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market-farming - [Market-farming] Thanks, everyone! Plus, my berry packaging

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  • From: Jennifer Albert <jalbert AT cybermesa.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Thanks, everyone! Plus, my berry packaging
  • Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 12:38:44 -0600

This is such a good list! You all have so much wisdom to offer!

I really look forward every day to all the postings here.

I love Willie's idea about "Sacrificial Peaches," and Tom's for bagging up pints and quarts.

I've thought about U-Pick, but I'm finding that insurance is a huge issue, along with the need (according to the state) for public washroom facilities(!!!), including hot water for hand-washing. For an area that has for hundreds of years relied on very small farms, New Mexico has made it increasingly difficult for them to survive because of increasing regulations, insurance requirements, and permit fees.

I've actually been making origami cups (I found the instructions on the web) for my straw-, black-, and raspberries (each cup holds about a half-pint), from white paper freezer wrap (plasticized surface to the inside of the cup), and placing each filled cup in a 24-compartment cardboard flat from the liquor store discard pile, and picking directly into the cups in the cartons.

At market, I move the cups into old wooden soft-drink crates (which also have 24 compartments) to display them for sale. The origami cups have a flap at the top that I can grab, and that I scotch tape shut when the customer buys the berries. Most people love the very disposable packaging, and everyone really likes the soft drink crates, but some complain that the berries get crushed, and I have lots of people who would like larger cups. Actually, the berries don't get crushed, because the cups, by their nature, taper toward the bottom. The cups are especially handy for those who want to eat their berries on the go.

I can make the cups really fast now, once I've cut the squares of paper (while I watch a DVD---I don't do TV---or listen to the radio), and they're quite cheap. Once I've done all the folding, I put one staple through the front layer with a stapler that you squeeze, to reinforce the cup, and I nest the cups to store them before I use them.

I'm going to try some fiber cartons this year, in addition to the cups in the crates. I will have more berries to sell this year (last year, I sold about 20 dozen cups per week), and I'd like to see how it changes both my labor and my sales.

Jenny in Northern New Mexico,
where it's looking more and more like Ireland, since it seems like it's been raining all spring!





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