Baskets to Pallets Cohort
Getting products from small and mid-sized farms into the marketplace isn’t so simple. Local food may be big, but so are the challenges in getting it from farm to shelf.
Farmers in New York need help with distribution, uniformity and consistency issues, food safety assurances, and much more.
The Baskets to Pallets Educator Cohort is a group of 13 service providers who formed in 2017 to focus on wholesale marketing. Through professional development workshops and trialing strategies with farmers, Cohort members are honing expertise and facilitating new and profitable sales channels for the farmers in their communities.
Christian Malsatzki, CCE Ulster County
Christian provides educational and technical advice in production, business structure and marketing, and best practices for a steadily increasing number of small farms in the mid and lower Hudson Valley Region.
Daniel Eggert
Daniel recently transitioned from his role as brand manager for Harris Seeds Organic. He speaks with growers of all sizes and helps recommend varieties and growing techniques while managing and creating content for online marketing and catalog.
Elizabeth Gabriel, Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming
Elizabeth is the executive director of Groundswell. She is passionate about food production, equitable food access, and collaboration. She also co-runs a small agroforestry farm with her partner, Steve.
Jason Detzel, CCE Ulster County
Jason helps livestock, hay and pasture, and equine farmers become more sustainable. He has recently focused his efforts on marketing to help farmers gain skills and implement marketing efforts on their farms.
Katharhy G., President & Co-Founder | Kallamp (ka-jham-pah)
Katharhy has worked with urban farmers for both the Urban Agro-ecological Center & Carbon Sponge. As an agroecosystem R&E, farmer and instructor, he creates trusting atmospheres where farmers’ agricultural & ethnoscience knowledge have great value.
Kim Vallejo, NYS Ag & Markets
Kim’s work focuses on helping NYS farmers have better access to market opportunities. She encourage diversifying revenue streams and creating products with longer shelf life and higher margins. Kim is passionate about helping small and beginning farms scale their businesses.
Laura Biasillo, CCE Broome County
Laura focuses on increasing marketing channels for producers, creating education programs to help farmers develop new skills and technologies, and facilitating farmland protection. She has experience with farm to school, agritourism & CSA.
Maria 'Flip' Filippi, CCE St. Lawrence County
Flip is the co-owner of the veggie and herb farm, little Grasse Foodworks in Canton. At Cooperative Extension, she is the coordinator for the Master Food Preserver volunteers as well as manager of the Harvest Kitchen, a rental opportunity for food businesses in the area and a hands-on educational space.
Mariane Kiraly, CCE Delaware County
Mariane serves all types of farmers, with most being small farms. She is in her 22nd year with CCE and focuses her time in risk management, strategies, farm start-up and transitions, farm enterprise analysis, budgets, tax management, and rules and regulations.
Miriam Boateng, CCE Dutchess County
Miriam is a Taste NY, Todd Hill educator. She coordinates programs for small and medium size farmers in business development, digital agriculture and marketing.
Paul Loomis, Growing Family Farms
Paul co-owns Growing Family Farms, 6-acre vegetable farm in Rochester. He recently transitioned from a role at NOFA NY serving small & mid-sized certified organic, and organic practicing farms, offering educational programming through technical assistance, on farm events, and conferences.
Tanya Moyer, Mulligan Creek Acres
Tanya raises purebred Berkshire pigs, Jacob lambs, chickens, laying hens, and turkeys. She worked for the Northeast Livestock Processing Service Company from 2005-2017, and serves as a Beginning Women Farmer/Holistic Management mentor.
Violet Stone, Cornell Small Farms Program
Violet launched the Baskets to Pallets project in 2014 to support small and medium sized producers seeking entry to intermediated channels such as food hubs, groceries, schools and cooperatives. She is also the NY State SARE Coordinator and familiar with grant opportunities.
