Happy New Year from all of us at Ferndale Market! As we flip our calendars to the New Year, it’s fun to celebrate a few victories from the year that was. Although it wasn’t always smooth sailing (don’t get me started on the high cost of turkey feed these days…), we have a lot to feel proud of at Ferndale Market as we close the book on 2022. Here are a few accomplishments to share:

  • We are so grateful to have dodged avian influenza. It was a scary and uncertain time for all poultry farmers, so we are thankful for healthy flocks. While it may be been pure luck, we count ourselves as fortunate.
  • Our freezer got a little bigger! We were able to replace a couple well-worn shipping containers with a new freezer in our warehouse space, just in time for our big autumn push. It felt like we wouldn’t have survived another day without the extra space, so it happened at the right time! As a bonus, we are using less energy to cool a bigger space, simply because the tired old containers weren’t as well insulated.
  • At the market, we grew our shipping program, so we’re now better equipped to ship our turkey or local food bundles nationwide. You’ll be hearing more about this from us in 2023, because we’re now ready to roll!
  • We benefited from some timely media exposure, particularly from stories on Fox 9 and WCCO TV. And, we scored a fun Minnesota flavor spot on NBC Sports during the Vikings game on Thanksgiving Day. I’d given up on my dreams of athletic stardom years ago, but somehow still managed to make it onto the NFL game day broadcast!
  • We enjoyed a festive TurkeyFest season, made complete by local food partners sampling, food trucks, and our newly-popular chocolate turkeys! We love the tradition of seeing our friends and fans each year, so it felt good to keep working closer to a “new normal” with our set-up.

As we head into 2023, I’m more convinced than ever that there’s a place for independent family farms like ours. While the world of food and ag continues to grow more consolidated – the big get bigger – there remains a segment that’s looking for something different: raised differently, grown locally, and sustaining independent producers. We strive to be that “something different”, both in the way we farm and in the local foods we carry in the market. We thank you for being a part of that segment that values our differences and for all the ways you were a part of our successes in 2022.

I hope to see you at Ferndale Market in the New Year!