months old, already at the farm farming. think you've seen some of the pictures, but I used to carry him while I was like making the beds the vegetable beds and things like that. And, you know, I was tired. However, When people see that like, oh my god, you know, She can do it. I can do it, or I want to them because they're not hiding anything. They're doing the most they can because that's their livelihood. So just kind of being honest about who we are. Trying to be as what's the word transparent, you know, obviously there's some secrets you can't really put out there whole world to know, but most of that's for the benefit of the customers, I think we try to do that. So, I think it's a win-win situation here. because the more truthful you are about it, the more people are willing to support you and, get, you know, who you are and always want to come back and buy from you.
Rory: 16:14
Yeah, that's great to hear too, that, just being honest with some of the challenges that you're facing on the farm and letting customers kind of have a glimpse into that
Daphne: 16:22
Yeah.
Rory: 16:23
look behind the curtain at least it does kind of build some loyalty with you and the customer. They kind of see the lengths that you're going to provide them healthy, locally sourced food.
Daphne: 16:32
Yeah.
Rory: 16:33
of helps them be more loyal to you and your farm, which is great.
Daphne: 16:36
have another Farmer's market, which is like quite a bit far it's in Galveston, like around the coast. So it takes at least two hours drive but you know, every time we have a conversation with a customer they always how do you, why do you come all the way here? And say, well, we love you guys, you know? you always here to support us and we love coming out to meet you. And I know it's difficult for you guys here to get fresh food, especially because, you know, it could be too much salt in the water and things like that. So, being able to note what the environment is over there and trying to accommodate those people too.
Rory: 17:09
That's always the goal. You kinda touched on earlier how you've been using Mailchimp to connect with customers, and also some of the tools that, that it gives you to be able to analyze how your email marketing is working. Could you maybe talk about you've been able to connect with your audience and maybe save some time as well by leveraging Mailchimp?
Daphne: 17:27
So, MailChimp, you know, funny story and truthful story, it took me, it could be the easiest thing for somebody who has a bachelor degree and knows her way around I felt like a dummy using But you know, I got lots of help for sure. At first it was very difficult, but we had to do a few trainings. So sending an email once a month or so, like a newsletter help out because I didn't want to like overwhelm them with too much information. I think that's what I did, like the first two times or so. And then after that, I was kinda like, okay. Trying to make it really simple as much as possible. And I was also able to know, like I mentioned earlier, who is opening the emails. know I had a few people who like unsubscribed, but it took, I took it to heart like times, but it's business, you can't just be sad about it. So you just have to figure out a way to get more people. And one thing I did love with Mailchimp was that once people go into the online store, is another pop-up box that comes in. So instead of just them pop up on the website. Now it can pop up also on the online store so put their emails in. one thing I developed, especially to help us also try get a CSA, was to have them put the zip code in. I know who is signing up from what area, and perhaps I can also target those people to, you know, ask them whether or not they want to delivery or something like that. I'm still working on it for me, Mailchimp, it's easy, but for me, it's taking me a little bit of time to move it. However, I think it's helped me just sending all information all at once. And kind of seeing like what people like, I think I had one or two people actually purchase that email, but it's still like a work in progress. but,
Rory: 19:12
to hear. I
Daphne: 19:12
um,
Rory: 19:13
MailChimp they do such a great job of providing so many
Daphne: 19:16
yeah.
Rory: 19:17
reach your audience and then building it. Cause they're always, they have more and more things and they're always updating their platform to give you
Daphne: 19:23
Yeah.
Rory: 19:23
connect. And so starting somewhere and then building from there is definitely the key. So, and
Daphne: 19:29
yeah,
Rory: 19:29
what you're doing. So that's great.
Daphne: 19:31
yeah, yeah.
Rory: 19:32
any other of the Barn2Door integrations with QuickBooks or Routific or anything like that?
Daphne: 19:37
did use QuickBooks. I'm still trying to put stuff in for, because my parents, especially my dad, he doesn't speak English too much. You know, most of the time, like he might have some receipts and then they
Rory: 19:49
Oh,
Daphne: 19:49
lost in a way. So I am trying to teach him to like, take a picture, snap it right away and send it to me. And then I enter direct to QuickBooks. So that has helped. And I was, oh, I can link it through Barn2Door. So that's been awesome. Just being able to like, see what we're doing. So QuickBooks has definitely helped. And it's funny, I'm learning so much about farming. I'm learning so much about a business. You know, before we used to, my parents will handle all of this, but they always like wrote down everything. that's like one challenge is to be able to do everything digitally now. And then seeing that, how much I'm spending per month also, and again, there too, still a learning curve for me, but I'm just, I'm trying to soak in everything for like my parents and myself too. So I'm just like everywhere, but I'm able to save time just so I can take care of myself more and focus on, you know, the crops and also my little ones. So, I don't have to at least be crazy and just like, you know, move all over the place. So, yeah that's nice
Rory: 20:45
Taking some of that extra work off your plate is
Daphne: 20:48
Yeah, Yeah because I used to create like Excel documents and, you know, sometimes you have to figure it out, like how to write down, you know, okay. Am I putting receipts here? Am I putting, you know, like figuring out what columns go, where, but now everything is in one place, everything is already, there for you, so.
Rory: 21:06
What can you share about your experience as a farm advisor this far?
Daphne: 21:10
Yeah. One thing I want to say first is thank you for even considering me to be a farm advisor, you know, whenever I was asked to do that I honestly didn't know what I was going to do. You know, I feel like it's kind of, it feels almost like being a VIP in some ways, like, you know, being to know whatever is behind the scene and before everyone else gets to know it, but being able to know some of the that were being done, like the QuickBooks, and the super exciting part to working with FFA that is awesome. And one other thing is learning what other Farmers are doing out there. And then the last couple of meetings we've had when you get to see what are their Farmers are going through. You know, like it could be across the state. You know, also what they're doing differently that I could bring into my farm, into our family's farm. That's been super helpful.
Rory: 21:57
That is great to hear though, it's been a good experience that you're continuing to kind of learn and develop as Barn2Door does as well. Just kind of as the last question it has been a year since you talked with us, looking forward to the next year. What do you see as the next things Agricola Farms is looking to tackle in the year to come?
Daphne: 22:14
So, man, I have so many project. One thing was. I think the micro greens so that was one thing that I wanted to do this year. So that has done pretty good so far. And it's like the CSA program. I want to be able to get that going and get moving. I don't want it to stop. You know, and with that, like, you know, we've had our struggles and things like that. And I know when I talked to Eliza, I think at first was that I wanted to even get like a tiller and stuff like that. So I'm still working on it. We had a few hiccups in there, so I'm hoping to take a step back and wait, perhaps until the end of the year to have that going on. We are working with someone else, another lady to use another part of her farm land. So that means that operation will be increasing, so we're going to be growing more stuff. Like adding more products that people like and do farmer's market, but I don't want to rely too much on that. So, I definitely feel like our CSA program is what I need to work toward. But I want to be able to make sure that. It's not just a subscription that, you know, even people just want to buy a weekly, that they can also do that of just having to push them to think that it's a commitment that they have to do with and just making people understand that all that we know all that they're doing, we're always grateful for that. It's helping us. So, so definitely like increasing or extending the farm adding more products and increasing sales online. Definitely. I think that thought was like, everyone's goal that, and you know, teach my parents more about it, even perhaps my sister too, that in case, you know, something we are to either expand. Or you know, that I need help, that someone else would know how to use Barn2Door, just as much as I am doing so.
Rory: 24:02
That's great to hear that you guys are expanding the farm and continuing, I
Daphne: 24:06
Yeah,
Rory: 24:07
part is just always being able to learn and adapt and kind of continue to grow with as your farm grows.
Daphne: 24:12
You know, it's a learning progress, but I am truly grateful that you guys are here. So plus you're doing an awesome job for a lot of farmers like us, so
Rory: 24:20
Thanks. Well, that's what we're always striving for, and it's glad to hear that it's working for you and your farm. That's really there anything else you wanted to cover?
Daphne: 24:28
I know there's like lots of farmers out there that don't know sometimes what to do in order to increase their sales and I like having someone who I can talk to weekly or once a month. I know I you know, just from me to Eliza that, like I truly love that she takes the time. I know it's, it's our job, but just still being able to sit down and talk with me and tell me, Hey, you know, this is what we can do differently to help. So you're not just selling the product, but you're also making sure. The farmers are successful. And I think that's also, it comes back to being a FAN Adviser as well. Just being able to have like that one-on-one relationship also just, you know, like oh that's going on and like the success pretty much like making sure that all farmers are successful. So, thank you. And I hope that, you know, toward the future that we can continue to touch more people and make sure that farming is kind of like, not an abnormal thing, but just a normal way of life.
Rory: 25:19
I want to extend my thanks to Daphne for joining us on this week's podcast episode here at Barn2Door, we are humbled to support thousands of farmers across the country, including farmers like Daphne, who implemented sustainable agriculture practices and support their local community. For more information on Agricola farms, visit AgricolaFamilyFarm.com to learn more about Barn2Door, including access to numerous free resources and best practices for your farm Go to Barn2Door.com/resources. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next week.