[Market-farming] Selling Lettuce

Road's End Farm organic87 at frontiernet.net
Tue Apr 29 11:30:38 EDT 2008


On Apr 29, 2008, at 9:41 AM, Richard Stewart wrote:

> I am curious how some of you sell your lettuce both how you package
> it and how you weigh/measure it.

I sell by the individual head, priced roughly according to size, and in 
mixed bags: a gallon bag holding 3 or more different kinds of lettuce, 
according to size. (I grow assorted leaf, butterhead, summer crisp, 
romaine, etc; no iceberg; the exact varities depending on the season.) 
Mixed bags are priced per bag; last year they were 2.50, I expect 
they'll have to go up next year. They usually weigh about half a pound, 
but they're not sold by weight.

I harvest each planting for approximately 3 weeks, starting with fairly 
small lettuce that may be four or even five to fill a bag, and winding 
up with heads that may need to be split to get 3 in a bag. My customers 
don't seem to care about size as long as flavor is good. This may vary 
by market.

Almost all of it sells in the mixed bags. I discovered some years ago 
that people who would pause at a display of six trays of different 
lettuces, with a "3 for, mix or match" sign on them and bags handy, and 
then walk on without buying anything, would snap up the same lettuce if 
I just put 3 heads in the bag for them and displayed it that way. Maybe 
it saves them having to decide? I've no idea. But it works.

I bring some bags already made up, but bring most of the lettuce not 
bagged yet and make more at market as I go; this lets me adjust what's 
in a bag for special requests (all reds? all romaine? no romaine?) and 
also adjust how I'm filling them depending on what, if anything, is 
selling as individual heads; as I generally have six varieties to work 
from to fill three-variety bags, if Purple Oakleaf, for instance, is 
selling relatively fast by itself, then less of that goes into the 
mixed bags. You do want to keep some bags visible on the display all 
the time, though. I second the person who said customers won't buy what 
they don't see.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
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