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  • From: Errol Castens <castens AT peoplepc.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Vegetable Illiteracy
  • Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 13:01:26 -0600 (GMT-06:00)

The opportunity in all this vegetable illiteracy is to find value-added ways
to get people to use wholesome foods. I've mentioned this before, but when my
wife and I first tried to sell herbs, we'd give away tastes of herb butter on
bread. Most liked the taste, but few wanted to buy 50 cents' worth of herbs
and a $3 pound of butter to make their own. Eventually the light bulb went
on, and we started selling pre-blended sage, rosemary and basil butters -- at
$3 for four ounces, using good-quality, but store-bought, butter. (Our market
allows purchased ingredients for value-added products, if they also feature
local ingredients.)

Black-eyed peas that you can't give away by the bushel will probably sell
well if you turn it into "country caviar" (a chutney of sorts), and people
who wouldn't have any idea what to do with canning tomatoes at 50 cents a
pound will buy a rainbow blend of cherry tomatoes at $3 or more per pint. Or
they'll buy stuffing tomatoes or bell peppers if you show them how cute and
easy they are to use for even store-bought tuna salad or chicken salad. They
may buy squash blossoms or grape leaves to stuff with cheese. (Or how about
squash blossoms or grape leaves already stuffed?) And of course, prewashed
salad mixes are a huge convenience food.

Those of us who value creative meals from wholesome ingredients cannot help
but lament the lack of cooking in most homes (and the lack of understanding
that Wal-Mart does not use Chinese peasants to assemble eggs), but to
whatever degree we can make our products more convenient and inviting to busy
and sometimes ignorant people, that's an opportunity to increase our sales
and maybe move them gradually toward a greater appreciation of whole foods.

Blessings,
errol castens
Oxford, Mississippi

-----Original Message-----
>From: Marty Kraft <martyk AT allspecies.org>
>Sent: Dec 22, 2005 10:48 AM
>To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Vegetable Illiteracy
>
>Can't you cook some okra in a tasty way and have it at your market for
>people to taste?
>
>Marty
>On Dec 22, 2005, at 10:07 AM, Kelly Saxer wrote:
>
>> Beth,
>>
>> I completely agree with you that folks are lacking the know-how to
>> appreciate, prepare and eat fresh vegetables...especially anything
>> that's
>> not a "standard" veggie (as I've heard a few of my CSA members say).
>> I run
>> a small CSA in Arizona and have found that to be the biggest obstacle
>> I face
>> to increasing my member retention. I try to grow a wide variety of
>> vegetables and always provide my members with recipes on their weekly
>> veggie
>> shares that feature a vegetable in their bag that week. Additionally,
>> our
>> farm web-site features hundreds of recipes that are organized by
>> vegetable.
>> I'm now debating whether to streamline the variety of vegetables I
>> grow in
>> an effort to appeal more to the masses. I'm contemplating the
>> elimination
>> of okra, black-eyed peas and kohlrabi from my farm as these are the
>> veggies
>> that I most often hear criticism about from my members. Living in a
>> nice,
>> warm southern state I really hate the idea of eliminating okra,
>> especially,
>> and may seek out a restaurant or specialty market that will buy from me
>> during our long okra growing season. While I want to appeal to my
>> market
>> and keep my CSA members interested (I certainly don't want them to
>> feed like
>> I'm forcing vegetables their not interested in down their throats), I
>> kinda
>> feel like I'm contibuting to their vegetable illiteracy by eliminating
>> too
>> much variety from my farm repetoir. Does anyone out there have any
>> unique
>> educational tools (other than just providing recipes) that they've
>> used to
>> get folks excited and eager to try new vegetables.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Kelly
>> Desert Roots Farm
>> Queen Creek, AZ
>>
>>
>>> From: "Hook Family" <ghf AT townisp.com>
>>> Reply-To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>>> To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>>> Subject: [Market-farming] Economic-sustain.ag
>>> Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 09:01:10 -0500
>>>
>>> Mark said:
>>> "Having said this, I've also noticed some social problems that
>>> absolutely
>>> amaze me, and could be at the very root of our problems. Young people
>>> don't
>>> know what to do with what we produce! Hard to believe, but true."
>>>
>>>
>>> Its not just the very young either but also some adults. I'd be
>>> interested
>>> to know if this lack of cooking knowledge and increase in take out
>>> corresponds at all to most schools dropping Home Ec. Both Male and
>>> Female
>>> students can benefit from Home Ec and shop type courses.
>>>
>>> Many heads of household don't know how to cook well and therefore
>>> their
>>> offspring do not as well. I joined cooking (and later sewing)4-h at
>>> 8, buy
>>> the time I got to HS home ec class I already knew the material :). My
>>> mother also lets us cook. My specialty at that point was sweets :)
>>> Favorites were a Chocolate Cake you mixed in the pan and Whoopie pies.
>>> I could cook meal type food as an older teenager. Food in my
>>> household is
>>> home prepared most of the time, although we had great take out
>>> Chinese last
>>> night.
>>>
>>> My older son live about 4 years in an apartment dorm at college and
>>> developed into a very good cook. He also views it as experimentation
>>> and
>>> has cooked things I've never have like fried duck (very good). He
>>> had to
>>> move out of state so I think the push to raise birds beyond chickens
>>> won't
>>> happen but humorously he told me he'd search various urban chicken
>>> sites on
>>> the web should he ever live somewhere where he could keep a small
>>> flock,
>>> cracked me up. He also likes to raised plants in pots (apartment
>>> living).
>>> This is a kid when he lived here who sat in front of a computer
>>> screen.
>>> Example sometimes oozes through.
>>> Youngest son is living in off campus housing and I lived in fear he
>>> was
>>> only
>>> to cook tv dinners, but he basically cooks a meat, starch and veggie
>>> every
>>> night and just told me last night that they had pizza one evening and
>>> he
>>> felt he didn't feel as well because he didn't get any veggies. He
>>> said he
>>> needs his veggies, where did this kid hatch from, guess all those farm
>>> grown
>>> foods oozed in. Both ds are big big fans of the free range eggs.
>>>
>>> That was a long way to say that I do think a big part of the prob is
>>> lack
>>> of
>>> cooking knowledge. I write a weekly newsletter for my CSA and always
>>> include recipes and often simple instructions for example how to cook
>>> winter
>>> squash. Beth
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> 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
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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>>
>
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