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Post by gabriel on Feb 13, 2012 10:42:11 GMT -5
Here's my situation: I'm between towns, the closer one has a small (tiny!) market that doesn't get much traffic and the larger town doesn't seem to care about organic quality, only price. My personal convictions won't let me grow non-organically and I don't have the ability to scale up to compete on price with the big box stores. In the past I haven't been able to consistently produce a wide variety, but have good success with growing fair quantities of limited varieties.
Does anyone have success with selling just 2-3-4 items on the side of the road? I'm thinking of watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, colored bell peppers, winter/summer squash and sweet potatoes. Those are all things I can grow well... but will they sell well?
I know there's a lot of variables, but any input is appreciated.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 13, 2012 11:06:14 GMT -5
Roadside sales work very well for me, especially if people know that on a certain day of the week that I will be at the garden picking for them... Friday afternoon from about 3 to dark works very well for me. People have time to cook on the weekends, and they can pick things up on their way home from work. Also Friday afternoon is great because my fields are located on the highway, so I pick up tourist traffic going camping in the hills.
Tomatoes, sweet corn, and onions are my best selling items. Cucumbers are fairly popular. I have to pay people to take winter squash. Around here, anyone can grow an abundance of summer squash, and everyone does, so there ain't much point in growing it for market.
I use my tiny local market as a location to deliver CSA baskets. Then I treat the rest of the market as a social.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Feb 13, 2012 11:16:16 GMT -5
The most important thing for a roadside/farm stand is location and parking. Pretty much the rest is knowing your local market and customers and knowing what they are willing to pay. If you have a good location and can grow the stuff but they aren't willing to pay enough for it to cover your costs its not worth it. Try and get as close an estimate possible of your total cost of production for each crop. Make your best estimate of your expected yield. Those two numbers will give you your baseline "break-even" price. The price you set above the break-even number is your asking price. The question is if you think your customers will be willing to pay that, ideally they will. It can be hard to compete with trucked-in produce auction junk if your customers don't care about quality. If the price you need is too high for your market you've either got to find a way to cut your costs or drop the crop. IMO
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 13, 2012 11:48:59 GMT -5
If the price you need is too high for your market you've either got to find a way to cut your costs or drop the crop. IMO Unless it's being grown as a loss leader... People will stop for tomatoes. And so first thing in the season I have to grow cherry tomatoes to induce people to stop. I can't charge a high enough price to break even on the labor required to pick them, let alone weeding and planting. But if people are stopping for tomatoes, perhaps they'll pick up something else at the same time.
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Post by steev on Feb 13, 2012 15:42:08 GMT -5
My eventual plan incorporates the advice above. Being on the (only) road, once I'm living on the property, I have to free up my roadside-stand time so I can kick back and be there Friday afternoons for the locals returning from their town jobs and the tourists heading into the mountains. I intend to be in a farmer's market in the Bay Area Sunday mornings, but if I'm still running the landscaping business I'll not get back to catch the tourists going home Sunday afternoon. "Snakers Acres; keep a low profile and be very flexible."
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Post by 12540dumont on Feb 13, 2012 16:18:36 GMT -5
Steev, the roadside regs for Cal are much more relaxed than any other regs, you should do well. Can't wait to see your shingle hanging out on my way to Greenville. I'd do a roadside stand in a heartbeat, problem is my brother owns all the land on the roadside and he cannot abide the thought of people stopping here. That's why I did the CSA. Gabriel, the roadside we always stop at in Marysville, has corn and strawberries (growing right near the stand). I agree about the squash thing. They sell okay in Fall with Indian Corn. But I have to throw summer squash in the windows of passing cars (or drive by the church) and leave them in the backseat to get rid of them. I agree totally with the tomatoes. The only thing that money can't buy is true love and homegrown tomatoes. People drive out here every year to get just tomatoes. The things that sell really well here are: Corn Berries Tomatoes Melons Green Beans Honey Eggs We also always stop for tree fruit. Further north from us, Tierra Vegetables makes a killing on dried beans, dried ground corn and soup mixes, dried onions, etc. along with the other fresh stuff. I'm working off of their example. Good luck to you. Let us know how it goes. Here's the fruit stand my brother vetoed... Attachments:
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Post by littleminnie on Feb 13, 2012 19:24:26 GMT -5
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Post by gabriel on Feb 14, 2012 14:57:22 GMT -5
Thanks, everyone.
I can't watch the video due to the low bandwidth allowance, maybe I'll be able to do it at a hotspot in town someday.
Eggs sell well for you? They're my equivalent to summer squash, too much competition. Butternut sells very well for me. I'll be growing the other winter squashes for us, sales will just be a bonus. If it goes bad, it'll go to the pig.
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