In-Store Event Ideas
Chef Series
Go after the gardening foodies! Partner with your local restaurants or grocery store and host a Chef Series. Feature hometown chefs cooking with the fresh produce your customers can grow themselves. Present the recipe at the end of each cooking demonstration, and make it available at your website, too.
Tasting Events - Tomato
Choosing which tomato to grow can be overwhelming. Take away the guesswork for your customers. Host taste-testing events where they can sample fresh produce and understand the many uses each variety offers. Explain the differences between “slicers”, “beefsteak”, “hors d’oeuvres” and “sauce” tomatoes. (Find a helpful chart here.)
Tasting Events
Pepper How hot is HOT? Get familiar with the Scoville scale. It measures the heat of chili peppers. The scale is named after Wilbur Scoville who developed the test in 1912. At your pepper taste-test, present a wide variety of recipes and hot flavors to customers - from sauces to salsas - and help them feel the burn!
No Space? No Problem!
You don’t need an acre of land to grow fresh vegetables. Satisfy those customers with limited space but unlimited appetites for gardening! Host a container-garden weekend, with a mixture of herbs and container-friendly vegetables on display. Be sure to showcase window boxes, sunny patio pots and vertical gardens. Share tips at your website and in-store.
Cool Season Extender
Vegetable gardening in the early-spring and fall months not only extends your sales season, it helps customers get out in the garden earlier and stay out later! Highlight the vegetable varieties that can take a bit of frost, such as lettuces, Brussels sprouts, kales, cabbage. Offer cloches and cold frames, or at least the materials list for gardeners to build their own.