Small Farm Central

On the SPIN farming email group there was an interesting exchange between farmers about how to deal with problematic (well-meaning or not) visitors. This is likely more of a problem in urban areas where density of population and interest in small-scale farming bring out all kinds of people. Even if you are not an urban farm, situations may occur like this where a single customer occupies busy selling times at a farmers market.

Paige in Austin, Texas has a really good approach of creating a "Standard Operating Procedure" that helps separate the farmer from the specific situation:

My method is to note when we encounter a new "problematic situation" and then devise a "standard operating procedure." This allows me to separate myself personally from the difficult message I'm delivering to the person, and allows me to be really nice to them rather than act annoyed or in a hurry.

It depends on how much of a "business" your operation is. We're not only working to farm and make money for our household, but we're devising methods to help train farmers who want to run an extension of our yard based neighborhood farms, so we have to create procedures and best practices to teach others. This includes dealing with interruptions and other things that create problems.

Those will be different for everyone depending on the operation you've set up. But generally speaking:

1. identify your problem,
2. think about how you'd prefer the situation go,
3. consider any legal ramifications if applicable, and
4. create a standard procedure for how you will handle the situation.

Then you can "blame the procedure" rather than anyone taking it personally.

Example:
"I'd really love to chat with you right now, and I'm so glad you've stopped by, but we can only give tours on Saturday mornings so the farmers can focus on the harvest during the week. Please do come back, and feel free to visit the website to fill out our contact form if you'd like to get weekly news about special events."