[Market-farming] Lettuce price?

Lynn Wigglesworth lynnw1366 at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 1 13:58:20 EDT 2009


What do you all get for mixed baby lettuce? I raise Johnny's Wildfire mix; 
pretty red and green leaf lettuce. I cut it young, triple-wash and bag it in 
1/2 lb. bags (that mix goes for $3.99/half-pound in the grocery store).

In the past, I've had an on-farm stand, but I'm a one-person operation and a 
farm stand took too much time away from farming. I decided this year to try 
selling through someone else's farm stand here that features 'local 
produce'. She offered me $.50/bag for my baby lettuce (she sells it for 
$1/bag...I was getting $2/bag 2 years ago). I also have early green beans 
(probably the only local ones available this early...I start them in cell 
packs and transplant under row covers), and she offered an insulting price 
for those, too..

Our farmers' market in town has 2-3 vendors, and they mostly just sell stuff 
to each other..some weeks they don't make the $5 vendor fee.  I don't raise 
enough to justify taking it 50+ miles to the nearest decent farmers' market. 
Is selling in my own farm stand, at my own prices, spending more on 
advertising than I make some weeks, the only answer? Sheesh...no wonder 
farmers need day jobs!

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA 



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