Who do harvester families sell to - a co-op, a trader who visits each season, or direct themselves? Structure only, no names.
good question, ive wondered the same. nothing ever names a villiage so it could be a co-op or one trader whos known one family for years, couldn't tell you which
the word cooperative is on plenty of shop pages. i've never seen one say we buy from whoever turns up in autumn.
Cooperative is a good word to print. It sounds like the money landed somewhere decent and you cant check it from your kitchen. Might well be true. Same shelf as small batch and family run though.
It varies a lot and there's no single system. I can only tell you what I've seen. Some villages have proper cooperatives now that negotiate together and handle the paperwork side, other places it's still an individual relationship with a trader who comes each season. The cooperative model is the newer one and its still spreading unevenly, thats most of the answer.