How about just dragging a table to the end of the driveway?

[annecros]

I consider myself a "hobby" grower, but with the way the season is progressing, I may be able to recoup the increased water bill!

Now, if I tilled the entire back yard, I could probably do 200-300 tomato plants easy and think on a "market" scale. But, I am not there (yet), but was wondering if I just set up a table "Garage Sale" style at the end of my driveway, in the suburbs, with a very well attended Church cata-corner from me, on the weekends - what is to keep me from selling a few tomatoes?

Sort by size and variety. Generous sampling, because you have to do something with the uglies. Fixed prices for "Large" - "Medium" and "Small" per each, and then cherry per pint? A lot of talk and getting to know the neighbor's?

I could then stick my toe in, and think about real Market's in the future?

The very next door neighbor's get them for free, of course. But have told me that they would pay - not that I would allow them.

[Dukerdawg]

Of course you can try that. Many people sell some extra produce on a table in their yard, or at least they do in my area. I have a farmer around the corner from me who does it every year. He's grandfathered in and surrounded by condo's and new homes, but because he was there first he has some farmland and even a cow and some chickens.

It's worth a try, and cash money to boot. I think the key is a good location and it sounds like you have it. Stick your toe in. The weather is fine.

[Wi-sunflower]

The table in the driveway does work somewhat. Kind of depends on how much effort and time you want to put into it.

We actually have a "self-serve" stand in our driveway part of the year. We have a jar for a pay can and it's totally honor system.

The problem with a driveway stand is - how long are you going to just sit there ?? Chances are you won't make enough to pay a kid to sit there either, unless you have 1 of your own you can talk into doing it. We don't, so therefore the "self-serve" stand.

The problem with a self-serve tho, is you aren't there to answer questions all the time. Fortunately one of us is usually somewhere nearby if a customer has a question.

As far as losing product to people that just take the stuff -- we've had very little problems with that. Sure sometimes a few things seem gone with no money in the jar. But we've also had plenty of time when there doesn't seem to be much of anything gone but there is a good amount of money in the jar. Of course we don't live in a high population area, but on a road that gets reasonably decent traffic.

Depending on your location you might want to close it down every evening or at least take the money jar in at nite. An option could be one of the easy to set-up tents / canopy and put the side walls down at nite. We have a large 12 x 30 canopy, mainly for the shade as the produce can cook pretty fast if just left out in the sun.

[Colorado_west]

I am thinking of doing at my place. Few years gone to the Farmer's market here and they have gotten higher in cost to sell. I was thinking of set hours and days. They have dropped to Sat morning only now. I am on a busy road/street. I am county yet so the city has no say, and on acreage. To get around the legal scale one does sell by unit or piece or pint or such. Most do only want red tomatoes. Subdivison across from me of 63 houses and new one going across that will be 54 and so far they just started and have 3 house going up already and dozen and dozens of new homes up the road. I is normal to way for half dozen cars or so cross the road to the mail box. I could add some yard sale type stuff or or crafts and quilts and something. Can't do that at the market. Crafters do not want more crafts at market as too many . I have one canopy and I have tables. I sure do not know the answers but trying to think what i should do.

[feralcatfriend]

Dudes! The church and the developments give you a GREAT marketing opportunity! Let me explain.

For the church: obtain their schedule, if you don't already know it, since a parking lot packed with cars is a big clue and you say they are right across the street (so, obviously, you see them). Make friends with the minister/governing committee, or whoever, to get permission to hand out flyers as people exit the church, or to put flyers under the windshield wipers of the cars. Bring samples of your tomatoes on your friend-making visit.

Use the flyers to educate prospective buyers about why your tomatoes are RARE and delicious. Include their stories and tell the colors and sizes of the varieties you have. This captures their imagination. You can even use it to state the hours you are open. Make sure to put your address and e-mail address on the flyer, plus the hours you are open.

Have the bottom of the flyer be a tear-off coupon with a small discount with a deadline (such as, "Today, (date), only!"

Create a little 10-recipe booklet and offer that for free to customers willing to give you their e-mail addresses so you can e-mail them when particular varieties are ripe or are on sale. Also, tell them they can e-mail you to buy by appointment, if you're willing to do that to make things convenient for them. If you don't give people something like the little recipe book in exchange for their e-mail address, they are less likely to give it to you. It costs you less to make the little book as your gift to obtain opt-ins than it does to give discounts, but experiment to see which technique works best for you. (Your booklet can be something as simple as 10 pages stapled together; you don't have to be fancy.)

For the developments, mail your flyers or go door-to-door handing them out.

Your tomatoes are rare, so I hope you charge more for them than grocery store tomatoes. But, you can make people feel better about paying the premium, first, by educating them about how rare the tomatoes are, and second, by putting up a sign with an even higher price crossed out, with the sale price written next to it. Change these periodically to keep up your credibility, and when your supply is low, charge the higher price because that's capitalism, baby! (That is, when supply is low and demand is high, you can charge higher prices because the willing and able buyers outbid the cheapskates.)

Good luck!

Cynthia

P.S.

When you make a sale, include a coupon with a short deadline to encourage repeat business.

P.P.S.

Keep track of how many coupons you get back and keep a sample of each coupon so you can evaluate your marketing campaigns so you know what works and what doesn't.

[annecros]

I really like the buy by appointment idea! Brilliant.

I do know the schedule intimately. It is not just a church, it is a major private Catholic School that sees morning traffic, both foot and car, each day during the season. I even know when there is a funeral happening.

Great ideas! I may be back with more questions.

These are actually quite RARE, now that I think about it...

Anne

[Dukerdawg]

Cynthia, if you were in my area I would hire you for marketing! You MUST be in that business! Great ideas for sure. I think you just turned a hobby grower with a card table into the next Brad Gates! (..and that might turn into the next BILL GATES!)


Duane

[feralcatfriend]

Duane,

Speaking of Brad Gates, I love that guy! I bought Berkeley Tie Dye seeds from him in January and he sent a sample of Black and Brown Boar along with the BTD. OMG! I loved Black and Brown Boar so much! What a wonderful, rich flavor! It's green and red speckled like Berkeley Tie Dye, but smaller, maybe two inches or so across.

I planted really late so I didn't get many BTDs to rave about, but I gave a friend who works at my favorite nursery one of my Berkeley Tie Dye plants this year and it got planted on time for our area so he had a respectable yield. One of the nursery owners has been very stubborn about preferring hybrids over heirlooms and is repulsed by tomatoes that are not red or pink. But he tried one of the Berkeley Tie Dye tomatoes and pronounced it the best tomato he'd ever had in his life! He's decided to carry more heirloom tomato plants next year! Thank you, Brad!

So--you could do worse than be another Brad Gates!

(For those who don't know--Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms developed Berkeley Tie Dye, Black and Brown Boar and several other varieties of OP tomatoes.)

And yes, I'm in marketing! Thank you!

Cynthia

[feralcatfriend]

Follow up about yield per plant--

When you are trying to figure out how much money you could make, are you estimating an average yield per plant so you know what your break-even point is?

In a recent thread in Tomatoville on dehybridizing Ramapo, as I recall, the F1 yielded quite a bit more than the
F6, which yielded about 17 pounds of tomatoes.

I know yields vary by variety and all sorts of other variables, but what's a reaonable estimate of yield range in pounds per plant? (Should I start a new thread on this?)

Cynthia

[carolyn137]

In a recent thread in Tomatoville on dehybridizing Ramapo, as I recall, the F1 yielded quite a bit more than the
F6, which yielded about 17 pounds of tomatoes.

****

Yes, that was Barkeater saying that but there was more to that thread and in one post I asked about comparing from one season to another and how that's very difficult to do.

I know what a particular variety will yield most of the time under my conditions, but not ALL of the time.

[feralcatfriend]

Thank you, Carolyn. I hope you are feeling well.

What I'm trying to get at is an answer to this question, "What is a reasonable range for pounds-per-plant yield from an heirloom tomato plant that is healthy during a decent growing season?" This will help people who are trying to figure out whether it's worth it to put the card table at the end of the driveway, so to speak.

I know there can't be any guarantees and even a very productive plant can have reduced or no production due to disease, bad weather, critters, whatever.

But it seems like to me that a conservative estimate is an average of about 20 pounds per plant yield.

Does anyone else have an estimate in pounds per plant?

The best estimate I can find by Googling comes from a Canadian publication on yields of greenhouse tomatoes, which I would expect are hybrids. That estimate is 35 to 45 pounds per plant for a variety called "Trust."

Here's the thread where barkeater discussed the decline in Ramapo yield in succeeding generations as he de-hybridized it. I think you said in that thread, or another Ramapo thread, that there should not have been a decline in yield over the succeeding generations, so the decline might have been due to other factors. But I'm not really concerned with Ramapo, specifically.

I'm just trying to get at a ballpark number, in pounds per plant, to use to estimate yield for an heirloom tomato plant in good health in a decent season. Should I start a new thread to ask?

I appreciate any observations and insight I can get into this.

Cynthia

[cdevidal]

Ditto that request for estimate pounds per plant.

I'll bet that since heirlooms have such a very wide variety there is no "ballpark." I've heard 16 pounds in zone 9 where I am is a reasonable expectation when using row covers, but the author seemed to indicate that this was an indeterminate hybrid. I am considering growing Brandywine in zone 9 with row covers.

[barkeater]

For a few years I weighed my tomatoes to estimate the yield. Each variety was fairly consistent year to year with total yield, but when they yielded varied greatly with the weather.

As cdevidal reasoned, there is no ballpark, as certain varieties average only 8-10 pounds, many averaged about 20 pounds, and some exceeded 40 pounds.

I've probably tried over 100 new varieties the past 5 years, and am pretty confident of consistent, excellent yields of about a dozen of them if I was ever to go back to market growing, which I did full time for 15 years.

And, I did get my start by pulling the picnic table and a bench out front way back when I was 15. Great memories! Only problem was it got too successful and the town closed me down the 3rd year.

[carolyn137]

For those asking about yields, I have already given my answer about that in the thread on selling to chefs and retail places, where the same question was asked.

[Worth1]

Last year I don't know how many pounds of tomatoes my friend Martha gave away.
This year we will put up two stands and see if that does OK.

I'm afraid that where my friend lives there are just enough low rent customers that at least one of them that drives by will steal the money and leave the tomatoes.

I did have a conversation with my friend the other day and told her I was going to cut back on the amount I grew.
The reason being is I don't mind giving away tomatoes but I'm not going to work my tail off just so the lazy neighbors can have free food.
Last year they all watched me work my fingers to a nub and never offered any help but there they were for the free hand out.
They never offered any money or anything.

This year any overflow will be sold or it will go to a rest home or poor house not to a rich neighbor with a 250 K house and a 50 K SUV.

Sorry for the rant but enough is enough.

Worth