Community Engagement as a Marketing Channel
In the first episode of Season Three of the Shared Soil podcast, Kendall and Rebecca discuss the North Country Farm Trail, an initiative by Kate Savage to promote agritourism and local agriculture in the North Country of New Hampshire. The Farm Trail aims to connect local consumers with a wide range of agricultural products and services, including fresh produce, dairy, meats, and local services like insurance and maple syrup production. The initiative offers three promotional packages for farmers, from a free basic package to more comprehensive options.
Show notes:
North Country Farm Trail: www.northcountryfarmtrail.com
Kate Savage: northcountryfarmtrail@gmail.com
WREN (Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network): www.wrenworks.org
Will Hastings: william.hastings@unh.edu
Olivia Saunders: olivia.saunders@unh.edu
UNH Cooperative Extension: www.extension.unh.edu
Women in Ag Newsletter signup - https://unhoutreach.tfaforms.net/217751?CID=701G0000001AiKCIA0
Kendall Kunelius – kendall.kunelius@unh.edu
Rebecca Dube – rebecca.dube@unh.edu
Transcript:
Kendall Kunelius 0:09
Welcome to the very first episode in Season Three of Shared Soil, a podcast dedicated to creating community, honoring challenges and encouraging personal and professional growth for all people in agriculture. My name is Kendall Kunelius, and I'm a field specialist in agricultural business management.
Rebecca Dube 0:27
And I'm Rebecca Dube, providing administrative and technology support to the specialists of UNH Extension. Welcome to Season Three. It's so nice to be back! While it's cold and snowy outside right now, like our farmers, I'm still thinking about summer. Have you ever been to an open farm stay?
Kendall Kunelius 0:26
Actually, I've been to several, both in like a personal interest capacity, just as a citizen, but also as an extension agent. They're a great place to go to chat with people, I wanna say customers. But the community, really - everyone comes out to those and you get to connect to farmers, and you get to see them in their element. So I love attending open farms day.
Rebecca Dube 0:45
Yeah, they are fantastic. And there's also ice cream or a taco trail. You've heard of those. The Hippo newspaper has them listed every year, and art studios do it a lot too. It's a great way to get people to try a few different small businesses along a theme and see what they offer. There's lots of groups and organizations that offer services like that for farms in particular, encouraging people in cities and towns to make a day of it and go visit their local farmers. This in turn, makes them more aware of their products and where to purchase them. Community engagement is a great way to bring knowledge of your farm and what you offer to new audiences and expanding your reach. Farmers often go above and beyond to work with each other and bring the community together. We're happy today to be speaking with Kate Savage from North Country Farm Trail about how partnering with other groups or organizations can help bring people to the farm or your farm products to the people. Kate, thank you for joining us today. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the North Country Farm Trail?
Kate Savage 2:03
Hi, good morning, Rebecca. Good morning, Kendall. Thank you so much for having me, inviting me to join your podcast.
Rebecca Dube 2:08
Yes.
Kendall Kunelius 2:09
We're so happy to have you here.
Kate Savage 2:10
I was very excited to find the podcast as I was doing some research for North Country Farm Trail, and then to have you be in attendance with us at the WREN event last fall at Reckless. It was wonderful to have engagement and see all of everyone coming together. And that is very fundamentally what brought North Country Farm Trail to exist for the very expansive North Country of New Hampshire. I have brought this business together after many, many years of traveling around, experiencing other farms and other regions and other states with my husband and our daughters, and recognizing that agri promotion for farms of all aspects and agritourism is always welcome, and we were missing it here in the North Country. And I saw an opportunity and thought, I can make this happen. I enjoy promoting things, getting the word out. I've been both self-identified and pointed at by very many as being the loud mouth in the area. And I was like, hey, I can use that.
Kendall Kunelius 3:12
Yeah, I love that. What always strikes me is farmers tend to be some of the most ingenious people I ever meet, and creative at making fixes or doing things. They're very can-do type people.
Kate Savage 3:25
Oh, absolutely.
Kendall Kunelius 3:26
Yeah. I think it's important to recognize that it's not just like being able to fix something with duct tape or Bondo or something like that. There's also this ingenious idea of being able to say, I see a problem, I can do something about it. And there's other skill sets that go into farming nowadays than just the kind of physical fixing, managing animals, managing people, all that kind of stuff. I think you're a great example of seeing an opportunity and running with it in a very creative way.
Kate Savage 3:53
Thank you so much. Yes, the bailing twine fix doesn't always happen to be out in the field or in the barnyard or whatnot. Sometimes it has the aspect of connecting. I've used similar approaches with other ways of community engagement across social media within our communities up here for a few years, and I very quickly recognized that - I call it the prairie dog syndrome. Everybody is very, very busy with their head down trying to get what they needed to get done. And as soon as they pop their head up, they might catch another one doing it, but they might miss because they went back to what they were doing. And I was like, well, if you tap one and say, over here, look over here. No, look over here. It can, it can help out. And my go-to has always been: not everybody can do everything, but if one person does the one thing that they can do, somebody else doesn't have to do that. And it gets to echo across. And I was been discussing this with my husband David here in Jefferson for many years, going we need a way for everyone to know. Okay, so this farmer, this grower, this producer, this orchardist, whatever venue, vein of agritourism, agriculture is being done, is working their patootie off to get what they need to get done. But by the time they're done, by the day, they're like, I don't know how to promote this. I don't know how to get the word out. And he was like, Well, you know what you're doing with some of these things. What can you make happen? And he put me in touch with Will Hastings, and Will said, we've wanted to do this for very long time. How can you make it happen? And I'm like, I have some ideas, and here we are.
Rebecca Dube 5:29
Can you tell us a little bit more about what the North Country Farm Trail is and what it's made up of?
Kate Savage 5:37
Absolutely. So North Country Farm Trail is an agri-promotion business, and the method behind it is to engage with agriculture, agritourism, farmers, producers all over the North Country. I'm encompassing all of Coos County, northern Grafton and northern Carroll County too. Because if you look at a map and you listen to our local newscasts, the North Country does dip down below the mountains, down below the notches, so I am incorporating it all, which is a very vast space. But my goal is to connect the locals who want to get their local goods to the farmers, producers, growers, as well as the tourists who want to be able to come and engage. And we're here all five seasons of the year (because mud is a season). It's its own thing.
Kendall Kunelius 6:22
Yep, yes, I agree.
Kate Savage 6:25
And be able to connect those two - the producers and growers and farmers with the locals and tourists to consumers to get their items, their eggs, their fresh milk, their cheese, their baked goods, their flowers, their honey, their apples, their pumpkins, everything: livestock, pork, beef, you name it. I want it to be included. I also wanted to add in an aspect of helping those agribusinesses who want to support local businesses and services for them: the local insurance agents, the local maple producing, boiling businesses. Anybody who was going to be able to say you could buy this and ship it to yourself, or we have a business that's maybe 45 minutes away that you can support it locally. So I'm also reaching out and engaging with those goods and service providers for agriculture. Because my thought is we are in rural America, and even homeowners or people who have camp second homes sometimes need to have the tool and they don't want to go to the big box store. So if I can say, bring the awareness of the local service or good provider to both the grower farmer and the person who'd be buying from the grower farmer, that adds an extra element and helps raise that awareness. And it is all about community, because you never know the person who does boiling during the season with sugaring might be an employee or own the place that does sell the product, so that's helping them also.
Kendall Kunelius 8:00
I think something that you just said really caught my attention. And I should say too, so being from northern Vermont originally, the North Country of New Hampshire is still very near and dear to my heart, because I lived just laterally from it. So absolutely, I really grew up understanding that community. And when you say it may take 45 minutes to get there, I kind of chuckled to myself, because one of the unique things about the North Country is how rural it is, and that's beautiful. And like you were saying, that's where that tourism really comes in. But it does limit the ability for a farmer to really have signage or to go to a local farmer's market or access customers and a little bit more of like those town centers, geographically speaking. That is a challenge that I think we just don't - Now that I live in Southern New Hampshire, I really see that juxtaposition between there's a town every 10 minutes on a main thoroughfare, but up in the North Country, it's like 25 to 30. And I think one of the strengths that I could see from doing like a farm trail in this regard, is it helps people understand that going those extra distances is worth it. And it helps a realistic view about why you would want to take a day and go and do this whole trail. And it also tells me that farmers who are ascribing to this get that concept of their marketing may be limited to social media. Maybe signage or like a roadside stand just isn't quite as feasible, because just not so many people driving!
Kate Savage 9:29
Exactly. And one of the, one of the aspects I was speaking with at the WREN event in the fall was the woman from, I believe she was Carroll County UNH Cooperative, but she was also -
Kendall Kunelius 9:41
Oh, Olivia Saunders!
Kate Savage 9:42
Yes, with the Mount Washington veg, which I've been also engaging with on social media as North Country Farm Trail and as myself. And she's like, you have such a wide, wide, vast space. And I said, Well, yes. I said, so my thought process is, I'm going to have one of two people joining up on the farm train. I'm going to have the person who stops by their favorite farm stand and loves the items that they're getting and says, I'm looking for something else, or I have the time to go look for something else. Having the ability to say, well, here's a brochure. And if you check out this website, (and I hope to have an app in the future) if you have 30 minutes and you're wanting to take a drive, this is a goal, because your 30 minute drive could literally go in any direction up here, right? You never know what you're gonna hit. But also, at the same time, there could be somebody saying - so, it's a beautiful day, or it's a rainy day and I want to take a drive. I don't know where I want to go. They can hop on the Farm Trail and say, I don't have a destination. Let's see what's there. I could go to this farm, or I could go check out this orchard, or what have you, and being able to engage them. And the reception that I've received from all facets, be they the consumers, the local consumers, or friends and family that I know that come to the area, or those agri businesses, farmers that I've talked to, they've all been very "This is a great idea. I'm glad you're taking control with this. What is your end game?" And I'm like, my end game is, I want to see this promoted. I want the person who either has all their ducks in a row and is getting out there and promoting things. I want their audience and my audience to be able to echo and swap and help grow it. I also want the person going I just spent three months growing these pumpkins, and nobody's here to see them. What am I doing wrong? And I want to be able to say pumpkins right here. Girl, take a look.
Kendall Kunelius 11:42
It's like a treasure map. Here's the x, but it's a big orange pumpkin X!
Kate Savage 11:47
Exactly. And I want to have that be known about. I want it to be - I want to see the satisfaction from those various people saying I found this great spot that does these sunflowers. I am going to go here every year, and I want the person who just spent weeks developing or growing; making their perfect batch of butter be able to be found. That's all I want.
Rebecca Dube 12:11
Right. Oh, that's wonderful. So how do farmers sign up for this?
Kate Savage 12:15
That's a great question, Rebecca. They can go into www.northcountryfarmtrail.com, and peruse the site. I have the various farms that are already on the farm trail link on there if they have social media. I direct to their own pages. If they have web, same thing. And there is a page on that for the packages for signing up. They just complete a very quick questionnaire form and click submit, and it sends information to myself and my web guru, and we get their page up there after you sign up. Once the sign up is completed, it gives you the initial package. There's three levels. Initial package is called the Dirt Road, and it is currently and for the foreseeable future, free package, no charge at all, and it just helps get your stuff out there. The second package is the Front Porch, and it is a second level that gives the opportunity of sharing specific items you have. They can be changed out throughout the seasons for as as long as the seasons as you're open. Because I know some farm stands cannot be open during cold weather, and I know that there are some locations that can be. So they may have evolving things throughout the different seasons. And then the third package is the All Your Eggs in One Basket, and that one offers an unlimited amount of products you can show and sell. There is more linkage for each of those second two, second and third packages, for directions and whatnot. So mapping is available. Another goal, as well as having the app at some point, is to be able to have a searchable map of the area where people can put in. And I'm trying to figure out the best method for breaking up the very extensive area, either to be Vermont border, Maine border, and then areas south of the mountains. I'm not sure how I'm going to make that happen yet, but I'm always open to suggestions and ideas too. And from the from the website, northcountryfarmtrail.com, you're linked to our Facebook page, our Instagram and our YouTube. When I did begin, this started in February (2025), so I'm going to be coming up on a year in February (2026). My web guru at the time had a radio station that was primarily out of the Berlin area. That radio station did get moved on from, and he helped produce what was called the North Country Farm Trail Trail Hop. And he would have it on his radio station frequency, which was good for the North Country, for the Berlin/Gorham area, and then it's was internet based. All of those trail hops that existed are on my YouTube page now, so they're archived there. So people can go back and revisit and whatnot, because many of the stops, the trail stops that were on those are still on the trail. So I wanted to keep that continuity, and I will be revisiting that. That's one of the first things that brought me to speak with the two of you ladies, was to figure out if I wanted to make a podcast component of this for the North Country Farm channel, or more of a vlog. And I'm angling toward more of a vlog idea, so I can do videos and visits and then get those up on my socials too.
Rebecca Dube 15:31
Oh, great. We look forward to seeing those!
Kate Savage 15:33
Yeah, I'm looking forward to figuring out how to wrap my head around that step too.
Kendall Kunelius 15:38
You know, I have to tell you, I think one of the things that I love the most about this podcast - I said this in our Thank You to Farmers episode too - was every episode we make is kind of exciting in the way that it's never been made before. You know, of all the ways that we could share information or create community, build those bonds, discover things like this, I think a podcast and even a vlog like you're saying is a little bit more magical, because it really shows you the reality.
Kate Savage 16:05
Exactly.
Kendall Kunelius 16:06
It's not like an edited video, although Rebecca is a magical person with the editing. She like scrubs out all the ums and ahs and all the side noises! But you know, I think what I love the most is that we get to see people for the genuine person that they are, and we hear that new information, and that's what I think keeps things exciting.
Kate Savage 16:25
Absolutely.
Kendall Kunelius 16:26
And I could see that applied to this farm trail too, where you're saying that continuity is important, but it sounds like you have a evolution plan for it to keep it growing and keep it going.
Kate Savage 16:36
I have an abundance of ideas. I have a notepad here at my desk, in my office, in our home that is constantly being added to and things constantly in the works. I want to see it continue to grow. I don't- I don't want to limit the opportunities. And I don't want to ever sit back and say, Yeah, I'm satisfied. There's no more I can do with this. I want to see- because in my mind, as with talking with my husband about this and other farmers that we are friends and family with, farming is ever, ever evolving. There is, there is literally nothing you can say. Yep, I'm predicting this is exactly how my day is going to go. Because if you do that, just throw it right out the window. Because, I mean quite literally, this is my project that I have embraced in a kind of invest in yourself, because when your girls go away to college, you're not going to have them to take care of anymore. That's where I'm at with this. I also do have a full time job, so I work from home, fortunately for my job. And I've gotten to experience our own livestock doing the things that make your days go okay, that wasn't planned. That's been a joyous time.
Kendall Kunelius 17:52
Whoops, yeah.
Kate Savage 17:53
I very much like the fact that this can be ever-evolving and growing, and I have, like I said, so many ideas for it. I just want to keep on fostering that and building the community and being able to see the various facets of what has interested others for it and their comparisons. Talking with, collaborating with the conservation districts, and talking with the UNH - Will - up here in Coos County with Will. Finding out that so many of the - within their own community farmers going, Hey, I've never thought of that. Or, Wow, that's a great idea! I love doing that, that works so well.
Rebecca Dube 18:32
Yeah, that community and sharing of ideas. I already like as a consumer the idea of showing some products that the farms have, it just brings you more interest. Oh, I want to go there because I want to see that! That interests me, so I'm going to go there. And so it helps them to pick which on that trail, which direction,as you're saying, that they might drive. It might be because they've seen a particular item.
Kate Savage 18:55
Exactly. And it does bring up the opportunity for each of the farmers to say, Hey, I haven't tried that idea. Or, Wow, we tried that. It's not working for us. But when somebody asks us where we can find it, they can refer to other farmers, too. Because one thing I have found is farmers are not, your consumer. Keep your consumer. We're not sharing our consumer. They are much more a so you are looking for this specific vegetable, or you'd like to have flowers, and we don't grow flowers, you should go check out this place.
Kendall Kunelius 19:25
One thing that I think is always interesting as an ag business person, as somebody who focuses on ag business. And of course, that encompasses things like marketing and financial sheets, all that. Boy, the one thing that's harder to get a farmer to focus on or think about, than even their financial sheets, is marketing. It is like this big taboo thing, and we've done, oh my gosh, episodes! We did one whole episode dedicated to it, and we've touched on it in many other episodes. But what I think is really great about your service is that not only are you a farmer yourself, so you you get it right, but obviously you have skills and a background in this, so you're the right person for the job. And I'm gonna say, boy, how great and how lucky it is for the farmers in the North Country to be able to have someone to lean on to pick up this piece of the farming puzzle. No matter how many workshops or podcast episodes or fact sheets we can make about marketing, I think at the end of the day, the realistic fact of the matter is that farmers are in this business because they love their animals, they love their crops, they want to feed their communities. And they can't, they can't be the best at everything. So it's like a trade off, right? Like when they know they've got support systems like using these community functions as a marketing tool, in my brain that totally makes sense for them to be able to say, I'd really rather spend my time and money putting in a new wash pack station so that I can make sure everything's clean and my product won't make people sick. You know, I think that's the real - they really care about that. And the marketing is like, it's great if it's there, but how great it is that you are there for these North Country farmers.
Kate Savage 21:07
Exactly. And that does go back to my one thing that was taught to me as a really young girl by one of my grandmothers: if you do your one thing, somebody else doesn't have to do that. One thing I know, full full throttle acceptance of myself when it comes to numbers and math, I know I will run the other way. I will put together what I have to put together and I will say "Here" to the person who can do the math, going, you have fun with this, I'm going to go do something that my brain can wrap around. And I see it every day in my own husband and with local farmers around us. The things that they are all fantastic at, and the things that they go, yeah, my brain won't do that today. So in being able to say, my brain will do that, I'd love to help you with this. I can do this. Just give me this piece of information and being able to see that relief in that appreciation for them, and the resulting, oh, I didn't even realize that they existed. I have had so many experiences in this short time since this started, where I'm talking to somebody and mention a place or mention a location for something, and they're like, I had no idea that was there. Why don't they market themselves? And I'm like, because they're busy doing the thing. You can spend all your time in the world learning how to do every single thing, or you can spend your time enjoying doing that one thing that you've learned and you really enjoy, and allow someone who enjoys the other thing to do it so that you don't have to pull your hair out.
Rebecca Dube 22:43
Right, expanding that idea of the completely self-reliant farmer. That's really not necessarily true in today's world, in that getting help from others just makes everything you do better and you enjoy more what you do.
Kate Savage 22:59
I'm not saying at all, by any means, that I don't want to see people expand their knowledge or learn how to do things. Because, I mean, honestly, if I'm speaking with an ag business, and they're saying, so I love that you're doing this, and I want to do this, how can I help out? What can I do to facilitate this? And they want to learn more, I'm like, here, have at it. If you make this happen, I will help that go ahead and get it out there. And they're like, I can't believe I made that happen! That video that I made is great! I'm like, you did a fantastic job. Let's get it out to the audience. And they're like, I did that. That's the thing to cheer - much like me saying you just grew absolutely gorgeous flowers. Mine browned and wilted and are on the ground right now. I'm going to buy your flowers because you grow those, and I was not able to.
Kendall Kunelius 23:50
So another thing that comes to mind, and what you were just saying about, you know, one person is really good at something. It makes me think about the phenomenon of community mobilization, right? So I've said this quote before, and I'll say it again. We vote with our dollars and we vote with our feet. Can you maybe tell us a little bit more, more specifically about the North Country? Because the theme of this episode is community engagement in a marketing channel through for farmers. Do you think that in the North Country there's a really deep understanding of this importance of supporting our local farmers in this way? Or maybe just comment on that. I don't know if I have a specific question in that, but what do you think about that?
Kate Savage 24:29
I think that there's the desire by many to support local and be locally based. I think with the population of rural northern New Hampshire - It is, this is where I'm going to get - I'm not going to get political, but I'm going to get Big Box versus shipping versus local. It is so much more convenient for people to point, click, ship or run to the local Big Box. And that is one of the so forces in a very gusty, 50 degree, 50 mile-an-hour wind, sort of format, that anybody supporting local is up against. Because you have to get to the demographics that will support and will echo the support we'll say. So I managed to find this place. Let's go do this. Hey, let me tell you my friend about this also. And because the communities of the North Country are very well defined and observed to be older, economically more challenged. It is part and parcel because of the fact that we are so remote from everything. 45 minute drive to get to Conway is achievable if you are in the southern portion of Coos County. If you are in central or northern Coos County, you're not going to go to North Conway, you're not going to go to St. Johnsbury, you're not going to go to these other locations. You are going to do what is easiest for your dollar, which is probably not going to be supporting the local because you don't know where the local is. But bringing that to people, that audience to say so I know you want these goods, they are localer to you than you think, is helpful. And it's almost like finding a way to reward the person for finding local, as opposed to the satisfaction of point-click-ship. And as I said, I am not anti-shipping. I am not anti-online, anti-Big Box. I am simply, if there's an alternative that you can do that is affordable and gets you what you want here, let's find it. Let's get that community louder and bring it more notice, more visibility. And that's a big, huge reason for trying to connect with those goods and services providers, for those agri businesses, and ultimately, for those consumers. Because finding out that there's a hardware store that has the item you need that you don't need to click and ship it or run to the Big Box store, that's a huge win for keeping your dollar local and helping those small businesses, which are very likely some other component of agribusiness in some way.
Rebecca Dube 27:08
Right. And having those videos and vlogs about those places also gives a person who's looking online initially a little bit of that experience of being there, and then they might want to go to have that experience and see that for themselves, and also know what to expect when they get there, because they've now seen the video of it. So it helps bring that to them, and give them that goal to do more than look at the screen and click and ship and have to wait, because you also get it immediately. When you're physically there, here's the product, you hold it, it's yours,
Kate Savage 27:41
Exactly, and it's very beneficial in those ways. And I don't ever want to tell somebody that the way that they're using their dollar and their foot traffic is wrong. I simply want to say to them, you've got this method that you know of. If you're interested in another method, here it is. And this helps spread the word. I mean, I've heard it phrased up here, and I'm sure it's very similar in other rural areas of other states. Social media is very useful, and it's helpful for getting the word out in an affordable manner. And I want the dollar that needs to be spread as much locally as it can to be an affordable dollar. I don't want it to be a hardship, or trying to figure out what not to buy so you can buy what is local, I guess what I'm trying to say.
Kendall Kunelius 28:31
Yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And I have to tell you, I really so enjoy chatting with you about this topic. And, you know, reminiscing about my time in the North Country, like all my growing up years. Now that I'm an adult and I have my own job and my own money, it feels different to think about the community I grew up in in that time, and what it is now, and how I could be making those same positive impacts by making different choices. And I don't know, just feeling very sentimental about all those days driving those back roads and thinking about all those farms and hoping that many of them are still there now. So I just really appreciate you bringing your good energy from the North Country onto the podcast. It's just been great chatting with you.
Kate Savage 28:31
Thank you. Thank you.
Rebecca Dube 28:34
So if you want to explore more of the North Country, go ahead and check out www.northcountryfarm trail.com (we'll put the link to it in the show notes), and see what some of the farms have to offer. Thank you so much Kate for joining with us today, and we'll be talking with all of you soon on the next episode of Shared Soil.
Kendall Kunelius 29:39
Shared Soil is a production of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, an equal opportunity educator and employer. Views expressed on this podcast are not necessarily those of the university, its trustees, or its volunteers. Inclusion or exclusion of commercial products in this podcast does not imply endorsement. The University of New Hampshire, US Department of Agriculture and New Hampshire counties cooperate to provide extension programming in the Granite State. Learn more at extension.unh.edu.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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