“So, the way my business model works I sell subscriptions,” Hohenthaner said. “At the beginning of the year I started asking people if they wanted to subscribe.” Hohenthaner is not a huge marketing person so he is not the type to push his product. “My service is a lot of money so I put my service out there, if you want it fine, if not, that’s fine, too,” Hohenthaner said. “It’s quality food and some people may not want it, don’t like vegetables.” When Hohenthaner set up his model, he decided to keep this first year fairly modest. After working for other produce farmers, he had an idea of what he could and should accomplish. He proposed every day he worked on his acreage in a week’s time, he estimated he worked for 10 shares or subscribers. This year he worked two days on his acreage for 20 shares. This year, he limited his customer base to 20, knowing he needed to see how it would work. Then to supplement his income, he added other additional parttime jobs. He worked two days a week for the produce farmers who rented him the ground. “My plan is pretty scalable; I didn’t want to get in over my head the first year and make promises I couldn’t keep,” Hohenthaner said. “Besides everything else, you never know what the weather will do.” Hohenthaner’s customers paid up front, $30 for a week or $450 for the season and then for a 15-week delivery period he delivered a bushelsize box with a variety of five to seven fresh vegetables raised on his acreage, each week being different, finding that amount of food seemed to fit his customers’ needs. One week he did add an eighth vegetable but felt a larger quantity was harder to make use of. He tried not to overwhelm his customers with vegetables they aren’t familiar with or know what to do with. “I’ve been eating vegetables for so long I think some items are no-brainers and I have to remember for some people they are not,” Hohenthaner said. The first delivery was made on July 5 and continued to Oct. 9. His customers ranged from Vermillion, stops on Hwy 50 to Yankton, Mission Hill and several in Yankton. Then on his way home from work, he dropped off boxes in the Utica area. “After I started, people got excited about it and I added a few more subscribers,” Hohenthaner said. Al’s Local, as his business is called, started by word of mouth with family and friends, a couple ads in a newspaper and a little Facebook marketing. “Many of my customers were super excited, but for some it was a challenge getting a bunch of vegetables they weren’t familiar with,” Hohenthaner said. “Some were not excited about getting kale and people eat differently.” Early Tuesday mornings Hohenthaner made a delivery of whatever was ready on the farm. His deliveries started at 6 am so he could make it to one of his three side jobs, working at Steiner’s Market in Yankton. The box was typically filled with a variety of seven different vegetables and throughout the season, the vegetables changed. He said he grew whatever he wanted but it included a good variety vHOHENTHANER continued on page 15 HISVOICEvNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018v7