To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] In praise of Raspberries
Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 09:06:09 -0400
On Jul 15, 2006, at 9:55 AM, list@ginda.us wrote:
Basically, the only reason raspberries are expensive is
that they don't ship well. It's a cheap local crop.
You've never picked them in commercial quantities, I assume. Much of the cost is in the picking.
They need to be picked every couple of days; even if the weather is so wet that the berries are already moldy and will just need to be tossed; otherwise the moldy ones may infect the others. They need to be marketed with similar frequency, since they don't store for very long. So they're actually pretty time consuming for the grower. For the home gardener, of course, picking them is part of the pleasure; so the time spent is rarely noted.
-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale