Pricing currant tomatoes?

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I took my daughter to do a sales call at a local restaurant and let her pick some pretty salad tomatoes to take with to show the kitchen. We had about a cup of her favorites, Hawaiian Red Currant.

From the staff at the door all the way to the pastry person they all loved the currants more than anything else we brought. You would have to pick a lot to make a pound, so there has to be a premium for them, right?

Does anyone here sell currant tomatoes? What do you ask for them? Is there a more productive variety?

[jennifer28]

Mark

I don't sell any of my produce. I donate it or use it for my students at school. BUT I do have a few friends who sell to local restaurants and at the weekend farmer's market. I'll ask them about their pricing and get back to you. This is in Connecticut, but at least it is a start.

[kurt]

The Whole Foods market here in S Florida sell cherrys and grape tomatoes in those clear plastic containers.They charge up to $4.50 each.I think they are labeled 1 pint.Never bought them.Never seen them labeled as currents though.

[Wi-sunflower]

Oh man, you might be in big trouble. Those currant tomatoes are a real PITA to pick.

I grow about a 1/2 dozen varieties for plant sales and for seed sales. But we almost never pick them for market sales because it takes too much labor.

About the best suggestion I heard lately would be to cut a whole truss and sell them that way. But I don't know it that would work with restaurants.

Carol

[Granite26]

Agree with Carol. I used to grow some of the really small ones but found it wasn't worth the time picking to sell. Could never get the $ to make them worth it. Pain to pick and you had to handle them with care. Been there...done that...no thanks.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Yes. I can pick a pint of cherries or a couple of slicers in seconds, but it would be a long time to pick a pint of currants. Plus the ones I'm growing this year are big spreading plants that I doubt produce anything close to the total weight of most of the larger varieties, so you've got more growing space allocated to lower production plants.

It was almost comical, the blue tomato varieties I brought were 'interesting' but didn't make them go gaga, Blush and Maglia Rosa were well liked as were some of the striped and fuzzy 2-4oz varieties. But I think the staff ate all of the currant tomatoes while I was talking and every kitchen station had an idea where they could use them and wanted to know how many I could provide, if they were available in different colors, etc. All I could think of while we were talking was the plants I'd cut down the day before because I was tired of picking the little things, I'd just left two for my daughter.

Other than selling some of my superhot peppers as a way to recoup some of my expenses I don't normally sell produce; I can a lot of sauce and salsa which we use and I give extra away. But since my main business is in the restaurant field (I design specialty software for the industry) I decided I'd try exploring the local market for something that my kids could do as a way to learn something about running a business.

I took her along saying we weren't going to charge anything for her basket of tomatoes, they were a sample and we were going to find out what they liked that we could sell. (They did give her some desserts to go, I love the staff there.) She got that and we talked about expenses for starting the seeds, soil amendments and other consumables, time taking care of the plants and picking the tomatoes, packaging for delivery so she understood that it wasn't a pure profit thing; there are production costs. On the way home we talked about how this was a way to figure out something that the market wanted and that we'd have to figure out how much we could charge to make it worthwhile. If it was something they were willing to pay enough for we would plant more of that kind next year. My best guess is that we'd probably have to charge $8-9 a pint to make it worth the time to harvest (and that's figuring on child labor), which made her eyes get big and she wanted to plant a couple of dozen currant tomato plants next year...

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Granite26

Agree with Carol. I used to grow some of the really small ones but found it wasn't worth the time picking to sell. Could never get the $ to make them worth it. Pain to pick and you had to handle them with care. Been there...done that...no thanks.

Were you selling direct to the public or to restaurants? I've got several upscale restaurants in the area where I might be able to get a premium for them. Figuring there are likely going to be 100+ in a pint if they can keep the staff from snacking on them that's a small per plate expense for a unique garnish.

I know putting them out at a farmers market at 2-3 x the cost of a pint of cherries they are unlikely to sell unless you have someone planning a party they want to use them for.

[Granite26]

I predominantly sell wholesale to specialty retailers. I have not tried the restaurant market.
Just started a FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pleas...51501414880514

[habitat_gardener]

I haven't grown currant tomatoes, but I have grown lots of cherry tomatoes. I pick them with a little bit of stem attached, because otherwise it's hard to pick without injuring the tomato. So I'd try to sell the restaurant on the idea that they'll get fresher currant tomatoes in better condition if they are delivered as trusses. It's analogous to the way grapes are sold. You don't want to buy single grapes, because they go bad too fast. You buy the whole "truss," and then carefully pick the individual fruits as they are needed. (Or you can provide individually picked tomatoes, but charge a premium.)

And rather than providing them in pint containers, I'd find a flatter container, so you could put one or maybe two layers of trusses. If you know the restaurant is buying a lot, you could use something like berry boxes (the ones that hold 6 or 12 pints), with the tomatoes placed directly in the box. You can stack these boxes, but you have to do it carefully. If you don't need to stack them, you could even use cut-down boxes. I get a lot of these and use them to dry tomato seeds (can stack them by offsetting) and herbs, as well as to organize tomatoes I've picked. Here's a photo of one from a couple weeks ago.

[Boutique Tomatoes]

I'd need to find a variety that ripened whole trusses at once, or that had better hang time for ripe ones. With the Hawaiian Red Currants they seem to ripen one or two on a truss at a time and when they get to a certain point they just fall off.

If I could find a variety like that it could work, I remember when I was working in garde manger for an expensive hotel we would get specialty things packed in individual layers in shallow boxes like that all the time.

I really never expected the reaction they got. I was excited about the blues thinking about how different they look. The currants were just a tiny PIA that my daughter liked but they weren't anything that really excited me. Goes to show me that I shouldn't try to guess the market...

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Granite26

I predominantly sell wholesale to specialty retailers. I have not tried the restaurant market.
Just started a FB page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pleas...51501414880514

Very cool! I have a friend who does something like this in Oshkosh that I need to touch base with, he got some seeds from me this spring and I'm curious as to how his foray into the superhot pepper market is going... ;-)

[Granite26]

So far my experience with blues is that a few of us tomato fanatics think they are cool....the public not so much. I had to give away most of my blue tomato plants as customers were not that interested and now the toms are not getting rave reviews.

Almost all of my 400 peppers burned up in the heat and lack of rain so not having a good year with them.

I like the truss idea for selling those tiny toms but like you said...it is hard to get a full ripe truss.

[JamesL]

Originally Posted by marktutt

Yes. I can pick a pint of cherries or a couple of slicers in seconds, but it would be a long time to pick a pint of currants. Plus the ones I'm growing this year are big spreading plants that I doubt produce anything close to the total weight of most of the larger varieties, so you've got more growing space allocated to lower production plants.

It was almost comical, the blue tomato varieties I brought were 'interesting' but didn't make them go gaga, Blush and Maglia Rosa were well liked as were some of the striped and fuzzy 2-4oz varieties. But I think the staff ate all of the currant tomatoes while I was talking and every kitchen station had an idea where they could use them and wanted to know how many I could provide, if they were available in different colors, etc. All I could think of while we were talking was the plants I'd cut down the day before because I was tired of picking the little things, I'd just left two for my daughter.

Other than selling some of my superhot peppers as a way to recoup some of my expenses I don't normally sell produce; I can a lot of sauce and salsa which we use and I give extra away. But since my main business is in the restaurant field (I design specialty software for the industry) I decided I'd try exploring the local market for something that my kids could do as a way to learn something about running a business.

I took her along saying we weren't going to charge anything for her basket of tomatoes, they were a sample and we were going to find out what they liked that we could sell. (They did give her some desserts to go, I love the staff there.) She got that and we talked about expenses for starting the seeds, soil amendments and other consumables, time taking care of the plants and picking the tomatoes, packaging for delivery so she understood that it wasn't a pure profit thing; there are production costs. On the way home we talked about how this was a way to figure out something that the market wanted and that we'd have to figure out how much we could charge to make it worthwhile. If it was something they were willing to pay enough for we would plant more of that kind next year. My best guess is that we'd probably have to charge $8-9 a pint to make it worth the time to harvest (and that's figuring on child labor), which made her eyes get big and she wanted to plant a couple of dozen currant tomato plants next year...

Mark,
Take a look at some of the shattering varieties. I found this interesting with respect to harvesting.
http://www.liseed.org/curranttom.html

[Granite26]

Interesting link!

[Boutique Tomatoes]

Originally Posted by Granite26

So far my experience with blues is that a few of us tomato fanatics think they are cool....the public not so much. I had to give away most of my blue tomato plants as customers were not that interested and now the toms are not getting rave reviews.

Almost all of my 400 peppers burned up in the heat and lack of rain so not having a good year with them.

I like the truss idea for selling those tiny toms but like you said...it is hard to get a full ripe truss.

Yep. Flavor is good but not great on some of the blues but they're not something that makes people go wow flavor wise. I'm having fun with showing them to people but I don't think I'll be planting 50+ plants of them next year. I will probably grow out some of the interesting selections I did find though and I did try my hand at a couple of crosses.

I did have a wild idea to try candying some Helsing ★★★★★★★★ Blues to see if they could be made into something different for a dessert garnish twist. They look so much like a dark cherry...

Definately an off year for peppers. I have grass in mine that is taller than the pepper plants because it got so depressing seeing the burned up plants I stopped weeding them. Now that it's been raining I need to go through them this weekend and see what is still alive.

The shattering varieties is an interesting idea. I could probably rig up a mechanical way to collect them if they survive the fall without splitting.