Wow I am very blown away at the great responses!!
Thank you all in advance.
Worth-
This restaurant is an upscale pizza company. Everything is pricey but pretty amazing. He uses in season/local when he can. He's all about supporting the local farmer (which I think is so awesome!). He actually uses a farm out of CA that specifically grows tomatoes for his canned tomato sauce. So his needs from me would be specifically for fresh tomatoes making things like caprese, salads, etc. You said it exactly, he uses the fresh heirloom tomatoes for seasonal menus that change daily/weekly/seasonally.
Carolyn- I have only talked to the chef/owner over the net. Lol- yes I know but that's typical these days... The restaurant is more a gourmet pizza company vs classic Italian food. You might find a couple traditional Italian things on the menu but he's well known for his gourmet wood fired pizzas. No salad bar but a $10+ dinner salad that includes heirloom tomatoes, beautiful lettuces of all sizes and colors, and seriously the best in season veggies and fruit one can get.
I'm definitely thinking about all the varieties I have vs. what his needs are. I'm assuming the taste and the look (color/stripes/size) for slicing and many cherry types for salads but I need to confirm this. I probably will do this for money, as his restaurant is downtown (30+ mins away) and it would be nice to earn a penny or two for doing something that I love doing. In regards to doing other things... One day when I have a real tomato farm, I think I can do all these ventures like growing starts, doing markets, selling wholesale...etc. But until I do get my farm, I need to start somewhere. Making all the right contacts and laying all the right footwork so when I have my farm, I can run!!
For fruit sales/fruit loss, I've never done this and really don't know where to start... I'm thinking you just sell by the lb like at a market and its up to the chef to manage their fruit--no?
