market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market Farming
List archive
- From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
- To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] High value crops.
- Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 18:56:46 -0500
My two cents. Yes, it depends on the market and area. I
sell at a market that is in the mountains, cool, short season, only 40 miles
away actually, with a lot of summer home owners from large cities. Not
necessarily wealthy (the homese may have been in the family for many years), but
used to higher prices. Tomatoes are a great crop for me, especially early, but
no one up there grows tomatoes (well, a very few gardeners have a couple very
short-season plants). Most anything sells well there because not many folks
garden. And we get good prices. I started out at $4/lb for all the tomatoes, and
kept the heirlooms there all season but dropped the "round red" tomatoes to
$3/lb. The whole attitude of the market is "we will not be oversold". Yes, there
is some price competition, but the customers spread their money around among
us.
The other (new) market is in a smaller town in the lake
valley, with lots of gardeners. Early tomatoes did well, but not many sold in
August. It is also a town where folks have nice houses and nice cars, but think
food should be cheap. We are working at developing our clientele. We also need
to work with the vendors, since several of them are still in the "oh I can't
afford that myself" mindset and pricing low. I figure we should get at least
grocery store price, and grocery store price for their top quality if mine is
top quality (i.e. $12/lb for salad mix, even though the store also has some
$3/lb mix).
I am trying for $40,000/acre average. Just for arithmetic
sake. An acre is a little over 40,000 square feet, so I call it 40,000 sqaure
feet. If my beds/rows are 4 feet apart, then I want $4/row foot. Brussel sprouts
were two rows/bed, every two feed. One plant every two feet would need to sell
at $8. Two plants every two feet need to sell at $4. I have been selling stalks
at $5 each, so making over $40,000. If I took the time to take the sprouts off
and sold by the pint, it would be higher, and I guess I have time this time of
year, but I am taking it easy and just selling by the stalk. Brussel sprout
caveat - we took the mountain market inside this fall, going up to Christmas. I
didn't sell many brussel sprouts in early October, but mid-October and into
November I am selling 6 to 10 stalks/week. Don't plant many, but they are doing
well for the space they took. They sell much better than
cabbage.
My challenge has been figuring out how much to grow. I grow
much more than I can harvest and sell. We will put up a small farmstand next
summer, and work hard at growing the new market also. I think quantities have
sunk in this year and I will not run out of space for successions because I
planted the whole 200 foot row while I was at it.
If you
have a small space, and it is shady, go for salad mix, cilantro, parsley, etc.
Maybe shade-loving plants to sell.
Beth Spaugh |
-
Re: [Market-farming] High value crops.
, (continued)
- Re: [Market-farming] High value crops., road's end farm, 12/08/2007
-
[Market-farming] High Value crops.,
Franklin W. Davis, 12/07/2007
- [Market-farming] Pepper plant bonsai, Pat Meadows, 12/07/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] High value crops.,
DFORD8N, 12/07/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] High value crops., Franklin W. Davis, 12/08/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] High value crops., Home Grown Kansas!, 12/08/2007
-
[Market-farming] High value crops.,
Franklin W. Davis, 12/08/2007
-
[Market-farming] Nimba Zucchini Squash,
Allan Balliett, 12/08/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Nimba Zucchini Squash,
courtney mcleod, 12/09/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] Nimba Zucchini Squash, Bill Bradshaw, 12/09/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] Nimba Zucchini Squash,
courtney mcleod, 12/09/2007
- Re: [Market-farming] High value crops., Beth Spaugh, 12/08/2007
-
[Market-farming] Nimba Zucchini Squash,
Allan Balliett, 12/08/2007
-
[Market-farming] High value crops.,
Franklin W. Davis, 12/09/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] High value crops.,
Shawnee Flowerfarmer, 12/09/2007
- [Market-farming] cultivation equipment, Beth Spaugh, 12/14/2007
-
Re: [Market-farming] High value crops.,
Shawnee Flowerfarmer, 12/09/2007
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