 I'm Paul Harle from Harle Farm, Westminster, Vermont, here in the Connecticut River Valley. Also the home of deeper organic truck farmers, a marketing cooperative that I'm a member of. I farm about 100 acres of organic vegetables right here in the Connecticut River Valley, some of the richest farm land around. What we try to do at Harle Farm is develop a crop mix that allows us to use our labor efficiently, but also to provide the market with the produce that they need at the certain time of the year. We try to combine a mix of fresh vegetables, including lettuce, kale, peppers, cabbages with storage crops that can be sold long-term, beets and carrots and rutabagas and squash. Harle Farm has kind of developed a pattern of growing the same eight to ten crops every year, figuring that over the course of ten years that we'll do well, you know, some years and not so well others, and that trying to guess what the marketplace is going to be from year to the next and the produce businesses is probably not a wise thing to do. Because of the price pressure for wholesale vegetables, we have to become very efficient and we really keep an eye on unit costs. Deeper is I think is known for its high quality and we try to constantly upgrade that. Things that we've done in the last few years are we bought a hydrocooler, so now we're hydrocooling our lettuce and kale so that we provide a good fresh product that stays on the market. Other things that we've done that are somewhat innovative are we stem tag and rubber band identify most all of our products. These all have PLU numbers or things that the market is almost demanding now that they have identification, especially the supermarkets is where the big growth area for organic is. I think the best things for the co-op for me in our farm is that it helps us provide a cohesive marketing plan and that we get together during the winter and try to grow things that each farm does well and that we don't overlap so that throughout the course of the marketing season, the co-op has a steady supply of the crops that we feel like we need to sell. My name is Dennis Sauer. I'm a foreman of Harlow Farm, Westminster, Vermont. I've known Paul for a number of years. I was a member with him in the Deep Root Cooperative and when I decided to quit farming on my own I went to work for Paul. I was one of the founding members of the co-op I joined in the second year so I was part of the process of getting the co-op running right in the bylaws and setting up the process for how we marketed and dealt with crop production estimates in the winters and in the first five years were the hardest year for the co-op and it was a challenge to get the co-op up and running and a lot of the things that we did in those first few years we're still using today. The main advantages of the co-op and the reason that we came together as a co-op was that individually we couldn't address all the needs of our accounts in the metropolitan areas so by combining loads and farmers growing particular crops we were able to offer a wider range of product and fill trucks in order to get the volume that the buyers needed and that's still true today I mean we can fill trailer loads to go to Maryland which one farm could never do but the combined co-op with various different products can fill the trucks and so every farmer whether they're a small herb grower or you know one crop farmer still gets their stuff to our farthest markets. The key to the co-op is cooperation and which takes a lot of effort by on the part of the farmers you know meeting in the winter deciding crop production levels deciding you know who gets to grow what how much of what based on previous sales packing conditions you know particular items like you know quality who gets rejected who decides who you know what gets rejected all of these things are things that individual farmers would never have to do on their own it's pretty much their own decision whereas in the cooperative you have to honor the wishes of the entire cooperative and and for farmers who tend to be fairly independent that's sometimes causes problems you know to have someone telling them what what they can't do so it's it's a challenge all the time but the benefits are that that these you can get your products into markets that you otherwise wouldn't reach well originally the co-op all it took to be in the co-op was a commitment of a crops and a hundred dollar a year membership fee but but we quickly realized that well without an equity investment by the growers the farmer sort of treated the co-op as a when they needed the market they use it when they didn't they didn't use it they went elsewhere they get a better price and and the co-op also needed equity to buy some equipment and office equipment pay the managers and some sort of security so what happened is is now it's required for the growers to own equity shares I need Kevin wants 20 zucchini for Friday definitely the benefits of the co-op and I think you know they're not they're not as tangible as the markets but but the the growers involvement with each other the the planning year to year knowing what each other is going to grow how they're going to grow it varieties talking about you know there's a lot of on-farm research people share information they share equipment and also it's just you know it's you avoid the isolation of farming on your own farm you get to talk to other growers on a regular basis and and sort of share the ups and downs which which is valuable experience for a lot of farmers especially you know in a market that's really price driven and you know downward price driven so it's helpful to have other people that are in the same pressures that that you are and in the winter time it's it's nice for the growers to get together and I think a lot of them enjoy the the process