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market-farming - Re: [market-farming]Profitability

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  • From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: [market-farming]Profitability
  • Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 14:52:58 -0500


Joan Vibert wrote:

> The gross dollar sales are about the same but interestingly
> enough, I'm sure
> that after I figure expenses on both the prepared food and the
> produce - the
> prepared food will win, especially if you factor in time/labor! I will
> continue to grow - plan to try and reduce it to a wonderful kitchen garden
> like I use to have (manageable and enjoyable) and some rows in
> the big field
> for potatoes, garlic, etc.

We have almost always had a garden, sometimes fairly large even when we
lived in town. But even with our larger garden, we figure that we will
practically guarantee that we will have enough for ourselves and only the
surplus is what we sell. Of course we will sometimes personally use the
cosmetically challenged produce, just like we do with our beef sales.

It was not until last summer that I really started looking deeper at the
'numbers' in market gardening and found that they were more difficult to
work out than most other farming activities. This was really driven home
when we factored in the travel time and labor for direct sales.

To put the numbers in persepective, our local farmer's market sales combined
from all the farm vendors would probably not be enough to provide a good
living for one family. But there are many hobbyists who attend and also we
have groups such as the World Hunger program that we have to compete with
since they receive donations of food, including prepared foods that we can
not legally sell, but they of course can sell.

What always surprises me is why things sell and who is selling them, and it
is very clear that all things being equal, a customer has a farm or two
where they liked the produce and they mostly buy only from that farm(s).

Is it the experience of other folks that it takes maybe 3 or 4 years of
coming to the same market to get a loyal following of customers compared to
say, the first year?

We still find that some things sell so much better than other things and the
connection with labor and cost of production is not always factored in the
selling price. I have noticed that it is very difficult to sell cabbage and
lettuce and similar greens for much money. On the other hand, berries are
not only a better selling items but the margins are dramatically higher
considering the inputs.

And then there is the seasonal issue. We took a couple of sizeable pumpkins
to market last week, and I don't think there were many there for sale, but
no takers at all at $3. Same for some "wild" apples. But the raspberries
sold out by 9 am at $3 per pint. Our farm is definitely going to concentrate
on fruit and have only a modest amount of greens, beets, beans, carrots, and
potatoes.

Remember though, that we would never do market gardening sales at a Farmer's
market if it was not for our beef promotion.

> And we can't use the word organic on any of the prepared foods unless we
> have a organic certificate from every single product manufacturer that we
> purchase.

> Our market has been
> conducting a market survey this summer and one of the questions
> asks what is
> most important to our customers - organic is fairly far down the
> list. And
> we are an all certified organic market!

And many people, for some reason, want to believe that if they are buying
the product from the farmer who grew it, it is OK and there are no chemicals
or additives.

> ... that there is a need for my energy in promoting
> local food in other ways in addition to growing it. I'd like the
> opportunity to give people the tools to learn how to eat as locally,
> in-season, and socially conscious as possible. Its a radical idea but
> probably the best fight I can pick.

Can you give us more information on how you are doing this? We have our
brochures which we hand out everywhere we go. And have them placed on
strategic bulletin boards in an envelope holder (we generally move about 3
to 5 per week). We mostly want to market to the local community. In fact, a
secret desire of mine would be to tell a distant caller that we are sorry
but we do not sell our products beyond "x" distance:) I wonder if anyone has
ever done that considering the environmental issues of distant customers?

> I'd like to pass it
> along to each and every person who has any inclination to take control of
> their food buying. As an old hippy, I guess I still think we can
> over-turn
> the system.

I should have guessed:) The "system" we have is an excellent system for
maximizing the standard of living in terms of income, but people generally
make selections based on convenience and price over local or even quality.
It seems lik you would have such an uphill battle to get many people to
change.

Sincerely,

Rick Williams
Misty Ridge Farm
Dairy heifers and dairy beef graziers
Viroqua, WI

www.mistyridgefarm.com





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