BerriBasket team’s first expedition 🍓
to farmer’s market 👩🏻🌾
Coach Conner’s Reflection
It was a fantastic experience to visit the Palo Alto’s farmers market and have an opportunity to have a conversation with real farmers and active customers. The environment at the farmers market felt very down-to-earth with relaxing music playing and people everywhere having a good time on a warm, sunny day. I had a great time meeting Yoonjung and Kevin in-person and hosting our BerriBasket stand. However, I think the biggest challenge for me was learning how to approach random people on the street and have a conversation with them about their experiences with farmers markets, but it definitely got easier over time and helped us to gain a better understanding of how everyone views their farmers market experience. I also managed to snag a couple blood oranges as a souvenir 😊 Can’t wait to return or check out more farmers markets in the future!
Kevin’s Reflection
I think that visiting the farmer’s market was both a great experience for me and a great way to gain feedback to progress with the project. Although there were many people, it was difficult to get people’s opinions since many seemed busy or were just uninterested. Talking to random people about our project was also very challenging and awkward as well. However, we got some people to fill in our survey for both vendors and customers which can be used as feedback to improve our project. Overall, the visit at the farmer’s market was somewhat a success but it was definitely worth it as I was able to meet some of the members for the first time and we all had a good time.
Livia’s Reflection
It was awesome to visit California! It had been a long journey from India to the US. Even though the flight to Cali was exhausting and long, the experience was well worth it. Having the opportunity to talk to an actual Farmer+ Entrepreneurship Prof. was incredibly helpful as we could understand the product as customers, vendors, and developers. I gained many new insights and answers to questions. Getting to meet Sawyer and Yoonjung was also a pleasure! Our visit to Mr. John’s farm provided us with the experience of seeing firsthand how farming is done. Our tour included an old farm dating the 1800’s, so we could learn about its history as well! We also visited the old farm house of the original owners’ family and saw some antiques from that time period. A team mentor from another ACF team joined us as well. I found the whole experience to be amazing, interesting, and enlightening, thanks to everyone there. I look forward to meeting you all again!
Coach Yoonjung’s reflection:
I always thought farmers are natural entrepreneurs where they manage their work independently from planning how much to plant each spring to sell on the right time with right pricing. Hence, when our BerriBasket team decided to support local farmers with an online delivery app for its team project, I was beyond excited. Entrepreneurs(BerriBasket team) helping entrepreneurs(Local farmers), how fascinating is that! While our team has been working on the platform building diligently, BerriBasket team needed this Farmer’s market trip to the local farmer’s market in terms of figuring out what farmers’ dealing with and what their pain points were plus for the customers behavior observation too. I was happy to support this trip to the farmer’s market in Palo Alto last Sunday(4/3) with coach Conner and Kevin to see our BerriBasket team’s first field trip at my favorite local hang out place(California Avenue Farmers market, Yes, I am an avid fan of farmer’s market as the daughter of organic farmer in Korea). Also, it was nice to meet Kevin in person for the first time since our BerriBasket team took off almost a half year ago already.
While standing in the booth and waiting for the visitors to stop by so we can share our BerriBasket team’s project idea, lots of thoughts rushed through my mind. Out of many, people are generally happy to come out and relax especially after the long Covid lockdown and feel the real marketplace atmosphere and enjoy their carefree farmer’s market visit. Naturally, they are not so fond of stopping by at our booth and taking our survey except for a few kind souls. For our next trip, we should bring small water bottles or treats to reward them for their time in filling our survey out. And I would like to see Minook and Rowan visit their neighborhood farmer’s market soon and share their updates too. One last thing is to plan team lunch or boba tea time after this visit to celebrate our teamwork and simply to enjoy California sun and weekend.
