You've got to hand it to Washington County farmers Jen Small and Mike Yezzi: they're marketing geniuses. This morning, the New York Times had a big, splashy article about "Farm Camp," a program invented by Small and Yezzi in which they invite city chefs up to their farm to learn how to slaughter a chicken and look a doomed lamb in the eye. Not only do Small and Yezzi get good press out of it, but they also charge the flatlanders $195 apiece for the weekend experience. And the flatlanders love it:
Heather Rubi, a 29-year-old market manager at Greenmarket, said the camp had taught her a lot about production costs. “Customers are always asking why things are so expensive,” Ms. Rubi said. “I don’t think they understand the time and work farmers put in. But when you visit a farm and see something like the size of a piglet and how much it takes to get them grown, you get a lot of perspective.”
