Money left from the federal grant will be used to build new or larger displays for stores including Pardners Mini Market in Winthrop, the Winthrop Store (formerly Winthrop Motors), Aspen Grove in Winthrop and Hank’s Harvest Foods in Twisp. Methow Made has also built up an impressive social media presence, Stork said, with more than 1,000 Facebook followers. What has not worked as well, Stork said, was a planned foray into retail outlets in the Seattle area. “We reached out to them and the response was positive — with a twist,” she said. The twist is that larger retailers, especially grocery stores, want to work through a central supplier or wholesale distributor, as opposed to a bunch of smaller vendors. Methow Made wasn’t designed to act as a middleman in the distribution system, Stork said. Individual producers are expected to do their own distribution, with marketing assistance from Methow Made. “It revealed the limits of the
program,” Stork said. “Methow Made wasn’t designed to ‘touch’ any products.” The west side market might be more approachable if Methow Valley businesses formed some kind of distribution cooperative, Stork said. But that might be difficult given the variety of products (some perishable, others not) and that most local producers are so small they don’t have the resources to take part in a larger organization. Lots of interest The most important validation that has come from the first year of Methow Made, Stork said, is “that local is hot … the interest is there.” Stork said that, in retrospect, it might have been more effective to have a full year of planning before launching Methow Made, as opposed to the six months that was available under terms of the federal grant. “This community is so rich in ideas and input,” she said. Because of the nature of the federal
grant, the marketing campaign’s initial focus was on local agricultural products. This year, Methow Made has expanded its efforts beyond agriculture to include the arts and crafts community, and the response has been impressive. Methow Made now has more than 40 registered participants (who must meet guidelines to qualify as locally produced), about double the number
of last year’s participants. Most of the increase was from the arts and crafts community, Stork said. Next year, Stork said, the federal money will be all gone and Methow Made will need to find other funding sources. Some support from the program will come from participants. Membership in Methow Made was free in 2013; this year members paid a basic fee of $75.
Getting the word out Methow Made is making a difference for many local products By Joanna Bastian
With nearly a year of experience in the Methow Made program, local producers have had a chance to see how it might work for them. We
asked some Methow Made participants to reflect on the marketing effort’s impact. Molly Maxted — Molly’s Soaps For me, Methow Made is a wonderful opportunity to share advertising costs. Also, I’m not a person who uses social media, so I’m able to tag on to the program’s efforts with this. They do a wonderful job with their photography and blog postings.
Fine Handcrafted Silver Jewelry by Jenni Tissell
Naturally Grown Fruit & Produce Stop by our fruit stand in Okanogan, open 7 days a week from 7:30 am - 6 pm Serving breakfast & lunch daily on the deck and Smokehouse BBQ dinners Fri. & Sat. nights 5-9 pm
(509) 422-2444
23090 Hwy. 20, Okanogan www.smallwoodfarms.net
Fruit & produce available at the Methow Valley Farmer’s Market every Saturday and at our Winthrop fruit stand On the right 1.8 mi. before downtown Okanogan
Naturally grown • Eco friendly • Sustainable
997-7664
trickpony2013@gmail.com Open Mon, Thurs & Fri 11-5, Sat 10:30-5 • Closed Tues & Wed Located next to NCNB, across from Twisp Chevron, Hwy 20, Twisp
SUNNY PINE FARM Organic Goat Dairy featuring chevre, feta & yogurt Handcrafted in Twisp, WA (509) 997-4812
www.sunnypinefarm.com Made in the Methow
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