Re thinking Farmers Markets

pmcgrady · August 5, 2016

Recently I tried my hand at selling tomatoes at a local farmers market, and observed a few things... I had a pretty good assortment of tomatoes:
KBX
Orange Slice
Marianna's Peace
George Detsikes
Momotaro
Olpalka
Big Beef
Lucid Gem
Big mama
Yacqui
Mushroom Basket
Goldmans Italian American
Big assortment of cherry tomatoes
Etc.
The going rate with other vendors was $1.50/# so that's what I set my price at.
I spent 4 1/2 hours there and sold a grand total of about $35, some of the sales were
spaghetti squash, eggplant, and cucumbers. People wanted red baseball tomatoes, they didn't care about taste, just looks...
After about 2 hours there, a truck loaded with huge cantaloupe and watermelons pulled up next to me and set up shop. They were grown south of here in Beardstown Illinois.
The lady running the stand said this was the best melon crop in over 20 years, the cantaloupes were bigger than basketballs. I bought one for $6 it was a SuperStar variety and was probably one of the best cantaloupes I have ever eaten...
She sold around $500 worth of melons in a couple hours... People walked right past my
tomatoes to get melons. I'm not going to waste my time going there Saturday... I'm planting less tomatoes next year and more cantaloupe, melons, and squash. I made a deal with a high end meat market that will buy my tomatoes for $1.50/# and resell at $2.50 - $3.00/#, and I don't have to sit out in the heat trying to sell them to the uneducated public. Lessons learned...

August 5, 2016	#1
pmcgrady Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Central Illinois Posts: 1,836	Re thinking Farmers Markets Recently I tried my hand at selling tomatoes at a local farmers market, and observed a few things... I had a pretty good assortment of tomatoes: KBX Orange Slice Marianna's Peace George Detsikes Momotaro Olpalka Big Beef Lucid Gem Big mama Yacqui Mushroom Basket Goldmans Italian American Big assortment of cherry tomatoes Etc. The going rate with other vendors was $1.50/# so that's what I set my price at. I spent 4 1/2 hours there and sold a grand total of about $35, some of the sales were spaghetti squash, eggplant, and cucumbers. People wanted red baseball tomatoes, they didn't care about taste, just looks... After about 2 hours there, a truck loaded with huge cantaloupe and watermelons pulled up next to me and set up shop. They were grown south of here in Beardstown Illinois. The lady running the stand said this was the best melon crop in over 20 years, the cantaloupes were bigger than basketballs. I bought one for $6 it was a SuperStar variety and was probably one of the best cantaloupes I have ever eaten... She sold around $500 worth of melons in a couple hours... People walked right past my tomatoes to get melons. I'm not going to waste my time going there Saturday... I'm planting less tomatoes next year and more cantaloupe, melons, and squash. I made a deal with a high end meat market that will buy my tomatoes for $1.50/# and resell at $2.50 - $3.00/#, and I don't have to sit out in the heat trying to sell them to the uneducated public. Lessons learned...