North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["D Stubbs" <dsmndel@gmail.com>]

Ten years ago it was this Nafex forum that got me started and kept me going. Thankyou all. I believe this summer will be the wonderful problem, for the first time,  of 'what to do with all this fruit!' I have 85 kinds of apples (grafted below ground on seedling rootstock) 20 kinds each of plums & pears, tart cherries, saskatooons. About 400 trees altogether. The number of varieties is of course very unbusinesslike, rather it is an experimental orchard to see what will work in our zone 2/3 heavy soil environment. I am already top grafting over a couple local varieties that had problems. Last year we got to taste 50 kinds of apples, I am hoping this summer that finally all will bloom and fruit. It looks this year like only two of the apple varieties  will bloom before June! Our plums are just now starting to bloom on Memorial day weekend.
Since we live remote, and I am not a people person, u-pick is not an option and farmers market is not much better. That leaves wholesale. No normal grocery store would want to deal with 85 kinds of apples, so I was a bit discouraged what to do till I went to an organic farmers conference this winter and met buyers who want local variety, it appears.( CSA owners, buying clubs, co-ops)
I will be happy to report back here next fall how it's gone. Another option is to invest in approved juicing equipment and sell various mixes of apple juice.  I just went to a meeting of folks who are trying to get together local growers and buyers like schools and restaurants, we'll see how that pans out. I am a one man operation. I decided to forgo organic certification for awhile because of the expense and hassle ( around $600 year minimum) since everyone I have talked to has stressed 'buying local' as being the trend.
Del Stubbs

On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 10:30 AM, Mark & Helen Angermayer <hangermayer@isp.com> wrote:

Hi Folks,

 

I'm getting more interested in selling fruit.  I'd be interested to know how many of you out there sell fruit?  What kinds of fruit do you sell?  How do you market it (U-Pick, wholesale, grocery stores)?  What quantity?  What's been your single greatest challenge?  If you tried selling fruit for a while and couldn't make it work, why not?  What are some of the pitfalls to avoid?  Any other comments you can think of would be appreciated.

 

Mark

KS

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