Michigan Flower Growers’ Cooperative helps small businesses bloom
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PostedSeptember 29, 2019
YPSILANTI, MI — Carole Caplan is in her third season of growing flowers at The Farm on Jennings . Around the time she was starting up in 2017, so was the Michigan Flower Growers’ Cooperative , which she said was essential to getting her business off the ground. “The beauty of the co-op is it allows me to grow what I want to grow and bring what actually grows,” Caplan said. “It’s a ready-and-available market for product.” The cooperative consists of 18 small businesses from Michigan and northern Ohio, all but one owned by women. The cooperative holds a flower market on Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon at Growing Hope’s Ypsilanti Farmers Market space, 16 S Washington St., where members sell to both wholesale and retail shoppers. The market is scheduled to close for the season Oct. 23 and will reopen in April. On their own, the cooperative’s members would struggle to find wholesale buyers, and would have to travel long distances to deliver their products instead of farming, said Trilby Becker, a member and co-founder. “By creating this marketplace, we’ve created one spot where we’re able to aggregate all this high-quality product, so designers can come to us,” Becker said. “It’s been a great advance for us, the interest on the part of growers is tremendous.” Through the weekly markets, the co-op is able to host multiple buyers in one location, which helps them serve the customers more effectively, said Adrianne Gammie, the market’s manager and a fellow grower . The co-op is a cooperative effort in more than just its name — they help make each other better, rather than competing, Caplan said. The group has helped Caplan meet other growers and learn from them, as well as take advantage of educational opportunities — helping her grow in a way she couldn’t otherwise without working for a flower farmer, she said. “We’re stronger together as a collective, and can have a stronger offering, and that in turn is good for each of us individually,” Gammie said. “I really enjoy being able to facilitate that for all […]
