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Originally Posted by AZGardener
Hey guys! I have been reading everyone's posts and I'm curious to how many plants and/or pounds of tomatoes would one need to plant to sell tomatoes to restaurants? When I grow up (hahaha) I want to be a tomato farmer and heirloom tomato plant grower. So I'm thinking about all of this information and trying to take note for when we actually buy a farm. I'm thinking about the logistics... How many acres, how many plants, etc,etc  Thanks everyone! So much GREAT information!!! |
If you look at this sticky you can see that I was the one who started this thread and I have already answered your questions in some of the earleir posts since I sold fruits to many restaurants as well as selling fruits and plants at a large nursery.
Decide which restaurants you might want to sell to and then ask if you could meet with the chef to discuss it. At that meeting offer to bring a tray of some fruits you've selected so he or she can have a look. and most important ask the chef what he or she has in mind for the use of the fruits.
This has to be done a year ahead so you know how many plants of each variety you need to put out. And you also need to know which varieties you grow do well in your area Chefs can be sometimes difficult to work with, and I had to drop one b'c all he wanted were German Red strawberries and was unable to understand that rain and mud impact the ability to deliver, and so many other variables.
When selling fresh fruits at the nursery I prepared some sheets listing the varieties, where they came from and other pertinent data and that helped a lot. It's your responsibility to cull fruits that go bad and the way we did that was that the trays I would bring were weighed, and then any fruits removed from sales were also weighed and subtracted from the initial weight.
I also sold pints of fruits, small ones, some with all one kind and some with mixed fruits.
And at some of the better restaurants in exchange for money I took credit towards food and wine.
Carolyn