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  • From: Karen Sutherland and Roots Farm <rootsfarm AT marpin.dm>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Re: Market-farming Digest, Vol 28, Issue 10
  • Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 10:53:49 -0400

This is such a great problem solving community. Thank you all for your suggestions.

I am less worried about the vinegar (maybe naively so) than about the salt's effect on soil/soil life.
The "American bamboo" seems to be "Japanese Knotweed." Perhaps the best organic solution I've seen is to get rid of/dig up serious stubble, and cover the area with heavy tarp for a couple of years, being sure to keep surrounding area regularly mowed to keep any upstarts from taking hold.
All best wishes,

Karen (temporarily in a chilly zone 5)

*Karen Sutherland **
**Roots Farm**
Organic Produce : Fruits, Roots, Vegetables & Herbs*
Cockrane, Dominica
767-449-3038
rootsfarm AT marpin.dm <mailto:rootsfarm AT marpin.dm>





sue roseman wrote:

Karen,
I like the vinegar thing but do you know what effect this has on the soil. Also what varitey of bamboo are you all talking about is it all American bamboo? Can you use it for trellis and all that or is that a different variety? Happy growing. It was 91 here yesterday after 26 last week. My plants are wondering where they are Alaska or Florida and they are just in Missouri zone 5. Blessings to all.
Sue































































----- Original Message ----- From: <market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org>
To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 11:01 AM
Subject: Market-farming Digest, Vol 28, Issue 10


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Today's Topics:

1. RE: Tomatoes selling/prices (Stephanie Nosacek)
2. Re: RE: selling tomatoes/prices (JOHN A HENDRICKSON)
3. American Bamboo (Karen Sutherland and Roots Farm)
4. Re: American Bamboo (GreenMrkt AT aol.com)
5. Re: RE: prices/organic premium (road's end farm)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 13:56:30 -0400
From: "Stephanie Nosacek" <breezynosacek AT hotmail.com>
Subject: [Market-farming] RE: Tomatoes selling/prices
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <BAY106-F42931C7132BDE9858173DA21D0 AT phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Thanks for that response and the link I appreciate it very much.

I had contacted one of the farmers markets in another county which turned
out not to let anybody out of the county set up there to sell.

The manager stated that they tried to keep their prices in line with
supermarket prices. Now since many of the growers are organic and there
aren't any organic grocery stores in the area I figure they are cutting
their throats. They should be getting better prices than the shipped in
produce is selling for. Just my opinion.

Steph




------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 20:34:19 -0500
From: JOHN A HENDRICKSON <jhendric AT wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] RE: selling tomatoes/prices
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <1132eb41133164.11331641132eb4 AT wiscmail.wisc.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Plenty of good advice was recently offered but I want to (state the
obvious) and add that you should certainly know your costs of production
and make sure that your price covers your costs and pays you adequately
for your time and investment. If the market will not bear a price that
covers your costs and pays you adequately for your time, it is time to:
1. find ways to lower your costs and labor time
2. consider a different market (that will bear your price)
3. consider different crops

-John


USDA market prices, if you mean the ones I think, are wholesale
large-scale market and run lower than you should be getting retail;
though it's useful to know what they are. Look around and see what
tomatoes go for retail in your area, including both other marketers
and
the grocery stores. (You may well see a huge range, depending on
the
type of pack, even in the same grocery.) Consider what your
packaging
is like both in type and quantity (as well as quality: are you
selling
firsts only, or also "canning quality" with some blemishes?).
Consider
that you're probably providing fresher product than the groceries.
Local produce is beginning to be a selling point in itself, as
indeed
it should be. Also, do you have interesting varieties with more
flavor?
In general, don't start your prices too low; you'll be doing
neither
yourself nor other growers any favors. Bear in mind that you can
always
lower prices later in the day or season, but you can't easily raise
them midseason; also that it's possible to lose money selling more
product too cheap, when you could have made money selling less
product
at a fair price. -- Remember, however, that you need to know where
you
are. What you can get in, for instance, downtown Manhattan isn't
what
you can get in Yates County. But more expensive markets often cost
more
to sell at, and depending where you are can cost you a lot more in
both
time and money to get to.

There's a really good article on this, as well as other subjects,
available at:
http://www.growingformarket.com/
Click on the link for the free special issue about selling at
farmer's
markets.

If you sell them wholesale to other people's farmers' market
stands,
you're going to get a percentage of what they can sell them for.
Ask
them what their usual markup is. Again, if you're providing better
quality than other possible sources, you should get paid more for
it;
as they can charge more, and as they should have less waste. But
(whether direct or wholesale) you really do need the better quality
to
charge the extra price.




------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 06:58:41 -0400
From: Karen Sutherland and Roots Farm <rootsfarm AT marpin.dm>
Subject: [Market-farming] American Bamboo
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <427F4261.2040608 AT marpin.dm>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Greetings all,

Back from Dominica for a visit in western MA (zone 5) to find cousin
confronted with American Bamboo invasion. He tells me that his
attempts to dig it up by the roots has only made it mad and a year plus
worth of mowing hasn't stopped its spread either. Will continual
mowing finally eradicate it? Is there anything that will?

Thanks and all best wishes,

Karen
--

*Karen Sutherland **
**Roots Farm**
Organic Produce : Fruits, Roots, Vegetables & Herbs*
Cockrane, Dominica
767-449-3038
rootsfarm AT marpin.dm <mailto:rootsfarm AT marpin.dm>






------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 08:53:07 EDT
From: GreenMrkt AT aol.com
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] American Bamboo
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <a0.2803faa0.2fb0b733 AT aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi Karen

I have used this formula to kill just about anything.
! gallon of white vinegar 1 lb of salt
mix together and spray onto the plants that you want to irradicate.

Blessings,
Karen
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Message: 5
Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 08:54:57 -0400
From: road's end farm <organic101 AT linkny.com>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] RE: prices/organic premium
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <8C239DC0-C089-11D9-AD1A-00039357077E AT linkny.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed


On May 8, 2005, at 1:56 PM, Stephanie Nosacek wrote:


The manager stated that they tried to keep their prices in line with
supermarket prices. Now since many of the growers are organic and
there aren't any organic grocery stores in the area I figure they are
cutting their throats. They should be getting better prices than the
shipped in produce is selling for. Just my opinion.


The "organic premium" doesn't amount to much in some areas. In some
markets you can get quite a bit more; in others, hardly anything extra.
Around here, some people will pay a little more for organic, and a few
people will pay considerably more; but you can often get further
stressing flavor, fresh, and local.

Some crops will cost you a lot more to raise organically; others
probably won't. Depends a lot on the weeding labor involved.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale



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End of Market-farming Digest, Vol 28, Issue 10
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