Author Bio

Marc Amante is an Agriculture & Natural Resources Educator with Central State University and is currently serving as the interim program leader for CSU's Agriculture & Natural Resources team. He is an experienced market gardener and urban farmer, raising vegetables, mushrooms, raspberries, and other crops on his quarter-acre homestead. He is committed to working with growers across the Midwest to improve market access and foster partnerships in support of small-scale, diversified agriculture throughout the region. Presentation: How FlowersInSeason.com Can Help Cut Flower Growers Market and Sell Flowers: Local cut flower growers often struggle to communicate cut flower availability to buyers. Cut flower buyers have grown accustomed to on-demand purchases of flowers, most of which are shipped in from South and Central America. In an effort to improve communication between buyers and local growers, a group of Ohio cut flower growers partnered with Central State University Extension on a NCR SARE partnership grant. The outcome was a new MarketMaker application called FlowersInSeason.com. The application was developed to create a platform for cut flower growers to share real-time availability of cut flowers. In addition, growers can link their farm website to the application, use the buy-sell platform to push products, and increase buyer awareness of the availability of locally grown flowers.