"A Concord Tech Marketing interview with Linda Weiser", by Kyle Holub, great friend of Dustin Weiser (Harry & Linda Weiser's son),
great employee of Hackleboro Orchard, and, all around good guy! Linda Weiser, mother, wife, farm stand woman, and artist. How did you get to where you are?
Well,
it all started the day Harry and I first saw each other....Then the dating began, and some of those dates landed us at his
brother's orchard, much to his brother's delight. It was harvest time there, and he needed all the help he could get. (Boy,
do I ever know that feeling!) You should have seen the sheer joy in his face when he discovered I had years of cashier experience. So, with no effort on my part whatsoever, I got myself a non-paying job at Wildwood Orchards, in Deerfield,
NH. His brother, Kevin, always the opportunist, realized I just may have some more use around the place, so, I ended up being
their sign maker, cashier, apple sorter, dropped-apple-picker-upper (for cider), cider pourer, labeler, capper, Deerfield
Fair worker, animal feeder and waterer, blueberry picker.....and on and on. My first job IN the orchard was "gooper",
a little term we use for the person that paints on apple grafting compound on the trees in the springtime. It's jet black
and takes about a week for it to wear off your hands. Ew.
Harry and his brother became partners soon after our first year there. We ended up living there for 10
years. After the partnership ended, we discovered Hackleboro. Harry and I are partners now, and we've lived and, raised our
kids here for 17 years. My, my, how quickly this all went by! Dustin was 3 and Krista was 5 when we moved here. Now he's in
the Marines and she will be a graduate of Plymouth State College soon. When they say time flies, they're not kidding! Both
kids and some of their friends (!) have worked very hard for us and have a pretty terrific work ethic to show for it! What is your background, what did you do before this? Besides being a party girl and socialite, I had
the following jobs: My first job ever, (besides working for relatives) was when I was around
14, at King Taco's, within walking distance of my childhood home in Alstead, NH, washing all their dishes by hand
for $2.00 an hour and all the ice cream I could eat. I actually made more money then, than I do now! Then, I worked for the local Alstead, NH store as cashier, Glass and Aluminum Construction Services, also in
Alstead, painting metal pieces, Mall Drugs, Bellows Falls, Vt., as cashier, Miranda's Veranda in Keene, NH
as cashier and clothes model, Cray Energy (an oil company) in North Walpole, NH doing accounts payables on a Digital
computer half the size of my Subaru Impreza. Once I moved from the Alstead area to Deerfield, NH, I picked up a job in town
as, what else, cashier and, something new....they had a lunch counter, so I learned how to take an order, cook it, serve it
and cash 'em out. At Nault's Ford, in Manchester, NH, a car dealership,
doing accounts payable and their deposits. The deposits were huge, so I learned how to keypunch on a big adding machine, which
helps me to this day with adding facts and figures. And, because I'm such a nice
person, they also gave me the bomb threats. NO, I'm NOT kidding. They had a service department there, and occasionally mishaps
would happen and people would become VERY upset on the phone, so I would take those calls and calm them down. OR someone would
be sold a lemon and they would try threats to simply try to get some help out of this huge place that really did a volume
of business but never had to worry about keeping a repeat customer. They had a steady stream of them and sometimes didn't
treat a customer they way they truly should have. Hence "Give the call to Linny! She likes everybody." So, I took several of these calls. And you know, once I listened to all their woes, got their
name and number, and told them I didn't blame them one bit for how they felt, and that I didn't really know what to do at
that moment, but, BY GOLLY, I'd find out! They were calmer, relieved to know someone seemed to give a hoot, and I kept my
word and went straight to the President of the company each and every time. I had worked among executives at Cray Oil, so
I had no qualms going straight to the top. Lot's of the girls in the office were terrified to even talk to the President.
Not me. Didn't care. They're only people for heaven's sake. I worked at Buckley Associates,
Manchester, NH, as a job submittals typist for three years and during that time our children were born. Then, after
the kids were born, I'd take evening waitressing jobs at Chiam's Express, Billy's Restaurant, waitressing, hostessing and
doing their deposit. Both restaurants are gone now. Both were in Epsom, NH. Once we moved to Canterbury,
NH, I worked at the following places: The Fox Pond Tavern as waitress, and barmaid, and, at the Eggshell
Restaurant, as waitress and prep cook, both in Loudon, NH. And, one of my very favorite
part time jobs of all time: Sunflower Bakery, Concord, NH, now sadly gone forever, as counter help, prep cook and dishwasher
and artist. I learned so much from each and every job. Sunflower was like going to a culinary arts school. I use what I learned
there almost each and every day in my own kitchen. Often times, I share those skills with my family and all the kids that
often stay here for months or years at a time. |
All these jobs
were taken by me from the ages of 14 to 36. I have not worked much off the farm for about 10 years now. Except for art jobs
and theatrical face painting and the occasional stint at the Eggshell Restaurant. My friend Susan owns 3 restaurants
and sometimes calls me in to help her clean or cover on busy race weekends. I paint her windows for her and I have a
mural alllllmost done on a wall in there. It's of a field with a big ole 1948 Case International. It's a cool old tractor
and I painted that in honor of Harry, who has 2 of them.
But, to be honest, I was always restless at most
of these jobs. (Except the Tavern and Sunflower Bakery) And, I started to realize I needed a hands on type of job, something
that involved lots of fresh air and sunshine. I hate to be cooped up day after day in a cubicle. So, bye bye office
jobs and hello orchards!
What do you do during the off-season at the orchard?
Oh, well, lot's of housework! Some
of the above jobs I'd take during the off season. Especially the bakery and restaurant jobs as they'd rehire me after the
apple season was over. But now, I have art jobs to do, and the farm always needs attention, year 'round. I don't
have time for off farm jobs anymore.
I love the dead of winter, and spend it visiting my friends, cleaning house,
Christmas shopping, assisting Santa Claus with lots of Christmas stockings...(I know lots of kids, besides my own), regular
trips to the library that I adore, feeding and watering our farm animals, shoveling snow and doing artwork. I'm behind, big
time on several art jobs. BUT, my customers know I'm busy during harvest. This year we are cleaning out all the barns,
so that should keep me busy. Ugh. But it will be so nice when it's all done. Kyle, if you need any hours helping us...
How does advertising and marketing affect
your business?
We simply MUST advertise. We live about 15 minutes off I-93
and Rte 106, but just far enough away that people don't know we exist unless we advertise. And advertise. And advertise some
more. We've been here 17 years, and still I find some local person that doesn't quite know where we are. Or what we do. Geez!
And there are lots of other farm stands around here, so competition is another factor to contend with.
How do you retail your type of business?
We have a large farm stand on the farm itself. And we have a new farm stand, sort of an outlet, for this farm, in Boscawen,
NH. We bought that place 3 years ago.
We also have another farm we manage, a 12 acre orchard, Hazelton Orchards
in Chester, NH. That one has a mini farm stand which is only open weekends for "Pick-Your-Own".
The
one we live at, Hackleboro Orchards, in Canterbury, NH, has over 40 acres of apple trees. PLENTY of room to roam around and
probably has the biggest "Pick Your Own" section of all the orchards around here. Plus, we allow customer to pick
until Mother Nature freezes whatever is left on the trees. We have become very popular over the years and try to always make
improvements whenever money and time permits.
As far as marketing and advertising goes, we use local newspapers
and "blurbs", local radio stations (very expensive) and we realize the internet has been a big boon and the cheapest
form of advertising. I have found out that my "farm report" has been a big hit. When people want to know about our
growing practices, and I'm too busy running the farm stand to get into all of that, I can now direct them to our website.
They seem pleased to do so. I hand them a flyer with our website address on it, so, even if they don't get around to reading
about us online, they have the flyer to hold onto.
www.HackleboroOrchards.com !
Harry has
managed to pack out almost all our apples right here from the farm. We still send a lot to a packing house in Mass., but he
is constantly on the lookout for other places to send our fruit to. He recently got into Hannaford. When he puts our apples
in our bags with OUR name and address on it, that is yet another way to literally get our apples AND our name out there.
What are some difficulties you face with advertising
and marketing your business?
Mostly the cost. And, our season changes rapidly,
so, keeping track of weekly ads, pulling stuff off the ad and adding things on.
I get so bummed when I screw
up and either forget to mention something or forget to pull something we've sold out of, like peaches for instance.
So, I ask the Concord Monitor reps to read my ads to me, over the phone, from week to week, so I can catch what needs to come
out. They are really great to work with, by the way! Yes, they send me tear sheets, but often, I don't open the mail in time,
so, I ask them to not only call me before a deadline goes by, but to pull up the previous week's ad, to read to me.
I have to watch out. If I advertise too much, and say, it rains on key weekends.....we are not half as busy as we would've
been. And therefore less money to pay those large advertising bills. But, if it's nice out, and I didn't advertise enough......
Harry and I spread ourselves pretty thin during the season. Our employees can only do so much. The decision making
process is ours alone. I like to bounce stuff off Harry, but if he's out on some tractor out in the orchard somewhere...I
have to decide how big the ad should be, etc. I usually nail it pretty well, but there are moments I just wish I could
spend more time with it. After all these years, however, most of it is second nature to me now...which is the easy part.
At some point, I'd LOVE to have a computer in the farm stand, so I could see the ad right then and there, all put
together, BEFORE it goes out. Like I said before, the Monitor and all my other papers..The Weirs Times, The Laconia paper,
The Union Leader, all do a great job.
Then, there is good old word of mouth. If you please a customer, they
are most likely going to share that tidbit with someone else. Our employees share the enthusiasm of this busy place and that
helps too. If I'm bored, standing in some line at some store, I will strike up a conversation and convey the fact that I live
on an orchard....and people's faces will light up and start asking where? What do you grow??? Where
are you....and this form of advertising is absolutely FREE! |
