6 full lessons
Written in plain language, illustrated, and kept as a reference afterward.
Working skills · getting it sold
Markets, Buyers, and Product Readiness
Who actually buys, what they ask for before they say yes, how a price is built from your own costs, and what it takes to be ready the first time a buyer calls.
Six lessons on selling what you grow or gather: who the buyers actually are, the questions every one of them asks before saying yes, building a price up from your own costs instead of down from someone else's, the form and pack and shelf life a buyer needs, where to find real published numbers rather than guesses, and what happens after the first sale.
$95 once, or $95 on Driftline. Add $60 and Jules reads and grades one real piece of work, passing at 80 percent. Review is optional. Nothing here is accredited or carries credit.
Take this class
Pay once, and it is yours to come back to. Pick how you want to take it.
On your own
The whole class, the practice work, and the knowledge checks. No pass score, no graded work, no certificate gate.
With Jules reading your work
Everything above, plus one real piece of work, "One buyer, approached properly", that Jules reads and grades against a rubric you can see before you start. You pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
Already taking this class? You can add review later and pay only the $60 difference.
11.5 contact hours
Measured per lesson, with written outcomes, so your time is recorded honestly.
No-pressure checks
Clear answers and explanations, unlimited tries, and nothing sent to a gradebook.
Region aware
Rules are shown by state with the source and the date we checked it.
The complete course
Lesson 1 · 1.5 h
Who Buys, and Why
- · Describe the main buyer types and what each values
- · Match a product to buyer types that could plausibly take it
- · Explain why volume consistency often outranks product quality
Lesson 2 · 2 h
What a Buyer Asks Before Yes
- · Anticipate the standard questions a first buyer asks
- · Assemble the documents a buyer expects to see
- · Name the gaps that would currently end a buyer conversation
Lesson 3 · 2 h
Building a Price From Your Own Costs
- · Build a unit cost from labor, materials, and overhead
- · State a floor price and explain what it means
- · Compare a floor price with real market prices honestly
Lesson 4 · 2 h
Form, Pack, and Shelf Life
- · Describe a product in the form and pack terms buyers use
- · Explain how form changes the available buyer set
- · State a shelf life you can actually stand behind
Lesson 5 · 2 h
Finding Real Numbers
- · Locate published production and market data
- · State the limits of a data source before using it
- · Record the source and date for every figure in a plan
Lesson 6 · 2 h
The First Sale and What Follows
- · Write plain commercial terms for a first sale
- · Plan for payment timing and its cash effect
- · Handle a rejection in a way that preserves the account
What this course covers where you live
We say plainly how well each part of the country is covered, rather than implying the whole country is written to the same depth.
- West Coast: sourced and ready
- Alaska: partly sourced
- Northeast: partly sourced
- Mid-Atlantic and Southeast: partly sourced
- Gulf: partly sourced
- Great Lakes and inland: partly sourced
- Hawaii and the Pacific islands: partly sourced
Landings data is published nationally
Federal commercial fisheries landings information is published by NOAA Fisheries. It covers wild landings rather than farmed production, so read what a table includes before quoting it.
NOAA Fisheries, Commercial Fisheries Landings · checked 2026-09-19Aquaculture production has its own census
The federal agricultural statistics service runs a census of aquaculture. It is periodic rather than annual, so check which year you are looking at before using a figure.
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Census of Aquaculture · checked 2026-09-19Marketing services and economic research are separate front doors
USDA's marketing service publishes grading, market news, and local food material, and its economic research service publishes analysis. They answer different questions and are worth knowing apart.
USDA Agricultural Marketing Service · checked 2026-09-19Economic analysis lives with the research service
For longer analysis of food markets, prices, and farm economics, the department's economic research service is the published source rather than trade commentary.
USDA Economic Research Service · checked 2026-09-19
If you want Jules to read your work
Everyone gets the same lessons, practice work, and knowledge checks. For $60 more you also get one real assignment that Jules reads and grades. You can see exactly how it is judged before you start, you pass at 80 percent, and you can rewrite and send it back as many times as you need. This is optional, and it is still not accredited and carries no continuing education credit.
The assignment
One buyer, approached properly
Research a real buyer and prepare what they would actually need.
Identify one real buyer for a product you could supply: a restaurant, a distributor, a processor, or a retailer. Research what they buy, in what volumes and forms, and what they require of a supplier, using only what they publish or what trade sources report. Then prepare the approach: the product spec, the price and how you reached it, the paperwork they will ask for, and the first message you would send. Say clearly what you could not learn about them.
How it is graded
The buyer researched, not imagined · 25 points
Everything you say about them is sourced, and what you could not find out is listed as unknown.
Product spec a buyer could act on · 25 points
Form, size, pack, shelf life, and volume are all stated in the terms that trade uses.
Price with visible working · 25 points
Your price is built up from costs and a margin you can defend, not matched to a number you saw somewhere.
The approach fits the buyer · 25 points
Your first message and paperwork match how that kind of buyer actually starts a relationship.
100 points in total. You pass at 80. Jules grades what you worked out, not your formatting or your word count.
Where it can take you
Prices and demand change. Use the published federal sources named in the lessons for current landings and market data, and confirm buyer requirements directly with the buyer.
This course does not carry accreditation, credit, or continuing education units, and completing it does not count toward any outside credential. It is written to the structure a continuing education standard expects, with measured hours, written outcomes, and a completion record you can keep.