Elizabeth Wolf started Angel Ridge Farms in 1990 by growing herbs in the summer and producing wool in the winter, though eventually sold off the wool division. The herb product line was sold in local supermarkets and at the Ithaca Farmers' market. To complement the success of the herbs at the farmers' market, the farm introduced salad dressings and related fresh produce.
Other channels of distribution were explored, including sales to New York City, local restaurants, and grocery store warehouses. However, production constrained the success of these channels, and the company elected to continue on a lower scale at the higher-margin local supermarkets
Elizabeth Ryan has also served as Vice President of Ithaca Farmer's Market. She is a graduate of Cornell University.
Well starting with the herbs, I did some marketing research first. I thought that would be a good thing to start with, because in all the stores around here, they just sold herbs from California. There were no local growers in the supermarkets. And also, in Ithaca, with the number of restaurants, I...(Full transcript available to logged in subscribers.).
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