|
Post by flowerpower on Oct 4, 2010 5:51:21 GMT -5
Most of the vendors I saw this weekend had nothing out of the ordinary. But I see a few farmers here and there with interesting varietes. At least the orchard I went to has some heirloom squash. They were quite pricey at a dollar per lb. The only OP maters I saw were Peach and Green Zebra. The vendor had no idea what either of them was called. She also did not know the difference between an under-ripe green and a green when ripe. Geez
|
|
|
Post by zephyrbird6a on Feb 25, 2011 22:54:58 GMT -5
As we go into the 2011 season I am reading this thread with interest. We started a CSA program brand new this year, with two sold and hoping for four more before May. Now we do things a little differently, sending a "choice chart" with the application to our potential customers. We are a 23-week season, single or couple $300, family of four $500, with an option for free extension at the end of the season into November or the snow flies. Now our price is impressing our potential new customers, but what gets them all jolly is that we allow some choice as to what they would like in their baskets as the season progresses. We list on the chart spring, summer and fall crops, and then list specialty items such as our garlics and rainbow salsa box which includes multi-color romas, cilantro, onion, hot peppers and so forth. Folks also love our single serve asian melons and small watermelons. Small watermelons such as white sugar lump, early moonbeam, sugar baby and blacktail mountain were a huge hit last year. Do you folks send a choice like we do, or do your peeps get a basic box each week?
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 25, 2011 23:18:10 GMT -5
We are a 23-week season, single or couple $300, family of four $500, with an option for free extension at the end of the season into November or the snow flies. ... Do you folks send a choice like we do, or do your peeps get a basic box each week? Wow. Wish I could get those kind of prices. My season last year was 23 weeks (including an extension). I can't get anyone to fill out a choice card, so I just grow what I want, and what people ask for. When I put together the weekly basket for my folks: I know that Mary hates anything brassica, so I substitute. I know that Carl loves beets so he always gets extra, and he gets the first of season and the end of season beets if there isn't enough for everybody. Baskets are picked up at the farmer's market, so for people on my family plan I say "take whatever else you want off the table". Some people ask if they can substitute. I'm always glad if they do. My family plan includes preserving quantities of things like tomatoes, cucumbers, and winter squash at no extra cost. (But not of peas or beans unless they pick them.) The couple plan, and the individual plan get a discount on additional vegetables beyond what's in their basket. I'm intending to mail vegetables this summer. There will be some mechanism in place to allow choice.
|
|
|
Post by honeydew on Feb 28, 2011 0:21:06 GMT -5
I am not at any point to be thinking of offering a CSA. But, I have been getting a lot of interest in the weekly box I will be offering. I have had two people specifically ask for and commit to the box. Nobody does that around here, and we have one grocery store and over an hour's drive to the city.
Our farmer's market only goes for 20 weeks. The only other veggie producer there either must not know much about season extension, or maybe I am expecting too much? But for the first at least 2-3 weeks they have no produce at all, only some bedding plants.
Since I have a greenhouse and low tunnels, I was going to see how early I can get produce on the table.
I would like to start a box from the beginning, however, expect the price to be lower for the first few weeks until more produce is coming out of the garden. Or would it be better to NOT have a box until there is more produce?
Ours will be a basic box with whatever is in season that week, with the option of 2 - 4 substitutions, as we are growing a wide variety of crops & varieties. Also, we are working on having value added "add ons" for customers like you are doing. This will be honey, cut flowers, unusual veggies or varieties, etc. We will charge extra for them, which I think makes sense as we are not doing a share program, and customers are not required to buy every week. I want to get customers who want that in future years though.
I set up a blog partly for my local customers, partly as another voice talking about real food issues. The thinking is that I can post what will be in the box, what substitutions can be made that week, and some recipes to encourage them to try more variety and unusual items. They can let me know in advance via email or phone. Also works to show them how their food is being grown.
I am thinking about offering addons with a small discount (maybe 10%) for box customers. Any advice? Another idea would to be to pre-sell boxes at a discounted rate - make up little punch cards with 5 or 10 boxes on it and one gets punched when they pick up the box.
At the table we will offer all in season crops to buy free choice, or the box for a set price. Earlier in the season prices will be a bit lower due to lack of variety/volume in the box. We will offer a single/couple size and a family size. Plastic boxes in the two sizes will be supplied with a small deposit charged (the cost of the box), and they bring back the empty box each week and pick up a new box, we take the other one home and clean them out and reuse them. Customers can purchase weekly, biweekly, or occasionally as they choose.
I'm considering pricing to be somewhere around $18 for single/couple boxes and $38 for family boxes at the height of the season for naturally grown local produce. This will be very competitive with the grocery store - which offers very little organic or variety.
I wonder if the boxes will have too much in them though? This is a consideration if I am trying to get more regular weekly or biweekly sales of the boxes and less occasional/irregular sales. Maybe it doesn't matter.
Zephyrbird6a - Will there be an extra charge for the specialty items you are offering?
Joseph - I had met a market farmer a few years ago who invited people out to work in exchange for produce. I'm not sure how well it worked for her. She would have you come and give you $10 worth of produce for every hour you worked.
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 28, 2011 11:35:24 GMT -5
I like weekly baskets much more than CSA: Easier to market. More like what people are used to. Less stress for the farmer.
My people know up front that they are signing up for sparse baskets at the beginning of the season and abundant baskets later on. I was surprised one time last year during the middle of the season that it was a sparse week. The early things were gone, the late crops hadn't started yet.
It takes forethought to have something to take to market every week. I'll count how many row feet of carrots I have, and divide it by the number of weeks till frost, and say "I should dig 40 row feet of carrots for market each week". I can always pull some kind of onion for market.
My people beg for earlier tomatoes. This year I'm going to put a huge effort into accommodating them.
Great idea for the punch card.
One thing that has worked well for me at the farmers market is "Fill this bag with whatever it will hold for $15"
I am not able to get a premium for "organic" produce. $15 per half bushel is about as high as the market will pay around here for vegetables. As far as variety goes... Most people want tomatoes, crookneck, potatoes, and plain old yellow sweet corn.
1/3 bushel is about right for my weekly customers with a few kids. I can go as much as 1/2 bushel before they start complaining about "still have leftovers".
I love the reliability and predictability of weekly customers. Knowing that I have to fill so many boxes for market tonight. It's a joy to know that most of what I am picking is already sold.
|
|
|
Post by littleminnie on Feb 28, 2011 20:09:06 GMT -5
First of all I think people think a half bushel is a bushel. Like if you showed them a bunch of baskets and said which is a bushel they would point to the half bushel. So when CSAs do a bushel a week it is too much but a customer might like the sound of a bushel a week. One idea I really like is to pay ahead $100 and then order or take what is being harvested and receive say $125 worth of produce over a period of time and then order again if you like. Less pressure than a CSA. I toyed with that idea this year and do list it as an option still if there is any interest.
|
|
|
Post by flowerpower on Mar 1, 2011 6:13:07 GMT -5
One thing that has worked well for me at the farmers market is "Fill this bag with whatever it will hold for $15" I think this is an awesome idea.
|
|
|
Post by honeydew on Mar 1, 2011 11:38:23 GMT -5
Thank you Joseph for setting me straight. We must eat a lot of veggies in our house, because we would easily go through a 1/2 bushel in a week, probably even more in the summer when everything is fresh and alive. Nowadays, almost everything we eat is made from scratch. So now that I have an idea on what a 1/2 bushel even is ....my container sizes were obviously too big. I have seen food boxes that offer once a week and once every two weeks. For us that are at a farmer's market each week (here, even 2 days per week) I'm guessing it's best to make them suitable for one week for freshness and regular sales. The two week ones I have seen are usually geared towards a delivery system. So, then a 1 peck for single/couple and a lightly packed 1/2 bushel for families....that would make my pricing more in line with yours. I will have to experiment to see if I can get a premium for (not certified) organic produce. I'm trialing several varieties of early tomatoes this year - not only for early produce for the table, but we have a short cool season here. We will have to compare notes on varieties at the end of the summer. What ones are you trying?
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 1, 2011 12:23:20 GMT -5
I could probably get $20 for a weekly basket if I asked. I might go to $17 this year anyway just due to general food inflation from a year ago. Last year I was asking a silver dollar per basket. The value of a dollar has fallen by 50% since then compared to silver. I'd still like a silver dollar per basket, but I can't ask $37. I'm trialing several varieties of early tomatoes this year - not only for early produce for the table, but we have a short cool season here. We will have to compare notes on varieties at the end of the summer. What ones are you trying? The world turned upside down for me when I made the decision that I would start growing my own seed for most varieties. (I'm even going to try saving seed from open-pollinated pepos this year. Yikes!!!) Most years I screen a half dozen new tomato varieties. This is the first year I am making a very serious effort at identifying the earliest tomatoes for my garden. I am not keeping records or labeling plants except that my own landraces will be planted together in blocks... Anything else that grows as well as one of my current landraces will become part of a landrace. Other things will be forgotten. I wouldn't have even had a record of what varieties I'm planting if I hadn't made this post. About half my crop will consist of my landrace tomatoes from last year: Joseph's first of season Joseph's early slicers Joseph's Main season canners based on DX52-12 Then I will start screening varieties that are new to me. Varieties that are thought to be very early: Anmore dewdrop Bradley, early one with small fruits Buckbees New Fisher's Cherry Salad Fisher's Prarie Fire Glacier Kilino Ida Gold Latah LISP Raymond's Canada Extra Early Wow Cherry, OP Varieties that are thought to be early: Bloody Butcher, Cold Set, Dwarf Red Heart, Early Annie, Kalinka, Matt's Wild Cherry, Micro Tom, Microbeicum Occemus, Mountain Princess, Oregon Spring, Sophie's Choice, Subarctic plenty, Sungold, Victorian Dwarf, Vilina. Tomatoes that I'm screening because they were recommended. If anyone knows some of these to be very early I'd move them to an earlier list. And I wouldn't mind deleting some that are known to be long season. (Some of them on this list are being grown for novelty.) 4th of July, Azoychka Balkanstar, Beefsteak, Big Beef X Eva Purple Ball, Big Sungold, Black Prince, Box Car Willie, Brad's Black Heart, Bradley (think it is the later one), Caspian Pink, Caspian F2, Delicious, Demidor, Eva Purple Ball, Everglades Wild, Fireball, Furry Red Boar, Hazelfield Farm - Red, Health Kick, Hillbilly Tomato Leaf, Ispolin, Jack White, Kulka F1, Legend, Lg Gold Oxheart, Lida Ukranian, Limbaugh's Potato Top, Maui, New Yorker, Ola Polka, OSU blue, Peruvian Wild, Pineapple, Pixie, Purple Cherry, Purple Red Slicer, Red Tomato - Plum Slicing, Sibirskiy Skorospelyi, Spudata, Sugar Lump, Sweet Baby Girl, Tidig Röd, Yubilenski Taresenko. And probably a half dozen others that are in the mail, or mis-filed. Then a few landraces: 27 variety landrace Hip-Gnosis Red Grex Hip-Gnosis Olde 101 Red Slicer Roller Coaster Cherry Mer De Noms Bishop's Homegrown Yellow Orange Grex Joseph's Seconds Half bushel baskets of vegetables. Leaving the leaves on says "Hey look at how fresh and nice I am", and besides some people like beet greens, and some people like carrot greens for the rabbits, or as a zest to a salad.
|
|
|
Post by honeydew on Mar 2, 2011 10:11:35 GMT -5
Fantastic picture of the baskets! Do you send folks home with the baskets or are they just for display?
As far as early tomatoes, here is a list of what I am growing out. It's incomplete, I'm just going by memory.
Latah 42 Days Siberian Helm's Gelbe Stupice Early Yellow Kalinka Glacier Zarnista Scotia Polar Baby Alaska Grushkova Slava Sophie's Choice Russian Sask Bloody Butcher Micro Tom Pendulina Orange Morden Yellow
I can vouch for Matt's Wild Cherry on production and taste. It is one of the top 5 varieties at our place. Sophie's Choice is supposed to be early.
I have tried Sub Arctic Plenty and Early Girl - don't like them. Considering trying Sub Arctic Maxi this year.
I have one I was given called Bradley - have not grown it out. I see it on your early list. I had searched info on it before and found a late Bradley. Is there more than one named Bradley? I don't have any details on what my Bradley will produce.
My goal is to find the best ones, for taste, production, cold hardiness, and then further acclimatize them to my area. How do I create a land race of tomatoes?
|
|
bev
gopher
Posts: 34
|
Post by bev on Mar 2, 2011 11:00:16 GMT -5
Marie, there are 2 varieties called "Bradley". I received a pkt. of these from sampleseeds.com as a bonus with my order. There was an earlier discussion about them and it appears that these are a mid-season that was developed in Arkansas. Someone was looking for a different, smaller, earlier "Bradley" and there is one sold by Mapple Farms www.mapplefarm.com. BRADLEY*-- Though just a few days after Latah, Bradley’s production is more concentrated early in the season. Amazing numbers of tomatoes on a relatively small bush plant. Its orange-to-red fruit is eggshaped and 2 to 3 inches (5-7.5 cm) long. Delicious and reliable, Bradley holds well on the plant--not a variety that demands just-in-time harvest or will soften or crack. Hope that helps.
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 2, 2011 11:07:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the list.
I haven't been sending baskets home with people. If they put the vegetables in their own bags/boxes they have the opportunity to say "What's this" "How do I use it?" or to make substitutions. But I do put almost everything in baskets to go to the farmers market. Sometimes I'll put tomatoes in a box or corn in a gunny sack.
Sand Hill Preservation offers a Bradley tomato described as: "very early, Det, 2 oz. fruits heavy yields. Earliest tomato in 525 grown in 2005. (UNAVAILABLE FOR 2011.)"
That is not the same Bradley as "Bradley tomatoes were developed by the University of Arkansas in 1961" which is large fruited and late.
A land-race of tomatoes is easy... Save the seeds from whatever tomatoes you are growing into the same seed packet instead of as individual varieties. I save several land-races of tomatoes.
First of season regardless of size or taste. Early season slicers regardless of taste. Main season canners/slicers which have to taste good and yield abundantly before frost. Seconds. Anything else that is good enough to grow again but not really suitable for my garden.
Eventually I want to grow out-crossing tomatoes instead of inbreeders, But for the next few years I'll take what I can get as far as earliness.
Looking forward to growing Matt's wild.
|
|
|
Post by littleminnie on Mar 2, 2011 22:28:58 GMT -5
Joseph did you have any customers refuse the 8 ball zucs? I did. "I only want normal long green zucchinis and normal red medium tomatoes and no kohlrabi and no hot peppers and yada, yada, yada". 8 ball zucs are so good for soup- the filling and the container!
I'm not working really hard on early tomatoes this year. I will be putting some on black plastic in a low tunnel of light FRC with clear plastic over it for cooler spells and figure that is ok. Maybe next season I will work at early tomatoes. In 2010 I did 17 in WOWS and they were ready maybe 7 days before the rest, that is all. I have stupice, sungold, matt's wild, manitoba and isis candy for less than 70 days. Stupice says 52. I have grown it 3 years but haven't counted the days. Maybe I will go do that...
Planted early tomatoes 4/29 and we then had some real cold weather. First tomatoes were around 7/10 and must have been stupice and maybe sungold.
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 2, 2011 22:57:43 GMT -5
I don't think I put 8 balls in my baskets, just on the table. There was one guy that would come at the end of market every week and buy all the 8 ball I had left. For the most part my customers are easy going and would at least try anything I put in their basket. Fantasy eggplant didn't go over well at all, but only because eggplant isn't socially favored here not because it wasn't as pretty as could be. But if I only had 8 ball zucchini one week I figure it would go better in the baskets than no zucchini at all.
If I had someone that started dictating what would be in their basket like that I'd tell them that there wouldn't be a basket the next week for them. I don't mind if someone says they don't like brassica in their basket or something like that, but if they want to be picky and choose every item they can buy it off the table. Part of the deal with my baskets is that they get what is in season.
Gosh I'm snotty tonight. Sorry about that. I got pissed off at someone earlier in the day who belittled a work project that I did perfectly. Enjoy my sassiness while you can, it's only about once a year that I get like this. And wouldn't you know, I've not got a bottle of wine handy.
On July 19th harvested my first little cherry tomatoes in 2010. My first bushel was on Sept 1st. First frost was Sept 6th.
On July 24th 2009 harvested the first little cherry tomatoes. First frost was September 20th.
|
|
|
Post by honeydew on Mar 3, 2011 9:51:59 GMT -5
So last year I saved some tomato seeds with no isolation or bagging - to see what I get out of them this year. Those would be the beginning of a land race? There were 28 varieties of tomatoes in my greenhouse, grouped by variety, but generally only 3 - 8 of each one.
I need to keep better notes. I have no dates, generally in my little frost pocket we get our first frost around the end of August or beginning of Sept. 10 miles away they can get it 10 days later. Last year I think it was Sept 2 or 3.
My first ripe tomato (besides the Sub Arctic Plenty, which I don't really count because they were not very spectacular) was one I only know as "Mexican Pink" but I can't find a match to this tomato when I search it. My husband loved it. It was very pleated and flat bottomed and not too big. Turns out later he loved it so much, not on its own merits, but because its better than a grocery store tomato.
Interesting to see if others are getting interest from customers with different colored/shaped veggies. I find there are two camps the ones who like to experiment and the ones that, like you said Little Minnie, if it's not a long green zucchini or a red medium tomato, it's no good.
I wonder if the idea posted about saving your seed catalogs to use with your customers would help more people be experimental. Are there any regulations with your markets about sampling?
One thing I am trying this year is selling varieties of things together. For example: I will package regular red cherry or grape tomatoes for the straight-laced folks, but also a rainbow mix. I will keep track of sales and comments for next year's planning.
I wonder if this will work with zucchini. Perhaps, when offering zucchinis in multiples, have 3 or 4 varieties available, and its 5/$2 any combination. Is that what you do? Have you ever tried to sell the scalloped ones? I'm growing them and the green, yellow, striped green ones. The ones that I have that look like 8balls are probably too tender to go to market.
Anyone tried it with peppers?
|
|