Quote:
Originally Posted by AZGardener
Hi guys- I know we touched on this on another thread but I was just told by one of the top local pizza restaurants (that always has a 1-2 hr wait) that if I grew more maters, he would buy them. 
For those that don't know, this is part of my tomato growing dream. To have a farm and sell to local chefs/markets.
I'm on 1/2 acre but only have 6 raised beds. I could probably double that but would that even be enough?!! I have about 40 something heirloom/rare varieties and I could probably do 80 but again, not sure if that's even enough. I should ask how many lbs he goes through a day and perhaps that would give me a better idea of how many I should grow next season.
Any thoughts on this, would be appreciated! |
I sold to restaurants for several years, but first, I want to say that Worth has already asked some of the same questions I would have asked. But Ihave more.
The first thing you need to do is to meet with the owner and find out what he wants, not necessarily varieties that you have and he wouldn't care one bit if any of your varieties are rare. You call it a restaurant so shall I assume that it's sit down tables, other Italian entrees that are offered, a salad bar also?
Different varieties would be needed for sauce, as opposed to salads/salad bar, as opposed to toppings for pizzas, as opposed to any Italian entrees.
Are you doing this for money back? If not, try to work out payback in food vouchers, wine, whatever, as I did.
Make sure you discuss a delivery schedule, that's very important, b'c you can't pick tomatoes in the mud, inclement weather, etc.
I always made contact with retaurants the year before I'd start with them so that I could take with me the preceding summer a flat or two of fruits I could deliver and already knew how well they produced for me. So you might consider doing that this summer.
Let the owner make decisions.
Don't get mad if there are problems that crop up. I had one chef who only wanted delivery of German Red Strawberry fruits but I had only three plants of them out there and he was insistent and rude, so I cut him off and never dealt with him again.
Have you considered other options? One might be Farmer's Markets. I sold fruits at a large nursery that offered lots of great stuff, also had a small restaurant, also delivered plants to be sold to the public as well. I knew the owners very well, we worked together very well, but there are other considerations as well, such as who is going to remove fruits that start looking bad, how do you calculate fruit loss, what percentage of sales come back to you?
Lots to think about me thinks.
Carolyn