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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Garlic baskets

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  • From: Alliums <garlicgrower AT earthlink.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Garlic baskets
  • Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 21:33:05 -0400

Jim wrote:

I'm looking for a source for garlic baskets - i.e., attractive natural
packages in which garlic can be sold and which the customer can use to hang
the garlic and then keep for re-use.


Well, if you find them, certainly let us know, but I'd say that garlic is such a hot commodity that it doesn't need a take-home basket to move. I sell my garlic at the Phoenixville Farmer's Market with each variety in its own basket that I picked up at yard sales -- customers just get a bag to put their garlic in.

The seed stock market seems to have suddenly picked up dramatically -- I was sold out of EVERYTHING (culinary as well as seed stock) as of a week ago, but my phone is ringing off the hook with folks desperate to buy planting stock for next year. I tell people that you order in August or you can't find squat, but there seem to be plenty of folks who want to put things off -- surely there must be a cash opportunity for growers out there!

Speaking of marketing opportunities, I found that offering folks a "sampler" of garlic varieties (for a set price, customer can choose one garlic bulb from each of group of baskets and put it in a bag I give them) really got my garlic moving. Folks who have lots of different types of veggie groups (like peppers, tomatoes, etc) might want to try "samplers" to get their stock moving. It seems to eliminate that question of "which type should I buy?" -- folks get to try all of them and then the next week, they can buy larger amounts of the ones they liked. By mistake (really! I am so bad at math!) the first week, I made the "sampler" more expensive than if customers bought that much garlic individually, but the "sampler" really moved. I also noticed that folks who come to the market in the first two hours are more adventurous than folks that come at the end -- the early folks were REALLY into the "sampler" and garlic varieties that one couldn't get anywhere else -- folks that came to the market at the end wanted "tried and true" varieties that would just make their food taste good.




Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden

A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460






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