September 2026 Farm Marketing News
Happy fall! This issue includes a resource for CSA farms, two programs for farms to strengthen their business, a meat labeling guide, and a round-up of platform updates.
— Sarah
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Just for CSA Farms
Is it time to re-evaluate your CSA sales platform? Check out our side-by-side comparison of Barn2Door, CSAware, Farmhand, Farmigo, GrownBy, Local Food Marketplace, Local Line, Shopify, and Square — all with a CSA focus.
We’re also working on updating our storefront comparison tool for other farms. Watch this space for updates!
Applications Open for…
1-week Executive Boot Camp for Farmers
The no-cost Farmpreuners Strategic Sprint is an executive boot camp where farmers develop strategic plans, leadership skills, and collaborative networks to become changemakers in sustainable food systems. Farmers leave with a “strategic playbook”, in digital form, that outlines their farm’s mission, vision, and values that will guide their impact upon returning home. Applications are now open.
4-month Food Business Accelerator
The no-cost FFI Food Fellows program takes food-focused entrepreneurs through FFI’s foundational food business finance course along with expert coaching and peer-to-peer support. Fellows dig into all key areas of their business, including sales, operations, accounting, finance, food safety, marketing, and branding. Applications are open now.
Labeling Meat: Guidance for Direct Farm Marketers
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture just released a new resource for meat labeling standards intended to help value-added meat producers understand labeling regulations and navigate label approval processes. It explains federal requirements along with Tennessee-specific guidance.
Planning winter marketing projects?
We have a short waitlist for e-commerce websites, marketing strategy, SEO, email/SMS, and advertising. Get in touch now if you’d like us to hold a spot for you in November.
There’s no wait right now for graphic design, social media projects, or help with your Google Business Profile. That last one is often overlooked, but if you’re selling locally it can give you a big boost. Just reply here or contact your Grapevine contact to get started.
Platform Updates
This email contains referral links, which are marked with an asterisk. When you click on a referral link and make a purchase, Grapevine receives a small commission at no cost to you.
Local Food Marketplace: Custom Storefronts
LFM has long been the tool of choice for those who want to serve retail, wholesale, CSA, and institutional buyers side by side from one platform. Now in addition to controlling price levels, distribution days, and product lists based on audience, you can also build a separate storefront for each group of customers you serve, each with its own content, messaging, and checkout experience. Read more.
GrazeCart: Restock Notifications
GrazeCart recently announced the addition of back-in-stock notifications. Enable the setting to let farm customers sign up for automatic email notifications when a previously out of stock product has been restocked.
Klaviyo: Personalized SMS & Social Embeds
Personalized SMS content is now in beta for farms using Klaviyo*! This can be used to tailor SMS marketing messages to a customer’s activity, useful in flows like Abandoned Carts, Back in Stock, or Win Backs. An example would be sending an automated message to a customer who hasn't ordered for a while, featuring something they've ordered more than once in the past.
Farms can also now embed social content like Instagram posts directly into emails, SMS messages, and sign up forms.
Square: Accept EBT in person
Farms can now accept SNAP EBT payments in person if you use Square Register, Terminal, or Handheld in Retail mode. This feature is currently in open beta, for US sellers with an active FNS number from the USDA. Read more here.
You can also now schedule bulk price updates, including location-specific overrides, to go live at a specific time, so you can prepare ahead of time for big sales or promotions. (Available on Square Plus* and above plans.)
In case you missed it
Our summer issue covered custom cut sheets for bulk meat, an explanation of why your email open rates may have dropped, a couple important shifts in how customers find and buy from farms online, new wholesale options for farms selling on Shopify, new basic pre-order functionality in Square, a guide to profit & loss statements for farms, and AI’s impact on how customers find you (like it or not).
What we’ve been up to
We worked with Over the Moon Farm in Iowa to refresh their GrazeCart website’s look to match their fun colorful vision, as well as organize content and the shopping experience.
“You hit the nail on the head! Super happy, I love the whole website. I am absolutely blown away. I can't stop looking at it. It's so beautiful and I am so excited for our call on Monday!“
“I wasn’t sure what to expect but the new website meets what we were trying to do and is so much better than what we could have done on our own. I love the shop organization – it’s so clear. We LOVE everything you did and are SO appreciative that you took the website design vision and executed it beautifully. We are so happy! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!”
— Anna Pesek, Over the Moon Farm
We build farm e-commerce websites in Shopify, Square, and GrazeCart, and we also build websites for farms who use specialized e-commerce tools like GrownBy, Local Food Marketplace, Barn2Door, etc. Not sure which e-commerce platform is right for you? We can help!
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