KSCGA Grower/Market Directory
Throughout our organization’s history, our grower members have cited “networking” as the primary reason they’ve become involved with KSCGA. While there are online platforms connecting customers with growers and markets to purchase local foods for their home, there has been a strong need to simply connect growers with other growers, growers with markets for their products, and connect markets and distribution points with growers to obtain supplies of the much-in-demand locally grown vegetables, fruits, herbs, and other products.
Given the support of the USDA.KDA Specialty Block Grant program, funding from Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops, along with the membership dues contribution of over 150 growers and markets across the state, KSCGA has been under contract with WaterGrass, a nonprofit data management organization, in organizing our database and building a networking directory up to the tasks ahead.
KSCGA Grower/Market Directory is a grower-driven platform to support Kansas specialty crop growers and markets. No direct vendor marketing or soliciting permitted. Please report suspicious and/or direct marketing to KSCGA.
Please go over some helpful tips for using the Directory below, and then click to access Directory:
Make sure you are listed in the Directory and linked in searches—with current information on your operations:
Using the Directory
Given the extent of the KSCGA database and the search capacity needs of growers and markets, developing an effective directory platform has been a timely undertaking. The initial roll-out version is a work-in-progress. KSCGA is currently working with WaterGrass in data organization and search capacities and structures, including pick-list formats, some noted below, along with web design and visibility.
To Search the Directory:
The current roll-out format allows you to search by:
Crops grown/produced
location (by County)
Selling: sales/distributions venues utilized (store, restaurant, and wholesale, on-site market, farmers market, more
Market: marketing, outreach platforms utilized (social media, email, word of mouth, other)
These four reflect the primary original data areas KSCGA created and gathered as requested in early grant-funded projects. We are currently working in formatting existing fields and integrating additional data/search fields.
Searching by Crops:
Information on Crops grown has been gathered from our growers through a text-entry format. Given the sheer number of crops that are being grown, creating an inclusive pick-list of crops/products available is impractical. So—in searching for a crop/product, type in what you are looking for in the search field—one item per search. It will link beginning with the first three letters entered. For example, if you are looking for who’s growing apples, type in a-p-p-l-e-s, and up pops the growers who are growing that item. The search is engine is spelling-sensitive—but if you are having trouble with that, know that the search engine will do a search with a minimum of three (3) letters. So, for example, type in z-u-c, and you’ll see those growing zucchini.
Searching by Location:
As our entry form and database was originally structured, location is designated—and now searched—by County. We are currently working with our developer in creating a distance-based search format: under 20 miles…50…100…any/NA, and a regional search corresponding to KDA, Extension, and other admin and educ organizations with a regional presence.
For now, you can search by individual county—one county at a time (search engine does not handle multiple entries searches).
Searching by Sales Venue (Selling):
Up front—we are currently working with our data management/development organization in setting up a simplified opening search field to guide your search—something along the lines of: I am (pick one) a) looking for a crop or product b) market for my crop or product c) other, NA.
As it is structured now, we’ve set up the search function that allows for flexibility and tolerance. For example, if you are looking for a grower with an on-site market for sales, you can type in m-a-r—k-e-t, and up comes everything related to farmers markets and on-site markets. You can fine tune that by being specific in your search. To help in your search by text entry, the following are included in the pick-list for entering and updating everyone’s profile in the directory data. Using text from the items listed below in your search will take you to what you’re looking for.
A Note for Markets and other Distribution Points:
For those of you involved in selling or utilizing produce and products, but not growing (stores, markets, schools, restaurants, etc.) we, again, are working on a more direct opening question to help searches link to markets, etc. For now, make sure you to submit a Grower/Market Profile Update Form and:
Indicate that you are a market, store, restaurant, etc. in the pick-list question related to sales/selling,
Make sure to enter something in the “How do you sell your products/produce?” The Directory is defaulted to take only those accounts in our database with the “Crops” field populated—so, again, enter something: vegetables, fruit, any local produce, etc.
Multiple Fields Searches:
Yes—you can search by multiple fields. For example: searching for a wholesale distribution site for apples in Johnson County, just type in each of those in the respective search fields.
Not showing up on the Directory?
If you’re not showing up in Directory searches—or your operation’s production, sales, etc. info is not accurate—Make sure you have a Profile Update in. Data included in this directory has been compiled through various organizational forms. We now will be utilizing the Grower/Market Profile Update Form to allow you to directly update your directory profile information.