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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] was high value crops/now pricing.

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  • From: John Ferree <john AT seldomseenfarm.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] was high value crops/now pricing.
  • Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:10:17 -0500

We saw the same thing a lot with a market we used to go to. . . it was
in the burbs and supposedly the wealthy side of town. but we came to
the conclusion that they were debt loaded from trying to impress one
another. my wife ran the market and wouldn't take any of the BS. . .
telling what we viewed as snotty customers exactly what she thought,
more often than not they came back and bought the item in question.

Outside of produce, if you're producing what walmart is. . . ya better
bail out quick. mums are a good example.

as to high value crops. . . . i would say a high value crop is one that
doesn't require much labor but produces well, or one that requires labor
but fetches a good dollar for the work.

run a spreadsheet based on your yields/crop spacing (yields knot's
veggie handbook, johnnys catalog for guesstimates) and play with
different prices. we shoot for 30k/a on veggies (we are very small, and
struggle to reach that number). what if salad yields start at 30 to and
progress to in 3 years 50# per unit area? the 50# lettuce will be a
fast harvest and you can more easily reach a higher $/area, less work
for more money. but if you are very, very small (PT income) just define
what you want to make and put a crop plan together that can meet your
sales goal.

individual crops? early TXed sunflowers - the single crop that's the
only reason i'm still doing this. salad mixes/spinach if your market
is dry. spinach in the fall of 06 :^) anything that your market lacks,
really. i second the pot(atoes). heh.

john



MRSHLR AT aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 12/8/2007 9:43:42 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> organic101 AT linkny.com writes:
>
> My
> recommendation is to *not* try to engage in a price war and try to
> match the cheapest prices you find, or to undersell everybody.
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I've been lurking on the list for a while, but I just had to chirp in
> and agree with that statement. Here is an experience I had his past
> summer at our local farmers market with pricing, which is about 1/4
> mile from a Super Wal-mart. All my produce is grown organically, but
> I'm not certified, yet. So, I go around to local grocery stores and
> markets to get an idea what organic and non-organic is selling for,
> and then find a happy median for my pricing. Well, this lady came to
> the farmers market and wanted to talk me down on the price of my
> tomatoes. I wouldn't do it. She argued with me for a good 10 minutes
> and I explained to her where my farm was and how the tomatoes were
> grown, etc. She said would just go to Wal-mart and get them cheaper.
> She left, got to the end of the street, turned around an came back to
> buy my tomatoes. I don't know what changed her mind, but she must have
> thought mine tomatoes were better, even if they weren't cheaper.
>
> Melissa
>
>
>
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