Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - [Market-farming] Re: Tomatoes (Totally Tomatoes)

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "D Dunbar" <dunbar2 AT netdirect.net>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Re: Tomatoes (Totally Tomatoes)
  • Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 14:19:58 -0500

I ordered from Totally Tomatoes for the first time last year. I won't do it
again. I had difficulty reaching them and they "lost" my order. Once I
finally received my seeds (I ordered 12 varieties from them), I had less
than 50% germination on 8 of the varieties. On two varieties, I had less
than 20% germination. There are many EXCELLENT seed vendors out there
reachable by Internet and catalog that offer the same varieties (and many of
them at a lower price). Since my poor experience, I have learned many other
professional gardeners / market growers have had a similar experience with
them.
Dana Dunbar, Dunbar Family Farms

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of
market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 12:00 PM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market-farming digest, Vol 1 #23 - 10 msgs


Send Market-farming mailing list submissions to
market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Market-farming digest..."


Today's Topics:

1. Tomatoes (Hook Family)
2. test, no need to reply (Liz Pike)
3. Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day (Rainbow's End Farms &
Orchards)
4. Re: Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day (jay gee)
5. Paying a Market Manager (jjvaughn AT juno.com)
6. Mid week markets (jjvaughn AT juno.com)
7. RE: Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day (Rick Williams)
8. Re: Paying a Market Manager (Willie McKemie)
9. Re: Mid week markets (Lucy Goodman)
10. RE: Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day (Marie Kamphefner)

--__--__--

Message: 1
From: "Hook Family" <guldann AT ix.netcom.com>
To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 09:42:40 -0500
Subject: [Market-farming] Tomatoes
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Alan asked a few days ago how the Green Zebras marketed. We have a CSA so
they were just offered in the mix. I think they would require free samples.
I thought they tasted good.
Question the catalogs are coming in :). I got a Totally Tomatoes cat. and
I must say "How is one to decide what to get". Any fans of this cat. and
any suggestions :). Beth



--__--__--

Message: 2
From: "Liz Pike" <liz AT laughingbrookfarm.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 13:05:51 -0500
Subject: [Market-farming] test, no need to reply
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org





--__--__--

Message: 3
From: "Rainbow's End Farms & Orchards" <rainbowsend AT swva.net>
To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 14:28:02 -0500
Subject: [Market-farming] Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

I guess it was bound to happen...

A year ago we began looking for a term that would be so generic
that its use would provoke neither conflict nor infringe upon the
legal rights of others while also being easily understood.

(In Georgia during the preceding year we had incorporated a firm
with the name GeorgiaGrown and reserved a web site by the same
name only to see it "borrowed" by the Georgia Department of Ag
within several months of our sharing the concept with their
agents.) The purpose of Georgia Grown was to be a springboard for
those uniquely identifiable products that were grown, handmade or
manufactured by Georgians in Georgia.

In relocating and launching our farm in Virginia we selected
"Naturally Grown Goodness" to represent our products. Reading
across the internet I have noted countless others using the term
"Naturally Grown" ..which well describes similar principles. Our
thought was that the term Naturally Grown implied something that
the customers could understand without the need for "Organic".
Why, because I am one who happens to believe that the term has
gone from representing a concept and related commitments as
launched generations ago as natural farming and gardening to its
present understanding by industry as a way to obtain a greater
return. Mind you, that is my own simple observation and reflects
nothing negatively about the bio-intensive underpinnings of the
organic concepts that I treasure.

Yesterday I received a copy of this month's Fruit Grower News
with a front page article proclaiming "Naturally Grown new option
to organic program". The article describes yet another
certification program and their website
http://www.naturallygrown.org/ carries numerous trademark and
copyright references. There is a sliding scale of up to $100.00
to be so certified and monitored. Does this now mean that for the
rest of use who have long used Naturally Grown or some
combination thereof in describing our product mix should now be
expected to pay for and suffer the monitoring of yet another
"program"? Frankly, as a small farmer/private citizen I am weary
of those seeking to control or profit from our rights to use long
held totally generic terms.

Last week it was a farm IN TEXAS claiming on their website to
have trademarked the term "Tennessee Meat Goat". Shockingly, many
of our land grant colleges are apparently ascribing to the claim
by listing the Tennessee Meat Goats as a separate breed. No
research thus far has turned up such a trademark. The owner of
the site will not graciously support the claim with documentation
and none of the three registry associations have apparently ever
seen such.

I raise Tennessee Goats and have long, long heard them referred
to as Tennessee Goats, Tennessee Meat Goats, Tennessee Fainting
Goats, Fainting Goats, or Myotonic Goats. While I have chosen for
reasons of respect for the beautiful, large animals to select
those with little or none of the fainting characteristics, some
would purposely breed to maximize the epileptic like fainting
with the claim that it tenderizes the meat. Is that any the less
a myotonic goat or the goats of others any the less the Tennessee
goat? Should we then be subjected to threats of legal action for
using yet another generic term?

Must everything, even the use of totally generic terms, now be
certified, trademarked, copyrighted, inspected?

How many new programs must the public be brought to
understand...or do they truly ONLY need to understand Locally
Grown Quality?

Clarence W. and Lisa J. Walker
Rainbow's End Farms and Orchards
880 Central Academy Road
Stuart, Virginia 24171
email: rainbowsend AT swva.net
web: www.rainbowsendfarms.com
phone: 276-894-4324

NATURALLY GROWN GOODNESS!

Beef, Lamb, Boer Goats, Trout, Poultry
Vegetables, Fruit, Berries, Herbs



--__--__--

Message: 4
From: "jay gee" <jgj23 AT mindspring.com>
To: "market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wed, 04 Dec 2002 12:34:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Rainbow's End Farms & Orchards wrote in part:

>Yesterday I received a copy of this month's Fruit Grower News
>with a front page article proclaiming "Naturally Grown new option
>to organic program". The article describes yet another
>certification program and their website
>http://www.naturallygrown.org/ carries numerous trademark and
>copyright references. There is a sliding scale of up to $100.00

To do a trademark search of the phrase "Naturally Grown," go
to the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office web site and do
trademark search.

http://www.uspto.gov

A little friendly marketing advice to all of you who are interested
in protecting your hard work and marketing investments.

If you develop a unique phrase in describing your products,
go to the trouble and expense of trademarking it. Getting a
trademark is not so complicated that you can't do it yourself.
The cost of getting a trademark is cheap compared to a
patent. For a few bucks you can protect your mark against
being taken and diluted or abused by another, even the USDA.

Information on getting your own trademark is also available
at the URL listed above.

To answer your plaintiff cry about whether you must join or
pay for the use of generic terms, the answer is no, at least
not until someone trademarks them. You could say "Grown
Naturally" instead of "Naturally Grown" but that might get
you into a lawsuit over trademark infringement. Better to
come up with a unique term of your own and trademark it,
or join a marketing co-op and pay for the use of a protected
name.

HTH


Jay Gee
not a farmer - but interested in farming


--__--__--

Message: 5
To: Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 16:55:56 -0600
From: jjvaughn AT juno.com
Subject: [Market-farming] Paying a Market Manager
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Hello to the list,

We are a second year market that is looking to be able to pay our market
manager "something" this year. We would like to know if most markets
have a set salary for the manager or is it an hourly wage? Can a market
manager be considered an independent contractor or is the market
association responsible for paying taxes on the wages earned? If you pay
your manager a salary what tasks are included in their job description
besides market day duties? Thanks in advance for your response.

Julie


Jim and Julie Vaughn
Rocky Glade Farm
Eagleville, TN
615-274-3496
jjvaughn AT juno.com

--__--__--

Message: 6
To: Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 17:03:47 -0600
From: jjvaughn AT juno.com
Subject: [Market-farming] Mid week markets
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Our market association is thinking of adding a mid week market to our
current Saturday weekly market. We were wondering if those of you who
already participate in a mid week market could help us with some
information. What percent of Saturday (or your busiest day's market) can
you expect to do on a weekday? Also, what times worked best for your mid
week market? How many vendors participated compared to your Saturday
market? We are located at a downtown shopping center where the heaviest
traffic into the facility during the week is from 10-2.

Julie


Jim and Julie Vaughn
Rocky Glade Farm
Eagleville, TN
615-274-3496
jjvaughn AT juno.com

--__--__--

Message: 7
From: "Rick Williams" <mrfarm AT frontiernet.net>
To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 21:42:36 -0600
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Clarence and Lisa Walker wrote:
> Yesterday I received a copy of this month's Fruit Grower News
> with a front page article proclaiming "Naturally Grown new option
> to organic program". The article describes yet another
> certification program and their website
> http://www.naturallygrown.org/ carries numerous trademark and
> copyright references.

Do they in effect have a trademark on the naturally grown generic term? So
if we wanted to say here at Misty Ridge Farm that we have naturally grown
food, we would in some way be violating a trademark?

Even if they don't have this now, is it possible for someone else to do it?
If so, how much would that cost?

Wouldn't it be impossible to trademark something such as "locally grown"?

> There is a sliding scale of up to $100.00
> to be so certified and monitored. Does this now mean that for the
> rest of use who have long used Naturally Grown or some
> combination thereof in describing our product mix should now be
> expected to pay for and suffer the monitoring of yet another
> "program"? Frankly, as a small farmer/private citizen I am weary
> of those seeking to control or profit from our rights to use long
> held totally generic terms.

The amount they are charging seems completely unrealistic!! How could you
run a program much less send anyone out to the farm for inspection for their
rate? Either they must have outside money coming in or they are not thinking
this through very well.

They claim that they will have one on-farm inspection per year and that they
will spot check a huge amount of the produce with lab testing for chemicals
if I understand them correctly. None of this is possible with their tiny
charge to the farm.

So I am suspicious as to who this is and who, if anyone, is backing them.
You note that it does NOT seem to be a democratic group. And they also do
not explain who they are on their web site. I would be surprised if they are
able to get far with this.

It is too bad that it is not a grass roots organization and democratically
run. Which tells me that there just is not the needed groundswell from
farmers to cause something like this to work very well.

Sincerely,

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

www.mistyridgefarm.com


--__--__--

Message: 8
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 05:43:19 -0600
From: Willie McKemie <mckemie AT austinfarm.org>
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Paying a Market Manager
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

If there have been other replies to this, they have not made it to me.
>
> We are a second year market that is looking to be able to pay our market
> manager "something" this year. We would like to know if most markets
> have a set salary for the manager or is it an hourly wage? Can a market
> manager be considered an independent contractor or is the market
> association responsible for paying taxes on the wages earned? If you pay
> your manager a salary what tasks are included in their job description
> besides market day duties? Thanks in advance for your response.

I use several markets that are so small that the "managing" is done by
volunteer members. That is, one of the sellers collects stall fees
while signage and advertising is done whenever a member decides something
needs to be done. These markets many times have only two or three
sellers, never more than about ten.

In other bigger markets, there are regular paid member/managers. They
are paid $25-$75 per market, the higher figure going to the manager of
a market that is operated on a blocked off street. That manager puts
up and removes signs and barricades. These paid managers collect stall
fees, keep records, assign stall space, declare start times, and handle
conflicts. All under the direction of the member elected association
management. In all cases, the managers are also sellers in the markets.
The $25 managers are typically in charge of markets with five to ten
sellers; the $75 manager's market may get up to about 35 sellers. The
Associations try to hold the managers fees to about half of the stall
fee collections, though at the tails of the season the manager's fees
may exceed stall fee collections.

None of the Associations with which I am familiar file tax returns,
withhold, or pay any taxes. I presume that the paid managers are
responsible for declaring and paying tax on their income.

Incidentally, many markets in this area use an honor-system graduated
stall fee scheme. $2 for less than $50 in sales, $4 for <$100, $6 for
<$200, $8 for <$400, $10 for >$400. It seems to work quite well; the
fees are so low there is little incentive to cheat and small gardeners
are encouraged to participate.

--
Willie mourning a long duration power failure
Are YOU an html abuser? http://www.expita.com/nomime.html
Linux system uptime 12 days 12 hours 16 minutes

--__--__--

Message: 9
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2002 07:06:55 -0500
From: Lucy Goodman <goodows AT infinet.com>
Organization: Boulder Belt Organics
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Mid week markets
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

My best market is a mid week (Tuesday) market. It probably gets about
30% of the customers as the Saturday market in that town (but I am not
sure as I am barred from that market due to not living in the School
District where it is held). But than this market is about 1/10th the
size (3 to 5 vendors vs 20 to 30 vendors). I do know we get a different
crowd from the Sat Morning market because we are in a more central
location (in the middle of a small College town CBD) and we have evening
hours which means we get a lot more college people than the Saturday
market in this town and I have asked my customers and it seems about 1/2
don't bother to go to the Sat Market (too early, not enough selection)
or do not know about it at all

We hold it from 4pm to 7pm from April thru October. We did hold it
during lunch (11am to 2pm) for one year and I think between 6 of us
growers we would make about $15 per week. It was sad but lead to some
wonderful bonding on our parts and my husband and I made wonderful
friends from that rough year. When we changed to a later time folks
could come up to the market after work and get things for dinner or the
week. The lunch time hours brought in people who wanted ready to eat
items which no one offered.

As I said this market is much smaller than the Saturday market and gets
almost no venders from that market. Most of our growers are like
us-outside the school district but want to sell goods in this town. The
first 2 or 3 years were really rough because we could not get folks to
change their custom of going to market on Saturday. What keep the market
going early on was the fact our farm had a CSA and we did delivery at
the market for a season and that got our CSA'ers up there and buying a
few things from other growers/venders and the fact that students do not
get up early (before 2pm) on Saturday to go to a farmer's market but
will go to one during the week in the evening.

Be sure to do advertising of this market and get stories about it in the
local paper numerous times during it's first season (and perhaps a
couple of stories before it even opens. PSA's on the local NPR station
and fliers help too.
>

--

Lucy Goodman-Owsley
Boulder Belt Organics
New Paris, OH
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa

Looking for a CSA, Farmer's market or other venue for fresh local food?
Check out
http://www.localharvest.com

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong

Voltaire (1694-1778)

--__--__--

Message: 10
From: "Marie Kamphefner" <kampy AT grm.net>
To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [Market-farming] Interesting reading on a cold and snowy day
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 08:22:31 -0600
Reply-To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Regards to the list:

It just irritates the hell out of me that we as residents of a "free"
country cannot use words in our language to describe what we offer to
sell just because some s.o.b. paid his two bucks to use OUR words
exclusively. Some day all we will be allowed do is point at our stuff
because all the words have been taken.

Marie in Missouri


<snip>
To answer your plaintiff cry about whether you must join or
pay for the use of generic terms, the answer is no, at least
not until someone trademarks them. You could say "Grown
Naturally" instead of "Naturally Grown" but that might get
you into a lawsuit over trademark infringement. Better to
come up with a unique term of your own and trademark it,
or join a marketing co-op and pay for the use of a protected
name.

HTH


Jay Gee
not a farmer - but interested in farming

_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm




--__--__--

_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming

Get the list FAQ at: http://www.marketfarming.net/mflistfaq.htm


End of Market-farming Digest





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page