Duane,
The restaurant sales CAN be complicated. However, the examples that I listed need not apply. I just wanted to list the types of requests that we received.
We were very fortunate to have a huge selection of restaurants to choose from. After my first year of growing, I "Cherry picked" the chefs that I wanted to deal with. All of those chefs fell into the "We'll take whatever you have" category. If you can find those chefs, it's really a no-brainer.
For delivery times, the chefs were very flexible. I actually chose the delivery days and times. The only thing they required was that I "show up" when I said I would, with the agreed on quantities. So, I was able to work within my own schedule.
Pricing for the metro Atlanta area is $4 to $5 PER LB.
A typical delivery for me was maybe 120 lbs (3 times a week) or larger volumes if only doing 2 deliveries a week. This equates to around $500 for a 3 hour round trip for the smaller delivery.
The issue I have with only selling exclusively at Farmers Markets is: If you have a fair volume of tomatoes and IT RAINS OUT your weekend market, you are stuck. That happened to us one time and we lost $1000 in sales because we did not have another outlet. That never happened to us again.
Pricing: We charged the same amount for chefs and farmers markets. $4 to $5 a lb here is comparable to the local "Upscale Grocery". We could have charged more because our tomatoes are better than the "overripe heirlooms that are over a week old and shipped across the country" at the upscale grocery. However, we felt like we were getting a fair price and supplying a superior product to our customers. Everyone is happy.
Many people sell their #1's to chefs and #2's at markets. We tried to never sell inferior product at the markets. Again we charge the same prices, so the quality should be just as good. IF we sold out of #1's we would offer #2's at reduced prices and made it VERY CLEAR with signage. Having top quality at the markets gave us a HUGE advantage over others.
CDEVIDAL,
Yes. There is a HUGE demand for organic (which we were), although, locally/sustainably grown is becoming just as important. Many organic farmers that I know are choosing to drop their "Organic" status and focus more on communicating their sustainable growing methods to customers. Many customers are happy just being able to put a "face" with their veggies.
Growing size ranged from half an acre to 3 acres and then back to half an acre last year. Never tracked yields (too busy, and always exceeded my needed sales goals)
Hot sellers were "anything and everything".
Bill
|