Modern Farmer
Five Marys was featured in a Modern Farmer article titled, 'The Rise of Virtual Farmers Markets,' written by Leah Borts-Kuperman. This piece explores why farmers are increasingly banding together to take their products online; targeting consumers directly without the fuss of a physical market.
Selling directly to consumers works for bigger operations as well. Close to the Oregon border in California, Mary Heffernan operates Five Marys Farms with her husband. They left the bustle of the Bay Area to raise the kind of cattle that they as restauranteurs wanted to see on the market. “Nine years ago, no one was really shipping meat,” says Heffernan. But online shopping was important to her, so the pair dug in and started experimenting with the best ways to reach their customers. “We were dead set on there has to be a way to do this so that we never have to leave the ranch… We spent about a year [trying] different packaging - different boxes, different liners, using dry ice versus gel packs… After a year, we got the secret sauce figured out - the best box, the best liner, the best way to make it affordable to ship overnight to customers.”
They had a website for customers to order by the cut. “If they wanted a bunch of filet mignon for a dinner party, we could accommodate that and have it show up on their doorstep the next day,” says Heffernan. That preparation years ago served them well during the pandemic.
“During the pandemic, there was never a time where people were more concerned about the security of knowing where their food was coming from and that it was going to show up. Never before had grocery store shelves been empty,” says Heffernan. “We would sell out almost instantly. People were calling crying like it was concert tickets: ‘There was a skirt steak in my cart and now it’s gone!’”
Critics argue that online farmers markets eliminate the face-to-face connections for farmers and their potential customers, losing opportunities to connect directly with consumers. Heffernan turned to Instagram for help breaking those barriers and to avoid spending her weekends stuck in traffic on the way to and from markets and deliveries.
“I shared our daily life - the good, the bad, and the hardships of ranching… the beautiful new babies being born,” says Heffernan. “That’s really how we build our customer base… by being transparent on social media and letting people connect with us and feel like they’re part of our story. When they’re eating our meat, they know who was raising it.”
Heffernan coaches family farms in a course for small agriculture entrepreneurs, helping them set up a website and start selling directly to customers.
“There’s so many farms and ranches that have been doing things one way for generations,” says Heffernan. “It’s so neat to see the people who have taken this course the change that they’re making in their operations; convincing their dad, ‘our kids aren’t going to be around to run this ranch if we don’t make a change, and direct-to-consumer is the way to go.”