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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Growing organically

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  • From: road's end farm <organic101@linkny.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Growing organically
  • Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2007 12:11:25 -0400


On Apr 8, 2007, at 10:11 AM, Jim Fruth wrote:

I've been selling at farmers' markets for a lot of years and have
learned that most customers do not want organic produce. Oh, they will all
SAY they want organic but the want it at supermarket prices. Customers want
perfect produce; they handle every tomato and if they see a slightest
imperfection, they reject it. Customers also want their produce to be the
same size as that which they find at supermarkets.

Varies a good deal by market. I now have people in this area who snap up my heirloom tomatoes, taking them even when they've got some cracks. There are still customers who only want the standard looking ones; but word of mouth from the heirloom customers they're standing next to often convinces them. (This doesn't only have to do with organic versus conventional, but also with flavor and appearance of specific cultivars. Of course you really have to have the flavor; if it tastes like the store's but just looks uglier, that won't bring people in.)

Some people come to farmers' markets because they want supermarket produce at cheaper prices. Those aren't my customers; somebody else (or the supermarket) can have them. Other people come to farmers' markets because they want better quality, because they want locally grown, or specifically because they want a size or variety that they can't find at the supermarket. Those are the customers that will buy at my stand. Some of them care that I'm organic. Some of them don't.

Some areas have more such customers than others. But people who know what a tomato actually can taste like tend to gradually convert a significant number of other people; so once you have the first few, the situation often improves.

I can't resist adding here, that I see an awful lot of conventionally grown produce in supermarkets that I think looks terrible; including quite a bit that I wouldn't sell as firsts. Some of it may have looked OK when it left the farm, but no longer does several weeks and a lot of handlers later. Some of it clearly had damage that was sustained on farm, including insect damage. I think it's a myth that all conventional produce looks perfect; just as it's a myth that all organic produce looks bad. There are, it's true, a few crops on which it's harder to produce good looks organically than conventionally.

On Apr 8, 2007, at 10:27 AM, Lon J. Rombough wrote:

Selling in baskets is a way to get around the problem to some degree as some of the fruits in a basket can be less than perfect and still go if the ones on top look good.

Except then the customer is likely to be angry, won't come back to buy more, and will complain to other potential customers. If I bought something with all the pretty ones on top, then got home to find ugly or damaged ones underneath, I'd be mad too.

When I fill baskets, if some of contents have imperfections, I make sure this is visible from the top, so the customers know what they are getting. I then talk up the flavor. Customers who have tasted my stuff do come back. And they talk other people into trying it.

I also find it interesting that many u-pick customers, or on-farm customers offered picked but unsorted produce to choose from, will take as firsts items that I would have thought of as seconds. For some people, knowing it's that fresh seems to overwhelm the look of the thing; or maybe they've seen so much crappy produce in the store that even what I think of as seconds looks better to them than it does to me. I'm not sure which.

On Apr 8, 2007, at 10:32 AM, Naomi wrote:

I have thought..just to try out. Make two baskets. "Organic Perfect" and
"Organic Ugly". Price accordingly. I would be interested in the results.

I sometimes sell "selected seconds" or "canning grade" at reduced price. Some people will buy these; others won't. I suspect results vary market to market, and also depending on the item.

--Rivka
Finger Lakes NY; zone 5 mostly



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