Norm’s Farms is now in its 6th year as a company. We’ve enjoyed some great growth over the years and we owe it all to those folks who we lovingly refer to as our Elderberry Ambassadors. What is an Elderberry Ambassador, you ask? An Elderberry Ambassador is a person who loves elderberry as much as we do, and really loves helping small businesses like ours in our mission to make elderberry available to everyone, every day. We feel inspired to celebrate the people, organizations and businesses that have supported us with our new series entitled Norm’s Farms Elderberry Ambassadors. It is an honor and a pleasure to spotlight the kindness, competence and generosity of others in our world and we hope that by doing so, others will also be helped along.
Our first article is devoted to our local community grocery store, Weaver Street Market. The kind folks at Weaver Street Market were one of the first to give us a chance to prove our products and were a major source of advice and help to us, too. The more you know about Weaver Street Market, though, the less surprising that is, really. They have earned their reputation for being foundational to our community because they care so much about the community that they serve.
Weaver Street Market first opened in 1988 in downtown Carrboro, North Carolina, and distinguished itself by being a natural foods store owned and operated by the same people who used it. Weaver Street Market distinguished itself further by offering locally produced fresh produce, eggs, flour, packaged goods and meat. Weaver Street Market is known as a member-owned Co-Op and today they have over 18,000 members! I know people with two digit co-op member numbers, a sure give away that they were one of the first to join, and they say that the opportunity to be part of a community grocery store that sold food grown by our neighbors was the reason they joined. Turns out that supporting your local community through your shopping dollars was becoming popular over thirty years ago!
The founders of Weaver Street Market understood that their fortunes were intricately tied to the fortunes of our community. They worked hard to support the town that supported them. When Weaver Street Market opened a hot food and salad bar serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, they became a much-loved local destination for meals out with friends. Then, Weaver Street dotted their beautiful outdoor shaded lawn with picnic tables and began sponsoring and co-sponsoring dozens of events each year designed to provide entertainment, generally free of charge, such as Carrboro's Family Fourth of July Celebration, Halloween "Ghost Stories Under the Stars," the Sunday Jazz brunch, and Thursday night music jams on the lawn.
In these ways and many others, Weaver Street Market has become a staple of the community life of our town. Over the years they have slowly expanded, opening a store in Hillsborough, a community about 20 miles north, and in the community known as Southern Village, in Chapel Hill. In each location they provide hot food, picnic tables, free entertainment, and healthy foods for sale, many of which are grown or produced locally, including Norm’s Farms elderberry products. It’s a formula that has worked really well for Weaver Street Market, who is about to open to open their 4th store in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Just as Weaver Street Market creates a cherished relationship with its community members, the market staff have welcomed Norm’s Farms into their family of brands. Working with the staff at Weaver Street has been a pure pleasure! They are easy going, friendly, knowledgeable and were eager to learn about our brand and products, too. In so many ways the staff at Weaver Street Markets helped launch our little company and we remain forever grateful. Once a year, Norm’s Farms partners with Weaver Street Market to make our Elderberry Extract and Elderberry Wellness Syrup available at a huge discount to their co-op members. This year’s sale is scheduled for September 28 and 29 and this annual sale has helped make Norm’s Farms one of the best sellers in Weaver Street Market’s supplement department! If you are local to the triangle area of North Carolina, this is a sale you don’t want to miss…and should you go, would you please tell them that Norm’s Farms sent you?
