Market Farming

[shepherd ogden <shepogden AT yahoo.com>]

Re: Baby Squash

When we had our farm stand back in the early 80's, selling to weekending New Yorkers, we initially sold our baby squash (Sunburst, Ronde de Nice, Elite and Gold Rush -- and once it came out, the dark green patty pan Starship) for $6/lb. They did not sell very fast despite the fact that the same people would pay $8/lb in the city for stuff that was a week old shipped in from California. (In fact, they would ask us: "Where did you get that, California?"

[Same kind of people, I might add, who would ask, when we started carrying lemons because the fish guy had set up in our parking lot, "Are these your lemons?" to which I would reply, "Yes, Ma'am, and for 50 cents they can be YOUR lemons."]

Re: California, I pointed out "No Ma'am, the growers in California buy their seed from us." which meant nothing to them, of course, but made me feel better <G>.

So, the solution? We changed the price to "25 cents or five for a dollar" and they flew out of there. Easy for their addled brains to understand, I guess, and more like the $8/lb we wanted in the first place. BTW, the local Wegmans here in Allentown now sells them for $2/dozen (sans flowers), though they are clearly old.

It is my opinion that it does not hurt production, but rather, if you are careful, keeps the plants vigorous. The biggest problem we faced was cuke beetles in the flowers.....

Shepherd Ogden, The New Farm (wwww.newfarm.org)

FORMERLY Founder of The Cook's Garden