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  • From: Mark Weinheimer <mrw601 AT gmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] selling to restaurants
  • Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:19:00 -0400





Message: 5
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:57:52 -0400
From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] selling to restaurants
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <B10DE694-F102-4FC1-ABCF-C7042CCCF9FF AT zoomtown.com">B10DE694-F102-4FC1-ABCF-C7042CCCF9FF AT zoomtown.com>
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Richard

That's a great point on pricing.  I sent a response the original post in regards to our business with chefs (we think in terms of Chefs rather than restaurants, because of the personality involved and the quirkiness we see when executive chefs move around).

We price the same to all chefs regardless of quantity.  Pricing is dictated by our costs and the business environment of chefs not the quantity they order.  Pricing does change for certain items based on the cost and availability of the item.  For example, spicebush berries are TOUGH to find and thus the price reflects that.

My friend Bob Perry down at University of Kentucky suggests that farmers spend as much time with chefs as chefs should spend time with farmers.

When it comes to pricing though, do not compare your product directly with those of the large sellers that are shipping it in.  As I have said in the past you SHOULD be producing a MUCH higher quality product that is much more shelf stable then the stuff they are importing in.  In general (though by no means a rule) chefs usually receive on a Thursday or Friday and are tossing greens Monday or Tuesday because of spoilage.  If you harvest properly, shock, rinse, spin, chill and transport properly you should be giving them a product that is stable for nearly 2 weeks, which in many cases surprises chefs new to local food buying.  Thus a pricing that is close to double what they are paying now does not translate to double the price but similar pricing with much less loss.  We are still very loose in figuring out the exact price/loss/savings/benefits are.  We know that restaurant loss can be as high as 30% and we have done simple stability test to figure out how long our product l
 asts out of the ground depending on how its harvested.  I'd like to scale this testing up but I'm a for profit farm and we are already doing a LOT in IPM companion planting.  :)

I'd also like to point our that it is in our best interest to see smaller restaurants succeed as they will be the ones that support a more diverse offering from local growers/producers.  So if a chef is ordering small quantities then deliver to them while you are taking in the larger orders to bigger fish.  Diversity is healthy and we need to do our part on the supply side to help this out...so long as its not bankrupting us.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106
http://www.carriagehousefarmllc.com
rstewart AT zoomtown.com
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Richard,
It would be great if you could share your companion planting project with the list.  I'm thrilled to hear somebody is working seriously on this. 
We have been very happy with our Rimol House.  The package was very well put together and has held up well in our extremely exposed, very windy location.  It's our first winter with the house and we had almost no snow, so I can't speak to that.  The Rimols are very popular with growers in our area of upstate NY.
-Mark



--
Mark Weinheimer
Farm Manager
Regional Food Bank of NENY
965 Albany-Shaker Road
Latham, NY  12110
(518) 339-5726
(518) 786-3691
(518) 786-3004 Fax
www.regionalfoodbank.net



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