What are the top 5 sellers in a Produce stand?

[gourmetgardener]

Originally Posted by Wi-sunflower

I agree with Gourmet about too many growers selling tomatoes at my market too cheap.

At my market you are SUPPOSED to only sell what YOU grow. But there are a few growers that manage to sneak in wholesale stuff that is perfect looking but tasteless. So if you have good tasting but blemished heirlooms and can't give tastes, you just about have to give them away.

So while I grow out a WHOLE LOT of varieties and sizes, I mostly take only the small cherries and grape types to market. I take a whole rainbow and let customers taste as much as they want and it's the taste that sells them.

It truly IS the taste that sells them. At a market that lets me sample, I cut up about a dozen great heirlooms for tasting. That market is usually dirt cheap with customers looking for bushels of canning tomatoes for $10-15. But after tasting some of mine, they paid $2 / lb for mine. A few of them were $4-5 / tomato (2+ lbs each).

As for other things, it can be whatever YOU do a good job of. We do a whole lot of varieties of winter squash in fall. Some years more than 15 varieties. We have the biggest display within the rules on the square and are almost the only vendor that sells by the bushel bag (onion sacks).

I have also been selling Brussels Sprouts "on the stalk" for more than 25 years. While not one of the more popular crops, because I usually have the only stalks that are full to the top, I will sell out almost every week we have them. Anywhere from 50 to 150 stalks / week.

If you find something that you love and do it well, usually you will do well selling it.

Carol

I know your feeling about those that sneak in stuff from a wholesale - would love to hang them to dry.

For specialty tomatoes, did you ever try Paramount Seeds? Give Caprese, Orangino, Flavorino, Santa Orange, and Zebrino a try?

[clkeiper]

Our best sellers are the tomatoes first for quantity, but all the small fruit such as raspberries and strawberries are # 1 in $$ , corn, cantaloupes and watermelon. I give as much in samples as I can and the taste is what sells it. Most of my tomatoes are a pink hybrid that we actually sell the most of for taste. Then comes the red tomatoes.

We also have a "grow your own" market, but....it seems to be impossible to keep it this way. Unfortunately we need the "re-sellers" to draw the people since our market is newer and smaller than some of the other local markets. The "merchants" who re sell the produce and try to push it as all their own, from their "back yard garden".... BAH!! If they were honest about it I wouldn't get so disgusted. Their stuff is beautiful, but it doesn't taste that good, as it is grown to hold up for shipping and sitting as opposed to picking and eating.

[biscgolf]

re-sellers at producer only markets are a universal problem... unfortunately there are only so many farm visits a largely volunteer market manager can do...

[clkeiper]

Yes biscgolf, I agree. The only thing to do is let the consumers at the market show them their preferences for real garden grown produce. Unfortunately as soon as the current one gives up on the market a new one comes in. This year I started taking pictures of my gardens and put them right on my table for people to actually see the garden where it comes form. I also invite them to stop on by during the week and ask for anything that is ready, I will go out and pick it for them if it isn't already on my roadside stand.

[biscgolf]

we've done pictures of our gardens as well... educating the 50% of the consumers that care to be educated is key... the others simply don't care.

[huntsman]

You folk are selling the fruit, not the plants, correct?

I have very limited space to produce crops, so it's more feasible for me to sell plants in grow bags, though I'll certainly add fruit selling if I get a decent crop this year...

Meantime, my best sellers are 'Maters, Peppers and Basil with organic ferts coming in fourth!

[biscgolf]

i sell plants early in the season- then fruits. among the plants basil is far and away the top herb and tomatoes easily the top vegetable.

[clkeiper]

I sell both, from my house and at a farmers market. There are people who like to grow their own vegetables and people who do not , don't have time, or perhaps not the tools, area or enough sunshine to do so. So I try to capture a little of both markets, this also this supports my "need" to have the greenhouses and start all my own seeds and grow different varieties that most people don't even know exist.

[Colorado_west]

JackE, on watermelons the ladies can not handle. Have you tried the Sugar Babies. Very good taste and not real big. I could handle them fine and even the store here is selling smaller melons. I would guess due to the cost. Lots can not go a big one and smaller families. I never had a lot of them. I am getting jabbed twice a month right now till the tests get back up. Apparent calcium caps with soy did it. I was doing real good. I am back at a safe level but day after Xmas to be sure. I think the Sugar Babies are as good tasting as the large ones. I was surprised they were.

Tomatoes were the best sellers. Mainly red ones.

[JackE]

Hi Lila -- long time no see! :-)

I don't think our people would buy a small melon like that. They're set in their ways. And I really don't think people going by on the highway would be tempted to stop for a display of Sugar Babies - they wanna see a big ol' stack of green and striped giant melons. :-)

Jack

[clkeiper]

Jade star is the new and improved Sugar baby. I grew them this year and they were Ok, but the whole summer was not watermelon weather.

[JackE]

We had great watermelon weather here - over 100 everyday - but we didn't have any water. Another problem we have with melons is crows - peck holes in every one! We're pretty much out of the watermelon business for good.

Jack

[clkeiper]

Too bad we couldn't have compromised some. We had too much wet and not enough warm.

[JackE]

I'm sure hoping for a better year in 2012, but the long term weather forecasts are not encouraging. This fall was drier than normal too - Oct and Nov are wet months here, but we just got a few inches all fall.

I won't be totally dependent on the irrigation pond - I have a limited area on a well, about 1/3 of an acre. I normally plant three acres.

Jack

[GIZZARDFARM]

I cant grow enough pole beans, okra and corn to meet the demand here. Tomatoes are my number one seller.