Selling to Chefs And Retail Places

[feldon30]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I might set up in front of China Mart just so I can give them a hard time even though I know they will get me ran off.
If the cop tries to write me a ticket I will bribe He/She with tomatoes.
Here you go, just taste one, take some home to the family. I'll let you know when the melons come in.

Worth

LOL

Store Owner: "But why didn't you run that crazy man off our property?"
Officer: "Did you taste those tomatoes?"

[brokenbar]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

In most states I know you couldn't sell tomatoes in jars with olive oil unless you jumped through many hoops/

Why do you like Borgo Cellano so much. I don't like it at all and not just b'c I don't believe one word of the purported history which says it's supposed to be 400 years old.

A friend of mine, now deceased, was the person who introduced it.

In other words, well heck, if you like it you like it and I won't ask what other varieties you've tried for the same purpose.

Besides Borgo Cellano, they all want me to dry Principe Borgese and neither of them, IMHO are worth a darn and way too much trouble.

[Wi-sunflower]

Water is now 3 dollars for a tiny little bottle in the secured area at Anchorage.

I'll go you 1 better than that. 2 years ago when we were coming home from Puerta Vallarta, on a charter no less, they had water and soda in the 'secure area', just like at home. I think it was $2/bottle. Lots of us were buying stuff for the 4 hour ride home. The problem was when we went thru yet another check point right at the end of the jet-way, they were confiscating all bottles of anything, open or not, even tho we all had to have just gotten them in that 'secure area' as they had taken everything away before we got to that point.

What a racket that was. I bet most of the un-opened bottles either went home with the checkers OR went back to be sold again to the next gringo suckers.


About those Principes, they got press in some magazine several years ago about being THE tomato for sun drying. Even some of the catalogs still have that in the blurb for Principe Borghese. Most chefs, and customers in general, need educating about GOOD vegies.

[Bama mater]

You folks that sell to chefs and retail places, Where do you get your boxes to ship tomatos in?

[huntsman]

great thread - thanks!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Bama mater

You folks that sell to chefs and retail places, Where do you get your boxes to ship tomatos in?

Bama, I never saw your question until I just clicked in b'c there was a new name for this thread.

I used standard nursery flats, the plastic ones, b'c I didn't want to damage the fruits by piling them up and I loaded them in the car and delivered to the chefs I was dealing with as well as the retail farm stand where they were also sold.

So no shipping. And I'll tell you that my car was quite tomato fragrant with all that I stuffed into the trunk and the back seat as well.

[Bama mater]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Bama, I never saw your question until I just clicked in b'c there was a new name for this thread.

I used standard nursery flats, the plastic ones, b'c I didn't want to damage the fruits by piling them up and I loaded them in the car and delivered to the chefs I was dealing with as well as the retail farm stand where they were also sold.

So no shipping. And I'll tell you that my car was quite tomato fragrant with all that I stuffed into the trunk and the back seat as well.

Thanks Carolyn, I figured out I could go to grocery stores and get plenty of stackable produce boxes that worked out very good, some Saturdays I had 20+ flats to bring to market so it was very helpful to use that style.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Bama mater

Thanks Carolyn, I figured out I could go to grocery stores and get plenty of stackable produce boxes that worked out very good, some Saturdays I had 20+ flats to bring to market so it was very helpful to use that style.

Which reminds me that I had and still have many red heavy duty plastic milk trays that were used to deliver milk to local stores. Those were great b'c they were much stronger than the somewhat lightweight black nursery trays which I used to use double anyway. And yes, those milk trays are stackable as well.

[feraltomatoes]

The boxes I use are called 4" metric. A local Northern California bussiness "Reynolds Packaging" will deliver locally if you order a pallet. 250 boxes for about $1.20 each.
Heirlooms do much better placed single layer, just touching(no rock and roll) and stem down. You can stack these boxes up to 10 high without smashing and they display fairly nice on a table.
Here is a picture to get an idea.
http://

[huntsman]

Great to actually see the boxes. Thanks!

I'm curious about the clamps...surely the boxes don't blow off??

[Zana]

I believe the clamps might be to hold the box on the back onto the table if you will. With the flap folded over along side of the sorter end of the other boxes, it may have a tendency to push the boxes that are perpendicular to the ones sitting at the "front" of the tables. Especially as they got emptier. Then again, they could also be holding "name tags" on too. Just my guesses based on the picture.

[huntsman]

Yeah, that makes sense, Zana - thanks.

Hopefully I will have these problems soon! (I plan to sell my surplus off at a Farmer's Market in Pretoria, 60km away)

[yotetrapper]

For those looking for boxes, I just found these. 500 of them for $80 shipped. First one on page...

http://www.avisbag.com/CORRUGATED.html

[twistingtendril]

The first one is a bundle of 25 boxes, for $53 without shipping, right? And the full skid of 500 is $849 without shipping? Or am I missing some incredible deal that you've found?

[brokenbar]

My husband uses flat, square, clear rubbermaid container to which he has glued a piece of 3" (width of inside pipe hole , not the length of the piece of pipe) PVC on the bottom at one end. This makes the boxes tilt upward at one end slightly and makes a nice display. He said he would rather buy boxes once and be able to wash and re-use them. Just an idea...