By Clint Thompson
Alabama farmer Taylor Hatchett’s diverse approach in what she grows and how she markets her crop is a reason why Boozer Farms remains a successful farming operation in Chilton County.
Some may connect Hatchett and Boozer Farms with the place to get strawberries; or blueberries; or vegetables. No matter what consumers come to purchase at Boozer Farms, they know it features a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables.
“We grow a small quantity of a large variety of things; strawberries, blueberries, all of your spring, summer and fall vegetables, tomatoes. We’re already harvesting squash and zucchini. We’ll have cucumbers ready here shortly,” Hatchett said. “We’ve got radishes and turnips that are ready; of course, kale, collards, broccoli and cauliflower and cabbage and other spring crops. Then we go into tomatoes, okra and peas, corn, beans, peppers, eggplant. We have a wide diversity of things.”
Diversity Equals Sustainability
Diversity equals sustainability for Hatchett.
“Being a smaller sized farm, you really have to be diversified to be sustainable. On our marketing outlook, we try to target as much of our product to move retail as we can,” Hatchett said. “With that in mind, we really need a diversity of products to offer. That has worked really well for our sized farm.”
Diversification doesn’t stop with what Boozer Farms decides to produce every year. It carries over to the marketing side of things as well. Hatchett is never going to sell her crop through just one marketing channel. It’s a risk that could threaten sustainability for a family farm in the middle of the state.
“We don’t want to have all of our eggs in one basket, and we really want to make sure that we’re targeting multiple outlets, and if any one outlet has an issue, we weren’t solely dependent upon it,” Hatchett said. “We primarily try to target retail sales because we are smaller, but when you grow to have enough, you’re always going to have some extra you would hope; that’s when we have our small wholesale account.
“Also, we love to work with independent grocers who like to highlight local products. We love working with local restaurants. We also do a good bit with the farm to school program which we thoroughly enjoy and really value being able to keep Alabama products in Alabama schools.”