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  • From: Frankie Whitman <FWhitman AT freshnex.com>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: greenhouse
  • Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 11:32:25 -0500


Bill,

I was interested in reading your email that you sell to restaurants. Do you
do the delivery personally? What kinds of quantities do they purchase at a
time? Are you selling all your production or are you looking for new
markets? I work with an internet company that links suppliers with chefs and
we're always looking for good producers who know how to grow and pack for
restaurants.

Frankie Whitman
fwhitman AT freshnex.com

-----Original Message-----
From: William McKay [mailto:bmckay55 AT hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 3:08 AM
To: market farming
Subject: Re: greenhouse


Adrianna

Regarding the baby lettuce, I have used quite a few different ones. The
butterheads seem to be the nicest (to my eyes), but the restaurants don't
care what kind I have, as long as they are baby types. Of course, I am in a

pretty enviable position. I live very close to Boston and there are
virtually no farmers left in the area. Some restaurants deal with the few
farmers left in the area, but most are forced to rely on produce
wholesalers, so the jump at the opportunity to buy locally grown produce,
especially 'baby' types.

In any case, I have had pretty good luck with Pirat & Merveilles des Quatre
Saisons (I now bring it in from Italy where it is called 4 Stagioni, a much
better name I think). They both have very nice color & good growth habits
for baby lettuce; the 4 seasons inthe fall turns a lovely maroon/red color.

It also takes the cold pretty good. Still have some going in the unheated

greenhouse and it has been a fairly cool winter. Have also sold rouge
grenoblaise and lollo rossa as baby.

However, you might want to ask your own customers what they want. That is
what I did. While they were unable to tell me "I want Pirat lettuce cut at
31 days", they could tell me what the end result they desired was; I then
played around with different varieties and came up with something that they
liked and I could grow.

Definitely concur with your observation on Johnny's. My brother is a real
farmer (unlike me) and he swears by the folks there. They really do know
their business.

As for when I harvest them, it depends. The customers want them small. I
would put out a 5-6week transplant and could harvest it in 25-30 or so days
if the weather cooperated. On the other hand, I could also hold it another
few weeks; even if it got too big, just strip off some of the outer leaves
and voila, baby lettuce. I used to bring them into the restaurant and let
them strip them; the staff had the leavings in their salads.

Bill McKay in E. Massachusetts
SeedsfromItaly - Importer of Italian packet vegetable seeds




>
>Subject: Re: Greenhouse questions
>From: "Adriana Gutierrez" <gutierrez-lagatta AT home.com>
>Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 07:30:05 -0600
>X-Message-Number: 4
>
>Great discussion on greenhouses. A couple of questions and comments:
>
>Bill, what variety of seeds do you use for your baby lettuces and at
>how many days from seeding do you harvest? I recall a conversation
>with the sales rep from Johnny's (Di Cody is great, she really knows
>her stuff) who mentioned that in Hawaii growers are marketing a
>Rainbow Mix of teenage sized heads of lkettuce for an excellent
>price/#. Multiple varieties packed in "waves" in one case.

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  • Re: greenhouse, William McKay, 02/01/2001
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • RE: greenhouse, Frankie Whitman, 02/01/2001

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