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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Tomatoes go from shortage to glut

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  • From: Barking Cat Farm <barkingcatfarm AT mindspring.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tomatoes go from shortage to glut
  • Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:06:12 -0500



On Jun 17, 2010, at 1:09 PMJun/17/10, Road's End Farm wrote:


On Jun 17, 2010, at 1:52 PM, <sunnfarm AT netscape.com> <sunnfarm AT netscape.com> wrote:

Hey if your a small scale grower or hobby farmer you always have your real job to fall back on.

Some of us are small scale growers but that is our real and only job.

Same for us on both counts.  Regarding people who have told us we're expensive w.r.t. the reseller down the street painting themselves as the grower or the "friend" of the grower, and there are plenty in the area, we just try to remind those folks that with us they are paying the full cost of the food plus a modest profit, not so with the resellers.  If they insist they are getting a better value from the other guy that buys his by the box from the local wholesale terminal, even after they've sampled both, then they aren't going to be a good customer for us anyway.  Again, though, it is not the same in all areas that one can be a bit choosy with regards to customers.  We are in an area with generally good income coupled with a willingness to pay a little more for local and organically grown.

We do have our share of hobbyist gardeners who unthinkingly sell their tomatoes, etc. at far below cost, which has the potential to affect our business and those of the other local farmers if done in any volume.  In those cases, we'll often try to seek them out and talk to them about why selling their fresh eggs at $1/dozen is hurting the local folks who tend larger flocks for a living.  It really hasn't been an issue, though, as the hobbyists tend to not have much volume, and most aren't consistently around.  They tend to have day jobs and find farming much harder at much less reward.  

Merely observations from our neck of the woods.

Laurie
Barking Cat Farm



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