March 10, 2017
CapitalPress.com
5
Instagram helps drive farm’s direct sales
By MARGARETT WATERBURY
For the Capital Press
BORING, Ore. — Social
media doesn’t come naturally
to most farmers. But farms —
especially farms that depend
on direct sales to restaurants
and consumers — might be
uniquely poised to benefit
from social platforms such as
Instagram.
After working for estab-
lished farms in Vermont and
Oregon, Dan Sullivan, 31,
started Black Locust Farm
in 2015. Located in Boring,
Ore., the farm is part of the
Headwaters Farm Incubator
Program. Administered by the
East Multnomah Soil and Wa-
ter Conservation District, the
program is designed to help
early-career farmers launch
new ventures.
Black Locust Farm leas-
es 2 acres at Headwaters to
grow specialty vegetable row
crops marketed exclusively
to restaurants in the Portland
metropolitan area. Major
crops include greens, chico-
ries, alliums, edible flowers
and root vegetables.
During its first two years,
the farm has relied heavily
on social media, specifical-
ly Instagram, for marketing.
Sullivan uses the social pho-
Margarett Waterbury/For the Capital Press
Lettuce starts grow at Black
Locust Farm in Boring, Ore. The
farm uses social media such as
Instagram to promote itself to
customers.
to-sharing app to showcase
new crops, give updates about
what’s happening on the farm,
and interact with the farm’s
restaurant customers.
One of Black Locust
Farm’s clients is Sarah Minn-
ick, co-owner and chef at
Portland restaurant Lovely’s
Fifty-Fifty. She says Insta-
gram has been the single most
impactful component of her
marketing strategy. “As far as
advertising goes, it has made
pretty much the only differ-
ence in business for us. Ins-
tagram can be very genuine,”
says Minnick.
Instagram lets farmers
such as Sullivan piggyback
on their clients’ marketing ef-
forts. When chefs like Minn-
ick tag their farmer suppliers
in photos, their followers can
see it — and, critically, chefs
follow one another.
“A lot of my customers
who have very serious fol-
lowings are avid social media
users,” Sullivan says. “When
they post my veggies, they tag
my name, and through them
I’ve gained a lot of follow-
ers.”
“I see many farms using
social media to target not their
customers, but other farmers,”
Sullivan explains. “Instead, I’m
using it as an advertising chan-
nel, a way to capitalize on my
customers and my relationship
with those customers.”
Sullivan acknowledges that
social media and farming aren’t
always completely compatible.
“As a farmer, I’m treading a
line between modern society
and something a little less tan-
gible. I try to play to that a little
bit — I don’t want to over-post.
I don’t like to use mine for any-
thing other than farming, I’m
not into sharing the rest of my
life that way.”
Yet he maintains that
Instagram’s impact on his
business has been a positive
one, and says he’s planning
to do more in the years to
come.
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