Podcast: Ed Linck talks Conway Farmers Market 2022

00:00.00
tejones
Hey, everyone welcome to the weekly podcast at the Conway Scene I’m your host Todd Jones and today I have an interview with Ed Link and ed kind of wears more than one hat. But today we were talking about his involvement with the Conway Farmer’s Market. Did I say it correctly? Yeah Conway Farmer’s market and this is the one that takes place at the Antioch Church so and I and I know that a lot of people go through the parking lot for that cause they set it up in the parking lot I go every year

00:19.98
Ed Linck
Yeah, yeah, just Conway Farmers Market. Absolutely.

00:37.70
tejones
And least once sometimes more than once because there’s some vendors I like to get like Maria like to get her salsa. She said she’s there about every week so or in the past she has been anyway. So that is the the open house is coming up in just a few weeks actually on the 20 third of April so we’re just a few days out from that and I decided to get Ed to come on and talk about that and what’s going on with the Conway Farmers Market this year. So Ed you might tell us a little bit about yourself.

01:10.82
Ed Linck
Yeah, for sure. Thanks and thanks for having me on the show. It’s you know I’ve kind of been watching you from afar and so it’s really cool to be involved and ah be on air, man I don’t think I’ve been on a podcast before its that’s kind of cool but all going on with me so you know we started the beef business. Ah, Barums Ozark Beef back in 2019 last year we decided to look for a farmer’s market and everybody kept saying how good this one was and so we decided to sign up and and spent the summer out the farmer’s market had a really good year. You know it turned out that. Farmers market ended up being a pretty so sizable part of our business has now become a permanent part of our business model and while out there you know had a chance to get to know a lot of people meet a lot of the other farmers crafters and just. Mean our whole family would go out her daughter would be out there running around with all the other kids. You know my wife just loved being up there talking to folks and shopping. Um, you know the fridge would be full by the time we got home every Saturday so ah, you know I never expected like I’d never been to a farmer’s market before. I was a rookie on the first day that showed up with a trailer full of beef and so I’m almost embarrassed to say that but I just want other people to not make that same mistake and make sure that they get the farmers market experience in their lives and and on a regular basis.

02:38.42
tejones
So now in regards to going out there. You kind of took on ah a sort of a role for the Farmers Market correct.

02:47.13
Ed Linck
I did so when I got up there. You know? Ah I saw there’s some opportunities for marketing and so I jumped in and started helping them with their Facebook marketing and and make sure we’ve got post outs saying hey these are who you know these are the vendors that are coming out this week um and would try to promote those vendors also encourage our followers to go follow their pages so that they could follow them in the offseason cause all these guys are running full steam all year long. You know there’s it’s not seasonal even though the farmers market is well then it stepped up to another level where. You know, helped them build a website worked with them on building some community partners and so we’ve actually fact this is an announcement Todd this is ah nobody knows about this. We have four community partners that we’re very proud of that are helping us with the finances to be able to market the market. And that’s baptist health ah here in Conway Centennial bank Conway corp and the Conway a and p commission the C&V wait that says it right now. Conway visit convention of the visitors bureau. Yeah b sorry Rachel.

03:55.33
tejones
Visit Mentions Bureau I Think yeah.

04:01.56
Ed Linck
So we’re very happy to have them on board and because of them you’re gonna start seeing quite a bit of marketing. Yeah on billboards on radio on Tv um, you know, really pushing hard that hey we’ve got these outstanding farmers and crafters every single Saturday from April Twenty Third October twenty ninth at the Conway farmers market you know and it’s you know we’ll have so many people that come up every single week and say I’ve never been here before or I didn’t know you guys were here I didn’t know this was a thing and so I just that you know. Ah. Love that they’re there but it also makes me cringe a bit like god our market’s been around since the 1960 s the stra family founded it and was a part of it for decades and so this this cannot be a secret anymore. It needs to be known that we’ve got some incredible products. Available that are grown locally or or crafted locally that they can come out and shop from.

05:01.95
tejones
Yeah, that’s the neat and interesting thing about it because you got there this time of year. Some of this stuff’s not in season yet. So you see a little bit more of the arts and crafts that’s out there people making you know, very various craft products and.

05:11.24
Ed Linck
Gripe.

05:20.10
tejones
You might not think about that you think about Farms Market You think about vegetables, Tomatoes strawberries. Whatever but you go out there and get like certain types of crafts and I guess people make soap maybe things like that.

05:29.99
Ed Linck
Now we have soap candles Woodwork Tumblers Pens you know all custom-made you know t-shirts. There’s a dog treats. You know if you want some dog treats come out.

05:37.52
tejones
A.

05:44.90
Ed Linck
There’s just there’s 1 guy that does 3 d printing that has some really cool stuff. He’s about to introduce on April Twenty Third so I hope you guys come out. Check that out. Um, but so with this particular market. We have a rule that 60% of the participants have to be farmers whether it’s veggies or meat. But they have to be a farmer um then the other 40% would be your crafters and so you know we are pretty strict on that and we do unfortunately have to tell some crafters have yeah, we just don’t have room this year because we want to keep that ratio and so on the veggie side though you’re right um it. It is very seasonal.

06:06.79
tejones
Right.

06:15.88
tejones
Right.

06:21.65
Ed Linck
And so one of the things that we do as a farmers market is we try to educate the folks on you know, especially through Facebook about what’s in season so it kind of help them with their expectations on what to find whenever they show up now. We do have some of our farmers that have greenhouses and they’re able to do some things out of season.

06:36.54
tejones
And.

06:40.38
Ed Linck
But the vast majority of the time you know these guys are at the mercy of the weather and when that season occurs they’ll have plenty of tomatoes or strawberries or it’s its amazing. How many different types of produce. You’ll find out there throughout the summer.

06:43.87
tejones
Right.

06:57.60
tejones
Can you tell me a little bit about what you will find on the twenty third and seasonally and then also you know what you have planned for the open house or the grand opening. Whatever whatever, what are you calling it open house open day. Yeah opening day like baseball opening day. Yeah.

07:08.89
Ed Linck
An opening day. Yeah, so yeah, that’s right so with the veggies. It’s kind of hard to tell exactly what they’re bringing because everybody’s so different. Everybody’s so unique and how they raise their vegetables and plants and so I got you know. I wouldn’t expect to see a bunch of tomatoes out the there first day. So I know that’s 1 thing. A lot of people come out for or the tomatoes I would not expect that first day but you will find plenty of other products to choose from all the meat guys are are pretty much year-round so you’re talking beef pork.

07:34.49
tejones
Yep.

07:41.80
tejones
Now.

07:44.95
Ed Linck
Ah, we’ve got a new vendor that’s going to have chicken and lamb and turkey so that’ll be really cool. That’s the person we’ve well we’ve had some chicken out there shaky k farms does chicken but beyond eden is the new one. That’s got some of this more unique type meat. Um, you know flying Sea Ranch will be out there with their beef jellies and jams.

07:47.39
tejones
Nice.

08:04.91
Ed Linck
O this farm with their pork and their beef. Um, you know big D Beef’s going to bring beef and pork. So we’ll have quite a bit of meat out there and then for the yeah one of the other things that you know you’ll find out there is baked goods. There’s some outstanding baked good bakers out there.

08:17.64
tejones
And.

08:22.88
Ed Linck
Then other folks will do jams and jellies and ah like Maria’s homemade country fair. They’re canned goods. Oh my gosh, you’ve got to try their spaghetti sauce first class man then hurt. Yeah, then the honey guy lost Creek Farm, and apery um Sunday is.

08:26.39
tejones
A. I second that Maria is awesome.

08:42.19
Ed Linck
You know anytime we buy honey. We go to sunny I don’t know if he knows that rhymes you know, but I have he can he can steal that some farmers will ah vendors will have eggs out there. There’s usually oh 2 or 3 of them that that might you know those are typically pretty limited so you know hey you know.

08:45.96
tejones
That’s the that’s good I like that he needs. No.

09:01.88
Ed Linck
Farmers Market Strategy says get there early and you’ll have the best choice. Um, and speaking early. It’s gone.

09:02.87
tejones
Yeah I I was gonna say that because if you come too late some that stuff you’re talking about will be gone.

09:12.10
Ed Linck
It is especially if it’s hot. You know if it’s at that hot season for that particular product man. It’s ah it’s crazy I mean some people show up and they’ll buy crates of it just to make sure they’ve got it. Maybe some restaurants jump in on that. Um. But know. So ah so speaking of time so we’ve had a pretty big change with the time frame of the farmer’s market so we are going to open at 8 am m this year so it used to open at 7 we’re going to move it to 8 and then we’re moving the closing time to 1 pm and part of the reason for that is we’re gonna have a food truck out there every Saturday and we’ll try to you? Well, it’ll be 1 or 2 kind of depends on what’s going on but definitely one food truck out there. Um, and I don’t have I wish I had the list of food drugs in front of me I don’t have it. But yeah, well that’ll be a. Conversation for another day but we can’t wait to to um one I can’t wait, not wake up at like five thirty a m to get to the farmer’s market. You know, not the police.

10:06.61
tejones
I was Gonna say but with all that meat out there. You think somebody out there smoking some meat would be um I got ideas of my brain get somebody out there spoke some at pork and some that beef and anyway.

10:16.35
Ed Linck
You know I think it’s a great idea. Yeah yeah, oh absolutely oh man I Can’t wait to get out there. Our shopping experience is much better. What.

10:24.91
tejones
Ah, sounds good to me.

10:33.33
Ed Linck
When the Farmer’s market is open and we can get some fresh veggies and meat in our in our fridge and freezer.

10:35.80
tejones
Anything outside of like the farmers and the vendors you have planned for the opening day or is just gonna be like you know, welcome and we’re open or are you gonna have anything special planned? And they were the kids bouncy houses or something like that.

10:52.89
Ed Linck
So we’re still the board meets on April Eleventh and we’re going to finalize some things and some ideas so I don’t have anything specific yet but we definitely want to do some things for the kids we want to do more of that throughout the year yeah know we’ve got certain special events like father’s day mother’s day fourth of July labor day weekend but more you know there’s some things that are obvious that we’ll do some different things on we’ve given away free hot dogs and had balloons and face painting.

11:12.69
tejones
Frame.

11:24.27
Ed Linck
So we’ll probably do some of that stuff on the first day we just gotta figure out what the boards really want to do and we’ve got a you know, really active board of directors which a lot of people don’t understand that there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. It’s not like we just happen to meet up and show up on April Twenty Third I mean there’s months much of planning in the background. So ah, you know want to give a shout out to the board for working so hard but we will have some things out there for the kids and and have some fun.

11:51.27
tejones
Yeah, and so you know one of the questions I was gonna ask you about was special things throughout the year so you kind of alluded that so certain weekends like father’s day for July moral day. You’re gonna do special things or just ah.

12:07.28
Ed Linck
Yeah, so a lot of the vendors will set up things within their booth that are specific to whatever that celebration is you know for us, you know we now have what’s called the mini beef snob sampler. You know so $100 get about £12 of beef.

12:16.37
tejones
A. Right? yep.

12:25.72
Ed Linck
You know includes 2 steaks, a roseas, £5 of ground beef and ah and ah like a stew meat or something well we didn’t have that until father’s day last year and the guy came up said hey we need a gift for our for my dad I’ve got about $100 what can they give me I was like man we’ve been talking about this mini sampler. And so he and I sat down did the math and you know sold the first mini beef sop sample and now we’ve sold hundreds of them so you know let’s just an example of something you know that’s unique that we would do you know to make sure that you know on that particular day that the dads were happy with their gift but a lot of folks like oh there’s the. Ah.

12:52.87
tejones
Right? right.

13:03.58
Ed Linck
Tina all the no yeah unique rees by Tina I dared for the July week last year a lot of her wreaths were for the July themed and so you’ll see some folks that kind of shape and mold their booth to what’s going on.

13:15.15
tejones
Themed. Yeah.

13:22.67
Ed Linck
With that celebration.

13:23.25
tejones
So don’t forsake going to the Farmers market on those special weekends because you may find something that you can’t live without.

13:33.00
Ed Linck
Man if you’re looking for gifts for somebody. That’s local. It’s like a locally made gift. You have got to come out to the Farmers market and whether it’s a food product a plant or one of the crafts.

13:42.11
tejones
Yeah.

13:51.73
Ed Linck
You know there’ says I think there’s just something really special about hey this was made by somebody that lives down the street for me, you know where that street’s I weigh 65 or 64 literally right down your neighborhood street. You know any gift for anyone and I think you can find it out there at the Conway farmers market.

13:58.24
tejones
Ride? yeah.

14:07.24
tejones
Now are the vendors all Faulkner county or at least within certain.

14:11.70
Ed Linck
The vast majority some of them I know there’s a couple out of Morrilton. Um, and there’s some of the drive an hour to get here on Saturday morning so we were open at 7 and you had to be there at 6 Um, they were leaving their house sometimes it.

14:21.49
tejones
A. 5 4 35 yeah.

14:31.40
Ed Linck
4 30 4 35 just to get there. So no, it’s not just calm me binding me. It’s definitely a regional thing and we also see that the people that come through are regional. We have people that drive in from liter rock with definitely the lakes community you know with Greers ferry you know I’d say fars.

14:42.41
tejones
And.

14:49.29
Ed Linck
Way is Russellville and Perryville I mean you know we’ve got people then you we’re right there off the interstate and so people will see that we’re set up and I’ve had people they’re on their way to Texas and California come behind buy some meat and they were going thaw out and where they’re stand that night they’re going to. You know have a good meal.

15:04.86
tejones
Yeah, yeah, you a lot of hotels Motels and even like cabin areas and stuff have place to actually you know grill so that makes sense um see.

15:14.37
Ed Linck
Yeah, well, and then all 3 We have a lot of passersby you know cause we’re right in between the Sams Club area and then the target area on amity road and so there’s so many people shopping and traveling that particular road that we get a lot of people just.

15:22.15
tejones
Yeah, 5

15:33.74
Ed Linck
Happen to stumble upon us they come out and are introduced to our farmers market for the first time.

15:38.51
tejones
Yeah, there’s no doubt if you’re driving down amity road on Saturday morning. You cannot miss it if you’re driving by the church. So yeah.

15:43.53
Ed Linck
No, it’s gonna be even harder to miss it now because if I’m out to buy some banners that we’re gonna set up the morning of and takedown after it’s over.

15:52.40
tejones
So let’s talk about what’s new this year you’ve already mentioned a time change and I know that you build a website to kind of further your marketing efforts is there anything else that’s different about this year’s comedy comment farmer market.

16:06.35
Ed Linck
So you know let’s focus on the website real quick so http://conwayfarmersmarket.org is the web address and 1 thing we’re going to have is a list of all the vendors that have those vendors categorized. So many of them that sell meat.

16:20.87
tejones
And.

16:23.99
Ed Linck
That’ll be in the meat category them sell veggies would be veggies Crass Cras and and and also those who do multiple things I’ll list them in and both places so that you see who you know is offering what and so I think that’s gonna be a huge value for those who are looking to come visit us because. You know you’ll have people say man I Really want to go the Farmer’s market but I don’t know who’s there, and that’s that’s a big deal. You know I don’t want to go somewhere if I’m not sure because you don’t have so much time in a day you know, especially if you got a family and job and everything you know everything going on you don’t want to go out and waste your time somewhere and so we’re want to make sure that people are aware of who.

16:46.46
tejones
Amp.

16:51.65
tejones
Exactly.

17:01.78
Ed Linck
Will be out there or at least who’s signed up for the farmer’s market now there’s gonna be times where people can’t make it cause they’re travel hung or whatever but cause I know we’re going to Miss probably 2 weekends this year believe you got an idea who’s gonna be out there and so that’s a big deal. You know the ah that Hugh the.

17:08.20
tejones
Prime.

17:18.98
Ed Linck
Community partners man I can’t stress enough I mean Baptist Health Centennial Bank Conway Corp, CVB you know we’re so happy to have them on board so that we can actually promote the market. So that’s 1 thing that’s gonna be a major difference I think we’ll have a bigger crowd this year because of the marketing efforts we’re about to have. Um, you know it’s not gonna be the best kept secret in town anymore 1 other really cool thing. We’re actually gonna order. Um, um, oh eco-friendly totes bags for everybody that comes in so we’re going to order 2000 of them. Um.

17:41.11
tejones
Right.

17:51.60
tejones
Oh.

17:56.84
Ed Linck
So you walk in, you’ll get and it’s its made from recycled material which we you know we’re very conscious of that whenever we ordered this so to be a nice bag that you can use for shopping at the market. It’ll have our logo on it’ll it’ll highlight our community partners. So you know the first two thousand people that show up to the farmers market will have one of those.

17:58.80
tejones
Okay.

18:16.16
Ed Linck
Custom made totes. We’re very excited about um so that that I think that’ll be a nice addition and then we also want to do things like oh invite, educational um type vendors where you know the maybe the extension office comes out and does some.

18:17.68
tejones
Yeah, that’s cool.

18:34.93
Ed Linck
Educating on you know, like the question you asked at the very beginning was you know what’s in season. Well a lot of people were wondering what’s in season. So let’s let’s get people educate on that so we’re going to partner with them. We’ll partner with Baptist Health on some nutritional advice and you know so we’re just looking for different ways to.

18:42.00
tejones
For.

18:53.52
Ed Linck
Educate the community on the importance of knowing where your food came from eating healthy and living an active lifestyle.

18:56.71
tejones
Yeah, um I am Well First of all I’m wanting a good hamburger now after talking to you but ah, kind of looking forward to, yeah I now I’m now I’m just flat hungry after listening to talked about all that. So.

19:08.58
Ed Linck
Yeah I come bring you some beef man.

19:21.10
tejones
Definitely appreciate you coming on I know you said 1 more thing before we before let you go, you talked about the market starting back in the sixty s um, can you talk a little bit about the history of the conway farmers market what you know.

19:26.33
Ed Linck
Yeah, yeah.

19:32.12
Ed Linck
So and I really wish Phyllis Strak was here you know she is like an encyclopedia for all things call me farmers market but you know was one of things that just kind of start on the side of the road and then you know another farmer joined in another farmer. They’ve. Been in multiple locations throughout the years that at one point they were in downtown and then I think once um, I’m not sure what I don’t know all the stories but you know at some point they had to leave downtown and go to Antioch and and you know. And I think the future is at some point we find a permanent location with the nice pavilions like you might see at a Rogers market in Rogers Arkansas um you know because I think it for something to be around for that length of time and tonight. You know, get that nice established location and now we love Antioch they have been amazing to work with but you know there’s not a structure for shade. You know they’re in August yeah, and it’s it’s hot. It’s really hot.

20:31.13
tejones
Right? Yeah I’ve been out there a few times and it’s pretty warm. Yeah.

20:38.97
Ed Linck
That’s where you really want to get there early one to get what you want to get but 2 to avoid the heat so it’d be really nice to one day conway to have a permanent location for farmers markets. So we’ve talked to the city. We just kind of introduced the idea of of of getting a site and you know.

20:41.67
tejones
Yeah.

20:57.30
Ed Linck
Working to get a pavilion. You know, part of the reason we’re building these community partners is one to market the farmers market but 2 to build you know some money to where we can actually pay for a pavilion and and do some things like that. So I mean this market came from very humble beginnings. You know the strike families have just been amazing throughout the decades and all the people have and we’ve got some vendors out there that’ve been there for over ten years that are there every single Saturday working hard to bring their product to the market and so I think it’s you know our job or you know. Especially my job because I’ve got some experience in this world to improve this market to the point where we’ve got a permanent location shade bathrooms that are to porta potty you know so all those things so I’m starting my campaign with U Todd um um, probably the campaign to get find that location and.

21:46.16
tejones
There? Yeah, you never know somebody might be listening to this podcast and go hey I know the right exact place. So.

21:51.38
Ed Linck
And ah.

21:55.12
Ed Linck
Man I Just I Just think it be so cool I think it’d be so cool.

21:58.99
tejones
And if you do go to Ed and you do offer a location tell him you heard about it on comway scene. Ah hey buddy I appreciate you I’m sorry, go ahead? Yeah.

22:04.30
Ed Linck
There you go. That’s please please? Yeah I you know, ah you mentioned barms those ark beef one day and I had 2 people come like hey you’re on Tod’s podcast like that’s awesome I appreciate it.

22:17.10
tejones
Yeah, we did the feature story on the on the barms and that’s what that was a really good one and so I’m glad to hear that somebody did say that I don’t always know and that’s the thing you don’t always know if it’s made a difference or not and I’ve been told here and there and I’m like. Okay, it’s good to know it’s good to know people are listing and they’re reading and so we’re trying to gain traction and like you are wanting to expand that this year I want to expand economy scene more this year so very good hey I I always love talking to you because you have great ideas and I loved watching what you’re doing.

22:44.46
Ed Linck
Yeah, how you build it man.

22:53.94
tejones
And you’ve got 2 other hats you wear which we’re not even talking about in this particular podcast and we’ll do that another time but I appreciate you coming on the show buddy.

23:01.27
Ed Linck
I appreciate you having me and thanks for everything I’ll see out the farmer’s market April twenty third yeah, all right? Thank you.

23:05.80
tejones
April Twenty Third yes sir we’ll be out there talk to you later like.