Author: Five Feline Farm

Remember customer service?

Attendants pumped gas, checked your oil, put air in the tires and water in the radiator.

The era when all grocery stores had people who not only checked out your groceries but also bagged them and carried them to your car?

A time when shop owners knew their products and were willing to talk to you about them. Actual honest-to-goodness human conversation.

Do you miss those times?

We do. At least some of the time. Really we just want a choice to go to those places when we want. There is definitely a place in our world for drive up or grab and go, but surely there is also a place for customer service.

We’ve moved into a self-serve society. It is the inevitable result of our desire for fast-pace and instant gratification. There is no more free service. We bag our own groceries, use the self-check lanes, pump our own gas, and are shocked if a greeter at a retail store actually speaks to us. We can even order the vast majority of our needs on Amazon to have it arrive on our doorstep with no human interaction.

At Five Feline Farm we strive to bring back service. We know our products because we make them and would love to tell you all about the BEEk balm or scones. Just ask about when the basil and tomatoes were harvested. You will get the answer you won’t receive at the big box store.

You work hard and deserve to have someone take an interest in you and your needs. Maybe even help you feel a little pampered. Our goal is to be small scale, high quality and provide you with a positive experience.

We want to provide quality, service and conversation.

But it goes beyond our service to you. We want to start a revolution.

A revolution of kindness. Isn’t that what service is all about?

What can you do today to serve someone?

Start small–

Smile at someone.

Hold a door.

Ask someone how they are and really listen to their answer.

Join our revolution.

Give us a shout on social media or email and let us know what you did today to join our revolution.

Don’t forget to sign up for our email list. Subscribers get a free ebook and no spam. Guaranteed.

It’s that time again. The break in the calendar that prompts a natural desire to look at the past year and make plans for the next.

We do the same at Five Feline Farm. 2017 was a great year for us. If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, in person at the 18th Street Farmer’s Market or even here on the blog, you know we expanded our business in several ways during the past year.

Perhaps our biggest achievement was opening our on-farm store—the Farm Fresh Mercantile. Finishing the store was a huge task. We reclaimed as much material as possible and did almost all of the labor ourselves. The grand opening was in October and we are now open the first Saturday of each month. Keep an eye on our social media for any last minute specials or announcements.

We expanded our presence at the 18th Street Farmer’s Market with a double size booth last summer. This extra space allowed us to enhance our displays into a more customer friendly presentation plus we added a grower. Martha B. produced additional vegetables, most notably potatoes. Her fingerling and specialty potato varieties were a huge hit.

A highlight for us was the inagural publication of Five Feline Farm Press. Simply Delicious is a compilation of recipes and stories that debuted on October 24. This book answers the many questions posed to us about what we cook and eat on a regular basis.

We also found ourselves in demand as speakers. In 2017, we presented at two events: Spring Into Gardening and Web@ through EIU. In addition we hosted a farm tour for Lincoln Log Cabin and the Academy of Lifelong Learning. Each of these events showcased a different section of our farm; from honeybees to nearly organic gardening practice.

How do we top all of that? What is coming in 2018?

As you might expect from us by now we are dreaming big. We will be expanding and refining the garden plots again, adding some special features to the landscape to add to our destination experience and continue to improve our product offering. We can’t really tell you too much right now, but keep following our news feed on all the social media channels.