One thing that I have found very helpful in deciding on prices to ask for things is to take a stopwatch into the field, and actually time how long it takes me to pick something... That way, I'm not estimating, but working with real numbers. Then I say, "If I want $15 per hour for my labor, how much do I have to charge for a pint of cherry tomatoes or a basket of green beans." Sometimes I might double that, figuring that half the effort is for planting, weeding, and irrigating and half is for picking.
I save labor by not cleaning tomatoes. I especially don't wash them, because I feel like it makes them rot easier. I typically don't sort either: fruits go into a crate as they are picked, and people can choose what they want at market. If there are seconds that people don't want to buy, I'll put them in a bag marked "Tomatoes -- Seconds" and write a price on them that's about 1/2 of my already great prices.
I grow green-shouldered tomatoes... Even if it means that they don't sell as well. I want to provide the best quality and best tasting tomato.
I don't pick all the cherry tomatoes... I pick enough to put some color on the table at the farmer's market. If I'm desperate for cash, I might put in the effort to pick more.
The other farmers at market recognize the labor involved in picking cherry tomatoes, so we set a fair price for our labor and don't try to compete with lower prices. Prices can only go so low before the labor required isn't worth the pay.
However, on large tomatoes that are easy to pick, we compete fiercely to have the best pricing. It takes the same labor to pick a cherry tomato weighing a half ounce, as it does to pick a 10-12 ounce slicing tomato. There are about the same number of cherry tomatoes in a pint basket as there are average-sized slicing tomatoes in a half bushel basket. So the labor's the same either way.
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Originally Posted by Salsacharley
I estimate that it takes me about 10 minutes to pick a pint of cherries, and it takes about 3 hours for me to harvest 40 lbs of all sizes.
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That seems like really low productivity. I figure that it takes a couple minutes for me to pick a 1/2 bushel basket (26 pounds) of 8 ounce sized determinate tomatoes. Of course, the "all sizes" messes up the calculations. My strategy for picking is to pick the large tomatoes first, then the saladette tomatoes, then the cherry tomatoes. I pick all the large tomatoes, but I rarely pick all of the saladette or cherry tomatoes. Picking the largest first gives me a sense of accomplishment right away. Then I can trudge along with the saladettes and cherries.