November 2025 Farm Marketing News
Did the holidays come out of nowhere, or what? It certainly feels that way around the Grapevine universe. If this season and all its obligations have crept up on you too, check out our Holiday Marketing Housekeeping checklist below, and reach out to us if you need a hand with anything.
This month’s newsletter is chock-full of useful information, including four funding opportunities, a wholesale webinar, and a Shopify update you’ll want to read about if you’re planning on offering exclusive sales directly to your farm customers this season.
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Grant Opportunities
Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant
The request for applications for the 2026 Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program is now open. The grant is intended to support new and existing projects that aim to increase the availability of local foods in Child Nutrition Program operations and educate students about food production through education, taste tests, school gardens, and field trips. It will fund projects ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 for a total of up to $18 million, but there are some significant changes this year in terms of eligibility and scope, so applicants are encouraged to read the RFA thoroughly.
UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program Grants
The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) funds projects that build the capacity of farming and food systems businesses/orgs so they can respond to ecological, economic, and social change. One of the funding areas includes supporting marketing and distribution activities, for which Grapevine is happy to provide a letter of support if you’d like to work with us on a project funded by this grant. The funding is open to businesses/orgs, local governments, and higher education institutions operating in California. Learn more and check out the other funding areas at Candid’s Philanthropy News Digest.
Financial Resources for Beginning Farmers:
FFI’s Unlocking Capital for Beginning Farmers Program
The Food Finance Institute’s Unlocking Capital for Beginning Farmers Program helps farmers who have been in business for less than 10 years access capital and expand their businesses by providing access to experts who will help them optimize their business models and financial strategies. Learn more about this opportunity from the Food Finance Institute.
2nd Annual Good Farmer Award U.S.
The Annual Good Farmer Award U.S. provides a financial award to two recipients for the purpose of investing in equipment and initiatives that further their implementation of environmentally responsible farming practices. This award is available to farmers who have been in business for less than 10 years and who are actively interested or currently implementing “environmentally responsible practices that boost regenerative organic agriculture, biodiversity, promote long-term resilience, garner community engagement, and advance sustainable and equitable systems.” Learn more and apply through the Rodale Institute.
One of the categories for using the award money is Community Engagement, which is eligible to fund projects like farmers markets, CSAs, and grocery store partnerships. If you have a project that fits into this category and would like assistance with your project proposal, please reach out!
Webinar: Bringing Your Wholesale Business Online
Join our friends at Local Food Marketplace to learn how to simplify and streamline your wholesale business by moving operations online. You’ll walk away with clear next steps and some practical advice from James Klett, Co-Owner of Fairgrown Farm. Learn more and register at Local Food Marketplace.
Holiday Marketing Housekeeping
The holiday season is here, and if you’re anything like us, it’s snuck up on you! If you’re feeling behind, check out these essential tips that will help keep your holiday marketing on track.
Set clear order cutoff dates: Post your holiday order deadlines prominently (for example, “place your order by December 15 to receive it by December 24”.) You can post these on your website banner and shipping information page so people clearly see the message.
Double check shipping and pickup schedules: Block out any days or weeks you won’t be fulfilling orders over the holidays — and if you ship, check your shipper’s schedule! Remember to communicate holiday closure information on your website, in emails, and on social media.
Prominently display gift cards: If you offer gift cards, add them to your featured products pages, emails, and social media posts as well. This will allow last-minute shoppers who missed the shipping cutoff dates or those who are unsure of what to purchase to support your farm.
Plan a social media countdown: Create urgency with a countdown to your shipping cutoff dates. You can also create holiday-specific content to remind customers to order soon.
Send reminder emails: Make sure your subscribers know about key dates, gift baskets, and holiday promotions.
Farm Marketing Updates
Shopify
Unlisted product status now available. You can now offer products that are only available through a direct link, and not visible on your farm’s storefront. This new feature is especially useful when offering private sales, pre-sale items, exclusive offers, discounted add-on items, or anything you don’t want discovered outside of its specific intended purpose.
Sell subscriptions in person through POS. Using the Shopify subscriptions app, users now have the ability to sell subscriptions in person through the Shopify POS, making the same subscriptions available in person that are available online.
Klaviyo
Attach product links directly to messages. Now, you can attach links and images directly to your text messages.
Prompt customers to save your contact info with Contact Card download links. Improve brand recognition and customer engagement by sending your contact information directly to your customers’ phones in an easily saveable format. Learn how from Klaviyo.
Square
Square has consolidated their offerings into 3 simplified plans. With this update, many features that were separate are now included within these three plans, so sellers get a streamlined, predictable bill. Check out our farm website platform comparison to see how these plans line up against Grazecart and Shopify.
Barn2Door
Barn2Door has announced added flexibility for subscription orders. You can change the quantity (for a single upcoming fulfillment or for all future orders) as well as the price for all future subscription orders from a given date. The system will automatically email your affected customers to maintain transparency and trust, and it maintains a clear audit trail in the backend. Learn more on Barn2Door.
GrazeCart
Help your GrazeCart site run faster with this IP Update. Point your domain to GrazeCart's new IP address to increase your site's speed and efficiency. From their newsletter announcing the change:
To make the switch: Update your domain’s A record to 34.36.71.64
Once the update is made, the current SSL Certificate issued for your domain will continue working with no downtime!
Changing DNS records can be tricky, so reach out to your Grapevine contact or GrazeCart support if you'd like help!
Drip
Embedded Forms are now in their own designated section on the Drip dashboard (separate from Onsite forms). With Embedded Forms, you can collect subscriber information in a simple, static form with spam protection. It’s important to note, however, that these need to be placed manually into your website’s code.
Project Highlight: Google Profile Listing for Verduras Orgánicas Mexicanas
We configured a Google listing for Verduras Orgánicas Mexicanas, a Washington produce farm. We worked with the business owners in Spanish to optimize their profile so it can reach as many eyes as possible.
In our experience, a strong Google profile is one of the highest-ROI marketing tactics for farms selling locally. We’ve found that making weekly Google posts, especially when combined with basic website SEO, leads to a noticeable increase in customers who buy for the first time after finding the business on Google.
In the Garden with Grapevine
Meet Jacy!
Jacy joined Grapevine in August of 2023 as a Senior E-Commerce Consultant. She specializes in building scalable, sustainable e-commerce solutions for farms and food businesses – including Shopify and GrazeCart websites, robust email and SMS marketing setups, and e-commerce and marketing strategies. She’s also an avid gardener!
Where are you located?
I’m located on the east side of Iowa, in the Quad Cities area. I grew up on a homestead near Cedar Rapids, and am constantly trying to bring more homestead magic to my little corner of suburbia.
What planting zone are you in?
5b – but my perennial herbs did successfully overwinter this year!
What’s the state of your garden this month?
We had our first frost at the end of October, so it’s half totally dead (looking at you, tomatoes), and half very alive! I am eagerly looking forward to pulling out the salsify, parsnips, and frost-sweetened carrots and making them into soup, and am working hard on harvesting and dehydrating the rest of the herbs to use over the winter.
Is there something you can’t resist snacking on in the garden?
The golden raspberries. They are my favorite fruit on the planet, and almost never even make it to the bowl!
Did you have any pleasant surprises in your garden last season?
We started an experiment with Hugelkultur in our strawberry bed last year by burying decaying logs underneath. The plants have positively exploded with growth. We got a few weeks of delicious strawberries this season – but also have spent the entire summer fighting an exhausting battle with an insane amount of runners. Like a hydra, if you pinch off 1 runner, 3 more start growing. They are unstoppable.
Is there a garden critter you especially love?
All the pollinators that stopped by our garden this year. At the expense of my sanity next year, I’ve let absolutely everything flower and go to seed because I just love seeing them fluttering and buzzing around the flowers – I couldn’t bear to be the one to put a stop to it.
What was your favorite thing to grow this year?
It was our first year getting any berries, so definitely that! Being able to go out to the garden and pick fresh berries to eat for lunch most of the summer gave me a whole new type of appreciation for working remotely.
Did you have any big wins in the garden this year?
Year 2 of my cherry tomato arch trellis experiment went incredibly well! The arch is made of 2 cattle panels and T-posts, and makes it so much easier to grow and harvest the beast that is indeterminate cherry tomato plants with limited garden space.
When a storm with strong gusts of wind flattened my larger tomato plants, the cherry tomatoes had barely any damage. With less of a drought this year, they filled out the entire arch and produced pounds upon pounds of cherry tomatoes. I’ve been harvesting, halving, and drying the cherry tomatoes to keep in the freezer – they’re great when rehydrated to use in pastas, salads, and anything else you’d use sun-dried tomatoes in!
Any big improvements planned for the garden next year?
More garden beds! We’re hoping to plant potatoes and sweet corn next year.
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