Re thinking Farmers Markets

[pmcgrady]

Recently I tried my hand at selling tomatoes at a local farmers market, and observed a few things... I had a pretty good assortment of tomatoes:
KBX
Orange Slice
Marianna's Peace
George Detsikes
Momotaro
Olpalka
Big Beef
Lucid Gem
Big mama
Yacqui
Mushroom Basket
Goldmans Italian American
Big assortment of cherry tomatoes
Etc.
The going rate with other vendors was $1.50/# so that's what I set my price at.
I spent 4 1/2 hours there and sold a grand total of about $35, some of the sales were
spaghetti squash, eggplant, and cucumbers. People wanted red baseball tomatoes, they didn't care about taste, just looks...
After about 2 hours there, a truck loaded with huge cantaloupe and watermelons pulled up next to me and set up shop. They were grown south of here in Beardstown Illinois.
The lady running the stand said this was the best melon crop in over 20 years, the cantaloupes were bigger than basketballs. I bought one for $6 it was a SuperStar variety and was probably one of the best cantaloupes I have ever eaten...
She sold around $500 worth of melons in a couple hours... People walked right past my
tomatoes to get melons. I'm not going to waste my time going there Saturday... I'm planting less tomatoes next year and more cantaloupe, melons, and squash. I made a deal with a high end meat market that will buy my tomatoes for $1.50/# and resell at $2.50 - $3.00/#, and I don't have to sit out in the heat trying to sell them to the uneducated public. Lessons learned...

[clkingtx]

I have gone to the farmers market here a couple of times lately, and the only tomatoes there are bland,-ish hybrids. There is only 1 guy who seems very knowledgeable about what he sells. He will have Cherokee Purple in the fall, he says. That is the extent of the heirlooms available here. I would be so thrilled to find someone with heirlooms like you have here! The tomatoes here are $3-$4 per pound. I would be glad to pay that for a selection like yours!

Since your customer base would be very different from those that only want red baseball's, maybe you could advertise on craigslist, possibly attract the attention of those who want good flavor?

[Hellmanns]

Cantaloupe is the worst basket you ever put your eggs in! A good melon year is about 1in 4.

On tomatoes.. You think people don't care about taste? That's wrong. They do care about taste, you just have to have good flavored varieties that are perfect. Then customers will flock to you!

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by Hellmanns

Cantaloupe is the worst basket you ever put your eggs in! A good melon year is about 1in 4.

On tomatoes.. You think people don't care about taste? That's wrong. They do care about taste, you just have to have good flavored varieties that are perfect. Then customers will flock to you!

I'm really impressed with the flavor of Lucid Gem, but I didn't sell even one of them even though I promoted them... People just didn't like the color I guess. I had the best looking paste tomatoes there (San Marzano, Olpalka, Big Mama) didn't sell one...
I had the only orange/yellow tomatoes at the market only 2 people bought some. I did sell some Momotaro (red baseballs) though...

[Nematode]

If you can, have a sample plate out with toothpicks and a salt shaker. Samples sell.
Raise your prices $.50, let them know you have something special.
Do some merchandising, cute signs, flavor and texture descriptions, nice display, anything to stand out in a good way.
Did I say samples?

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by Nematode

If you can, have a sample plate out with toothpicks and a salt shaker. Samples sell.
Raise your prices $.50, let them know you have something special.
Do some merchandising, cute signs, flavor and texture descriptions, nice display, anything to stand out in a good way.
Did I say samples?

Sounds like some good advice! I do need to stand out from the other vendors.

[pmcgrady]

A vendor that buys his produce from the Amish and resells was run out of the farmers market because he's a reseller, set up shop on the other side of town is charging $2.50/# for tomatoes not sure how many he's selling though. May need to setup by him.

[My Foot Smells]

I have a relationship with the local bar, haha, who serves food. I give her tomatoes and get a free meal and drink a few pints of stella artois off the tap in exchange. However, that is in years of excess, which this year is not. Know a couple of ppl that do grow for high end resturants here, but pay is low, but perks are high. A thought. as most do like the distinction and flavor of the 'loom (the joint I deliver uses to slap a red slice on hamburger). There are some that take pre-season orders from vendors and grow to specs... occasionally I will go to the local pizza joint with my own tom and have them use for pizza margherita (YUMMY!!).

Do you only do cash sales or take credit. I never have any green on me, only plastic; then you got the CC use fee, tent fee, etc...

I deal with joey pub 50 hours a week, you could not pay me enough to deal on my day off. I would be willing to offer fruit, but I'm not going to be the tomato pusher/barker dealing with all the yoohoo's in this world. I'm at a place in my life, I'm not really interested in convincing anybody of nothing. Just minding my own...

good luck

[Hellmanns]

If you are going to make it in this business, you have to grow what the customers want. I started the same way trying to force my beliefs on others. It didn't work, never will. I regrouped then moved on to profit.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Hellmanns

If you are going to make it in this business, you have to grow what the customers want. I started the same way trying to force my beliefs on others. It didn't work, never will. I regrouped then moved on to profit.

So true.
I had to tell this to a gun shop owner to help him out, but by the time he realized it it was too late.
Black plastic with high cap magazines at a cheap price nobody wants John Wayne cowboy guns.
If I were going to sell tomatoes here I would sell red and pink round tomatoes.

Just go to a grocery store and look at what people are buying.
For the most part they are buying medium sized red round tomatoes.
Latinos are buying the Roma tomatoes.
If you go into Austin where the Neo Hippies live it is different.
Tomatoes are perishable they have to move or you lose.
Or you can take them home make salsa go back next week and sell that.
But if it isn't red people wont buy it.
Worth

[Hellmanns]

Originally Posted by Worth1

So true.
I had to tell this to a gun shop owner to help him out, but by the time he realized it it was too late.
Black plastic with high cap magazines at a cheap price nobody wants John Wayne cowboy guns.
If I were going to sell tomatoes here I would sell red and pink round tomatoes.

Just go to a grocery store and look at what people are buying.
For the most part they are buying medium sized red round tomatoes.
Latinos are buying the Roma tomatoes.
If you go into Austin where the Neo Hippies live it is different.
Tomatoes are perishable they have to move or you lose.
Or you can take them home make salsa go back next week and sell that.
But if it isn't red people wont buy it.
Worth

99% of the growers here grow a combination of rock hard tasteless commercial hybrids. Round and red! I still grow round and red, but mine have taste and juice. All the customers know is my round red tomatoes taste better, so they keep coming back.

[Cole_Robbie]

June is the month to sell tomatoes in Illinois. By mid-July, it becomes pointless.

That's part of the reason I let my garden fall apart at this time of year. As the summer progresses, it becomes more work to keep everything pruned, trellised, and sprayed while the demand for tomatoes disappears.

I can still sell about $200 a week worth of my mixed color cherry and saladette mix at this time of year, but that's at $2 a pint, $3 a quart, which are prices so low that they disgust even me. And that's going to two markets. My stuff should fly off the table at that price, instead of taking all morning to sell, but I still take a few home.

It would make the most sense for me to grow everything under plastic, sell it in June, and be done by the first week of July. And then figure out something else to plant besides tomatoes.

[Nematode]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

June is the month to sell tomatoes in Illinois. By mid-July, it becomes pointless.

That's part of the reason I let my garden fall apart at this time of year. As the summer progresses, it becomes more work to keep everything pruned, trellised, and sprayed while the demand for tomatoes disappears.

I can still sell about $200 a week worth of my mixed color cherry and saladette mix at this time of year, but that's at $2 a pint, $3 a quart, which are prices so low that they disgust even me. And that's going to two markets. My stuff should fly off the table at that price, instead of taking all morning to sell, but I still take a few home.

It would make the most sense for me to grow everything under plastic, sell it in June, and be done by the first week of July. And then figure out something else to plant besides tomatoes.

Anything you can grow out of season will bring a premium.
There are some good crops that can be winter harvested if grown under plastic, but not too many sub zero farmers markets out there.
Im sure you all are familiar with Elliott Coleman's work.

[pmcgrady]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

June is the month to sell tomatoes in Illinois. By mid-July, it becomes pointless.

That's part of the reason I let my garden fall apart at this time of year. As the summer progresses, it becomes more work to keep everything pruned, trellised, and sprayed while the demand for tomatoes disappears.

I can still sell about $200 a week worth of my mixed color cherry and saladette mix at this time of year, but that's at $2 a pint, $3 a quart, which are prices so low that they disgust even me. And that's going to two markets. My stuff should fly off the table at that price, instead of taking all morning to sell, but I still take a few home.

It would make the most sense for me to grow everything under plastic, sell it in June, and be done by the first week of July. And then figure out something else to plant besides tomatoes.

I took 2 beer flats of mixed cherry tomatoes to the market... Didn't sell 1 cherry tomato. The only people making any money there were the peach and melon sellers.
One lady did sell a lot of new potatoes and green beans, but only put out one bowl full
at a time, making the customer "think" they were getting the last off them. Soon as they pulled away in their car, she would fill the bowl back up and put it out on her table.
I'm too old to think about growing peaches, so I'm thinking, blackberries,melons or weed

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

June is the month to sell tomatoes in Illinois. By mid-July, it becomes pointless.

That's part of the reason I let my garden fall apart at this time of year. As the summer progresses, it becomes more work to keep everything pruned, trellised, and sprayed while the demand for tomatoes disappears.

I can still sell about $200 a week worth of my mixed color cherry and saladette mix at this time of year, but that's at $2 a pint, $3 a quart, which are prices so low that they disgust even me. And that's going to two markets. My stuff should fly off the table at that price, instead of taking all morning to sell, but I still take a few home.

It would make the most sense for me to grow everything under plastic, sell it in June, and be done by the first week of July. And then figure out something else to plant besides tomatoes.

This is what I am working torwards. Get a early crop then a very late fall crop and in between do Okra and squash/cukes as they are easy and bring good prices for the effort involved.