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July 9, 2007

From farm to table | Martha Putnam's Farm Fresh Connection aims to bring local produce to local buyers

By Beth Kowitt

When Martha Putnam started working for Farm Fresh Connection six years ago, it was a struggle to get farmers to put aside produce for her to sell to area businesses. She was so eager to develop a base of growers for the nonprofit organization she once even accepted a produce delivery in a laundry basket and repacked it herself.

"That was the hardest part," Putnam says. "It's taken quite a few years to get people to grow [produce] for me."

But a good deal has changed for Putnam and Farm Fresh Connection since then. Putnam, who runs the operation from the Freeport farm she shares with her husband, John Schwenk, works with roughly 100 farmers who grow produce, from broccoli to Rosa Bianca eggplant, that FFC then distributes to local restaurants, schools and retailers.

Her buyers, the number of which fluctuates seasonally but peaks at around 60 in the fall, include Portland restaurants such as Fore Street, Duckfat and Hugo's. Bates and Bowdoin colleges also are customers, as well as other farmers who want to have a broader inventory at their farm stands.

Besides the increase in buyers and suppliers, another step in FFC's evolution came at the end of May, when Putnam paid one dollar to purchase the nonprofit from the Maine Sustainable Agricultural Society, which was going to disband FFC.

Putnam decided to remake FFC from a nonprofit to a for-profit company because, she says, it was "doing business with people who have real businesses." Putnam felt that FFC should have the same structure and motivations as its clients instead of that of a program subsidized solely with grant funding. She expects the company to turn a profit this year, though she declined to disclose specifics.

The 33-year-old Putnam got involved with MESAS when the organization was looking for a way to keep mid-size growers in the local market. The solution was FFC, which Putnam — who in 2001 was hired to write the business plan and run the organization as its operations director — says has the ultimate goal of moving "products off the farm as much as possible for a good price." She also works with farmers in the winter when they're ordering seeds to ensure they're able to meet the needs of local buyers. "That's the whole goal — to keep it local," says Putnam.

Through FFC, food makes it from the farm to the dinner plate in as little as 12 hours. "If it comes from California or Mexico, it takes about five days to get to the Boston market," she says.

Last year, Market Fresh Produce, a Scarborough distributor of fresh produce, struck up a business relationship with FFC, selling the goods Putnam gathered from her stable of farmers. This year, Putnam expects to handle roughly 15 tons of produce. "Before that I had been doing all the logistics myself," Putnam says. "Now most of it will go through Market Fresh."

Farmers drop off produce for FFC at designated locations and the produce is then picked up by a refrigerated truck that brings the goods to Market Fresh's warehouse in Scarborough. From there, Putnam's produce goes directly into Market Fresh's inventory.
"That's the beauty of doing local business — you're all networked together," Putnam says. "That's what makes it stronger, too."

Though Putnam says FFC has established a significant role for itself in the marketplace, she still sees room for growth. "I'd like to create enough of a network that we do a bigger volume," she says. "What that does is get more product off the farms and gives people more access to food."

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