Emily Tzeng of Local Color Farm and Fiber: Direct-to-Consumer Marketing Strategies and Farmers Market Operations During COVID Farm Walks

In this episode of the Farm Walks Podcast, we dive into direct-to-consumer marketing with Emily Tzeng of Local Color Farm and Fiber in Puyallup, WA. We talk about developing marketing channels, building a brand, and the ways she adapted her CSA and farmers market approach during COVID. We then chat with Matt Kelly, Executive Director of the Queen Anne Farmers Market about farmers market operations during COVID and what’s in store for the 2021 season.

Local Color Farm and Fiber is owned and operated by Emily Tzeng and Brian Love. They live and farm in the Puyallup River Valley, growing vegetables, heritage breed lamb, and natural dyes. They focus on growing heritage Asian veggies and raise sheep for both wool and meat. Most of their produce is marketed towards their CSA program and at the Queen Anne Farmers Market in Seattle. Their naturally dyed yarn line utilizes their own farm yarn as well as fiber from other Western farms and ranches and is all processed at small mills in the US. They believe in the synergy between plants and animals; they provide fertility for their produce and flowers using compost generated by their animals, extensive cover cropping, and organic fertilizer. Their sheep are rotated throughout their pastures and cover crops for the health of the land and the animals. Their flower field and natural dye plants provide lots of food and habitat for beneficial insects. They are proud to be a small farm, allowing them to touch each step of the process.

This episode was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service’s Farmers Market Promotion Program.