The cooperative consists of 18 small businesses from Michigan and northern Ohio, all but one owned by women. The cooperative holds a flower market on Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to noon at Growing Hope’s Ypsilanti Farmers Market space, 16 S Washington St., where members sell to both wholesale and retail shoppers. The market is scheduled to close for the season Oct. 23 and will reopen in April.
On their own, the cooperative’s members would struggle to find wholesale buyers, and would have to travel long distances to deliver their products instead of farming, said Trilby Becker, a member and co-founder.
“By creating this marketplace, we’ve created one spot where we’re able to aggregate all this high-quality product, so designers can come to us,” Becker said. “It’s been a great advance for us, the interest on the part of growers is tremendous.”