By SUSAN MYKRANTZ
Ohio Correspondent

WOOSTER, Ohio — Books really do make a difference; just ask Susan Gibbs, a former news producer for CBS. Gibbs was the keynote speaker at the recent Paca to Product Forum at the Shisler Conference Center in Wooster, Ohio.
“One day I woke up and I just didn’t like my job, and I didn’t like New York,” she said. “I decided to take a year off from the job.”

Gibbs relocated to California for a change in scenery, but a chance visit to a bookstore with a section on “how to farm” books gave her the incentive to change careers. Eventually, she had purchased four sheep, but the small flock didn’t have the kind of fleece needed to produce a high-quality fiber.

“You really can’t make money on a small flock,” Gibbs said.  “It is cost-prohibitive, you only have a small amount of yarn and you can only sell it retail. I had to do something, the animals had to eat.”

She added Angora goats and worked two full-time jobs, but was still was losing money. “Farming was not my full-time job; I didn’t have time to sell yarn retail,” she said. “I gave myself 30 days to find a solution.”

Her solution was to start a CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, project for yarn. Created in the Netherlands primarily for produce, a CSA model has shareholders pay in advance for a share of the harvest. Gibbs said in her case, customers began receiving fiber 12 months after they paid for their share.
Producers and customers share the risk in produce CSAs, and they have gained popularity in the past few years.

“People enjoy them, and they help support local farming,” Gibbs said. “They make people feel like they are connected with the land. It helps them understand how hard it is to grow food.”

She was the first person to apply the idea of a CSA to yarn and fiber. “At the time, I had no other option,” she said. “Desperation can lead to innovative thinking. My idea at first was to be able to buy enough hay to get through the winter.”

Gibbs opened a small shop on the Internet and in the first year, she sold 100 shares in the CSA, 12 months before the first batch of fiber.

“I was working two jobs and promoting the CSA,” said Gibbs. “I joined forums about knitting, sheep and anything about fiber. I had no reference point at the time. It was a lot of work, it took time to get the word out.”

Gibbs added that most farmers who want to market a product simply put a sign out at the road. The downside is that they only catch those who drive down that road. “You need to keep working, you need to keep your name out,” she said.

Bloggers picked it up and began writing about the CSA and what a great idea it was, and it went viral. By 2009, Gibbs’ CSA was featured in a front-page article in The Wall Street Journal.

However, she said a story in the local paper can do a lot more for a business that anything else. “But when you talk to the media, remember, there is no such thing as off the record,” she said.

Even when her CSA was gaining momentum, the economy was starting to sputter. Gibbs said it was a big mistake to not see the economy crashing at the time.

“I thought the demand was going to last,” she said. “Generally, yarn does well in a recession, but with higher quality yarn, it has a higher price tag and people are more cautious about purchasing it. It means you have to work a lot harder to sell your product.”

Gibbs said her yarn CSA worked because it was the first one. Now, there are a number of similar CSAs in the United States. “You have to have a niche,” she said. “It is great if people buy local, but it isn’t easy. You have to have an idea that sets you apart.”

She stressed the importance of brainstorming: “Sit down and come up with some ideas and review them, see what looks viable. Do a couple of things every month, and your business will grow.”

Gibbs said she sent e-mails every week to partners in the CSA telling them what was going on at the farm. She also started a blog as a weekly update and marketing tool with pictures and stories.

“I try to blog about other people’s yarn,” she said. “The best resource we have is each other. We have to promote yarn and the hand-knitting industry, it is the best thing we can do to make money for ourselves and everyone else.”
From a product standpoint, Gibbs recommends offering a limited line for CSA customers. “I only offer yarn in one weight for the CSA,” she said. “Customers have an equal share of the harvest.

“The worst thing you can do is to buckle to pressure from people on how much yarn they receive. Limit your shareholders so that everyone receives an ample supply of yarn.

“Don’t be afraid to be honest, and don’t let people bully you.”

She added that social networking is beneficial because it takes the business from a beautiful farm with animals and fibers, to a source of fiber for artists. Even so, it is not about yarn as much as it is about the farm experience, according to Gibbs.

“Most farmers name their animals,” she said. “People relate to animals better if they have an emotional investment. It connects people reading the blog to the farm. They know the farm, know how the animals are treated and how they are cared for. They know the investment in the animals.”

CSA communities are supportive of each other, according to Gibbs; however, she said when one has a farm, one will also have people who want to volunteer to help on the farm, a practice she does not recommend. She cautioned to avoid situations where people know too much about the farm and the business.
“You are opening up your farm,” she said. “This is not something that people are comfortable with. People may be judging your practices and you have to be comfortable with that.

“You need to decide how much you are going to share with your readers. Transparency is important with what you share.”