Market Farming

["Jeanine Fore" <Jeanine4 AT aol.com>]

I was so excited that I received responses to my post. I printed them out
and read them to the family. I know this sounds like I am a pathetic
loser, but my husband and daughter already know that it doesn’t take much
to make me happy. I am still a grinning like a mule eatin' briers, over
the responses.

Bill, Could you ask your brother when does he harvest his fingerling
potatoes, after the tops have died back or does he cut back the green tops
and harvest like new potatoes. Also, I checked out the growitalian.com
site, very nice. I have requested a catalog; I am always looking for
something different.

Mary Mary, I will be ordering my fingerlings today, from Johnny’s, but
keep me posted on your progress with them and I will do the same. You make
a valid point on the bouquets, but customers where picking them up and
putting them back down again, and one bundle begin to dislike all the
handling, so I believe the sleeves will be a necessity this year, because
hopefully I will have more bouquets.

Beth, I dug my lemon grass up and brought them in the greenhouse in
December. I have a friend that sells herbs and she left hers out in the
field in the winter of 2000, the temp got down to 17 degrees and she lost
them all. I was scared to take the chance on leaving mine out and also I
wanted to split them up and have more for this spring.

How long do you wait before you harvested your fingerlings? We start
harvesting red potatoes before the bush dies to get new potatoes. Is this
the same way with fingerlings?

On the yardlongs, I arranged them into one-pound bundles and wrapped hay
string around them and sold them for $1.50 to $1.00 a pound. And a few for
.50 cents a pound, (yikes) I need to work on my haggling skills. I don’t
want to be known as the farmer with the dirt-cheap prices. I had nothing
to compare the prices with, and I sold out of them quickly, so this makes
me think they were a tad to cheap. But I have since read in different
articles of people selling them for $2.50 a pound. But it was in a
different region than south Mississippi.

Last year I learned the hard way with many bought lessons, and this year I
will have a better bookkeeping system, and know the production cost per
veggie, so I can set my prices more accurately.

On the okra, I started selling at the market late in the season for the
south, around the end of June. So okra was very abundant by this time, and
the going price was $1.00 a pound. But I am sure earlier in the season it
was probably higher. One problem at the market is that some vendors don’t
put signage on their produce, and then you don’t have a clue what they are
selling it for without asking.

Cooking fried okra in the south is a must. I wash the whole pod and cut
the tips off and start slicing crosswise about every ¼ inch to 3/8 inch,
put them in a bowl of water and set aside. Mix up cornmeal, salt and
pepper; put your grease on the stove, I use a small pot. Roll the okra
around one at a time in the cornmeal mixture and then put it in the hot
grease until golden brown. Take them out and drain on a paper towel.

I don’t remember how many stems that I had in a bundle, but I sold them
for $2.50 each. I believe I put 2 to 3 of the crested celosia (cockscomb),
and a good many of the feather celosia and around 2 to 4 of the plumed. I
bought the seeds from Johnny’s, and started them in the greenhouse.  In
the past I had bought cockscombs from local nurseries and planted them in
my flowerbeds. They never grew past the size they were in the pack and
eventually they seem to melt like the wicked witch in the wizard of oz.
But the chief mix (crested cockscombs) just went to town, growing like
there was no tomorrow.

Your idea of a farm stand sounds great. You will never know until you try.

Chris, thanks for the information, I have never heard of wireworms, but
that doesn’t mean we don’t have them down here. I will ask my in-laws,
(Papa and Granny) they’re in there 80’s and they have been gardening for a
very long time. And if we have them, I am sure they have seen them. I pick
their brains quite often for gardening information.

Michael, The first time I seen hyacinth bean was at a Fall Garden Festival
and it was grown for its ornamental value, over a long tunnel trellis. My
friend that I was with picked a few and ate them raw. I thought she was
crazy, I assumed that it was poisonous. But she assured me it wasn’t and
that you would cook them like any bean. She had been eating them since her
childhood days. (But, I still keep one eye cockeyed looking at her,
thinking any moment she would drop dead, she didn’t thou)

Last year I purchased the book “Oriental Vegetables” by Joy Larkcom. And
on page 59, has big as all get out, was the hyacinth bean, with info on
its background, characteristics, cultivation and harvesting. She states in
the use column of this veggie that they can be cooked by any methods
suitable for French beans. (She also included a recipe)

Jay Gee, I hope this post is paragraphically correct, let me know how it
rates.

Thanks again for all the responses,
Jeanine Fore
The Veggie Nook
Perkinston, MS