Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Mitch, I leave the roadside/farm stand to others who've done that. We
caught a recent event where local governments sponsored a get together for
growers and restaurant owners and chefs, about 200 people. All sorts of
eateries can get anything foodwise from the big distributors at some price,
but the upscale places are concerned with quality and freshness. A lot of
them want local and encourage growers to contact them - but not at
lunchtime ;-) And they can't ever get enough fresh herbs, certainly not
from distributors. Overall they'll pay about half the price you get at
farmers markets. They want steady, ongoing relationships with reliable
growers. I won't say much about CSAs except, for my part, I will not ask
customers to share the risk in my business, or to pay in advance for
uncertain amounts of whatever. I feel that's bad business; those who do it
can keep on, not my problem. 

The point of selling direct is to keep the middleman's cut for yourself. I
do agree, it seems some arrangement could be made to have one or two people
sell the produce for a number of others, esp where customers are few and
far between for whatever reason. As of now, few farmers markets have enough
produce coming constantly to warrant daily operation. 

What we'll do this summer is hit two or three local markets that operate at
different times, different days. I hope they like red onions and garlic ;-)
because we overplanted ... and the hot weather stuff has to wait a couple
more months before it's ready to sell. 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/24/2007 at 6:05 AM E. E. Mitchamore Jr wrote:

>Good stuff!  Now will you or someone else write about the relative merits
>of different market types, such as restaurants, weekly Farmer's Markets,
>roadside or on-farm stands, CSAs, etc. ?
>
>Speaking as a customer and potential grower, I don't find weekly markets
>adequate.  They are too restrictive for the customer and too hard on the
>grower.  We need a "daily" market - let's call him/her a "grocer" - that
>receives the produce from the grower "whenever" and sells to the consumer
>"whenever".  There are such markets in most cultures; why not ours?
>
>Also, is there anything written about the "business" of growing food?  If
>the financial aspects are too onerous, they are neglected, leading to
>failure.  One of my purposes for growing and selling native trees has been
>to learn all the aspects of running a small horticultural business.  IT IS
>NOT SIMPLE!  There are MANY things to consider besides the growing, and
>they can get you down: Record keeping, planning, taxes, employees (!),
etc.
>
>E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
>www.hillcountrynatives.biz
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: TradingPostPaul 
>  To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org 
>  Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 11:47 PM
>  Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Market gardening
>
>
>
>  Time for more detailed reply now. My reply follows below.
>
>  paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>  -------------