What to sell at Farmer's Markets until tomato harvest

[biscgolf]

i'll be trying the catgrass next week... had a surprisingly good day this past saturday despite being somewhat in between vegetable crops (can't wait to rip up my summer squash entirely and burn those gosh darnoodley squash bugs...)... enthusiasm for microgreens (my year-long staple) is growing quickly and one guy bought me completely out of daylilies...and one of the 3 organic vendors at our market decided to bail because they didn't feel they could compete with the large commercial farms (imo their presence actually helps those of us who are chemical free to a degree)- more market share for me!

first blackberries and outdoor tomatoes are just coming in now so market should be hopping soon... also just got back from the mill my last batch of corn meal from last year's corn and will get around to shelling the last of my popcorn reserves this week.

perseverance in building repeat clientele is key. maintaining supply of your keystone items while being diverse in your other offerings is what people are looking for imo.

[JackE]

Organic growers shouldn't even worry about competition from conventional farmers like us. They serve discriminating, largely upscale consumers who understand that organic vegetables are more labor-consuming, yields are much lower and the crops are not "forced" with synthetic nitrogen, usually putting their harvest a couple weeks behind us. But those extra weeks to maturiy mean more vitamins and minerals and increased sugars. It's a higher quality product than ours and should command a higher price.

The big difference is slower ripening using natural nutrients from the soil rather than forced maturity with large amonts of nitrogen. That's your best sales point! But, of course, the longer it takes, the more squash bugs and weeds. Don't try to compete with us on price -the deck is stacked in our favor on that score. :-)

Jack

[biscgolf]

tomatoes are coming in and blackberries are here in full- yippee! actual income!!

i also just packaged up the last of last year's popcorn (need to figure out a price for it as i've moved to a more "upscale" market than last year), the first of this year's dried catnip, and the first coriander to finish for this year...

"catgrass" ready to go this week as well...

[Wi-sunflower]

I'm just getting a trickle of some tomatoes from plants we put in 3 gal pots in the greenhouse. It's still early for field tomatoes here. But I have had Kohlrabi and now broccoli is coming pretty well despite the heat and dry weather. If we could get some rain I would have cabbage too. We will have just a bit of zucchini this Sat. Just about on time even tho we had a cold June.

The radish pods got me thru 3 markets but now that planting is too hard to sell. But we will get a LOT of seeds from the 90+% that's left out there.

The cat grass has been a remarkable crop for me. 3-5 flats every Sat. Pays the gas +. Sprouts had fizzled a couple of weeks but did better again last Sat. I still have to figure that market out. There is a market for it, I just need to figure out what and when.

It's been such a crazy "spring" around here that it seems like we've been at it a lot longer already this year. Hard to realize it's just the beginning of July.

Carol

[whistler]

I learn new things each week about selling...

I have brought cut flowers to market every few weeks, depending on what was blooming nicely in my regular landscaping at the time. My original process was to set the flowers out in a big bucket and sell them for $1/stem. Some days they sold, some days they didn't.

Last week, after a half hour of nobody buying anything from me (and I finally had some beans and beets instead of just onions and cucumbers!!) ... I got up and started making a bouquet with a couple of the flowers. One of this, one of that, etc. Next thing I know, I've sold 4 bouquets for $5 each.

The only bad thing is now I have all kinds of plans to buy flower bulbs for next year's sales... another round of first year investment in a perennial moneymaker. Good investment, but more cash to find. And more space to find, and more raised beds to build. It's a good thing that my "bad habit" is gardening and not something truly harmful.

In other news, the cat grass is still moving well. I have received good feedback from customers that their cats liked it, and I have had several repeat customers. People still accept the $2/pot price with no issues.

Over the next few weeks, I'll have a few more beets, beans, perhaps some hot peppers, and some early tomatoes (the Manitobas are finally ripening). Then we get into the real fun - the main crop of heirloom tomatoes. And I have to work on my sales techniques for the folks who need to know why they should pay my price for weird looking tomatoes when the other farmers have nice red round ones for $4/qt. Ah, one step at a time...

[biscgolf]

thanks god for blackberries... they are selling as fast as i can hand them over to people...

i too would like to sell more heirlooms, but around here even the big producers have at least some- i may revisit growing quite so many next year.

microgreens are finally catching on in a big way at our market- sold all i took last week with the exception of a couple of clamshells...

how to market peppers appropriately will be my next challenge... i'll have a ton of variety but have traditionally not done all that well with them at market.

sold a decent amount of catgrass the first couple of weeks but the intense heat has dropped plant sales of all types to near nil.

[stonysoilseeds]

i sell at a rural market and found it tricky selling some of the off colored tomatoes like black krims and cherokee purple i did ok with the stupice.. although i prefer hierlooms sun golds sold best..it takes time to educate consumers on new and different looking varieties

[maricybele]

You could sell starts of the fall plants that can make it through frosts like lacinto kale, decorative edible kale, leeks, winter cabbage, carrots, beets, lettuce, radicchio, etc.

[saltmarsh]

Hi Ira, this thread is a little old, but has some good info, so it might be a good place for this.

Sometimes you have to make your market. Let me tell you a story.

Back in 1968 I was sharecropping with my father on the halves. He provided the land, the equipment, everything but the labor. I provided labor, myself and field hands I paid for out of my half.

I grew the normal crops, tomatoes, straight neck and crookneck squash, greens, butter beans and purple hull peas, okra, cantaloupe and watermelon, Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes, bell peppers and cayenne, eggplant, peanuts, cucumbers and spinach.

When the produce started coming in, I had three routes I ran in north Mississippi each week peddlin vegetables. I sold to chain grocery stores, supermarkets, corner grocery stores, cafés and restaurants, factories, florist shops, churches, welfare offices, wholesale produce houses and individuals. In other words I sold to anyone who would buy my produce at a fair price.

I also sold produce from other farmers who couldn't or didn't want to deal with the public. This was done on the halves also.

I used two receipt books, one for sales and the other to take orders for delivery the next time I ran the route. If a chain store or supermarket was running my produce as a loss leader, I'd schedule a special run to deliver their produce the day before their ad came out.

Sometimes a chain would try to buy all you had. Normally when this happened, if you explained that wouldn't be fair to your other customers that would be the end of it. You don't want to make your best customer your only customer. Treat everyone the same.

Most people tend to be set in their ways when it comes to what they eat. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. But you can make him want to drink, the trick is in finding a way to make him want the water.

At this point in time straight neck squash was new to our area. The reason was simple. People would only buy crookneck squash. They had never eaten a straight neck squash and weren't about to start. From the farmers point of view the straight neck can be much more productive than the crookneck. If you can leave the straight neck on the vine an extra day you can double your production just by leaving it alone.

When I'd approach a customer, I started carrying a couple of 6 to 8 inch straight neck squash with me. I'd ask if they had tried them and the normal answer was no. I'd then ask if they had eaten stuffed bell peppers and the normal answer was yes. So then I told them they should try the squash fixed like stuffed bell peppers, just split them in two and hollow them out like a canoe and bake them the same as their bell pepper recipe. Really good, try it. And the next time I'd see them I'd ask if they had tried the stuffed squash. And then there's fried squash, stewed squash, squash fritters, squash casserole and on and on.

But mostly people still bought crooknecks.

You have to grow what your customers are buying. If you want to try making them buy what you're selling, you'd better be prepared to end up feeding it to the hogs. Claud

[Keger]

What would ya think..................

About selling fall variety tomato plants in the stalls as well? I am looking for things to add, and this seems to make sense. I am really concentrating on tomatos, all kinds, and the heat tollerent stuff can go down here until December sometimes. Thinking of making one garden a hoop house and growing all year.

[stonysoilseeds]

i think you can do well especially sellingg tomatoes and other produce in hoop houses and reen houses when quality produce is out of season and localities become food deserts

[whistler]

An update since I started this thread last season:

- I'm getting better at filling in the product gaps between seedlings and tomatoes. My business is fairly well diversified now between seedlings, flowers, produce and other plants.

- Cat grass rocks. I sell a flat (of 18 singles) or more of this each week for $2 ea or 3/$5. I get a few wheatgrass inquiries a month, but have yet to really push that angle. I'm also going to try to sell a cat grass kit to tide my regulars over through the winter (if my market will allow the kits, since I'm not really growing the product).

- Radish pods are another easy yet profitable addition to my stand. I cut all of the pods off of the plants each week, and each week there are more to cut! I think the original plants I put in this year are about done, but the new ones are about ready to produce. Thanks for the suggestion! As a bonus, I'm pretty sure the radish plants attracted beneficial insects to the area, and my beet greens were nearly pristine.

- Squash Blossoms are a big hit at my stand, and I scored some free plastic clam shell containers from my company cafeteria when they changed vendors, so my product costs are minimal. At $5 per container of 7 (a half dozen plus one to practice on ), these are worth bringing to market. If they don't sell, I give them to a fellow vendor who's also a chef, just to hear next week what cool recipe he used them in.

Since I'm small and can grow specialty items, I've been asking my customers for product suggestions for next year. Does anyone have experience growing bitter gourds, loofah gourds, or drumstick trees? Anyone have suggestions for other specialty items?

Other lessons:
- I sell "out of the ordinary" items much more easily if I bring handouts - free recipes, "how to prepare" papers (like "How to Prepare Fresh Horseradish"), etc.

- Right now I'm trying to figure out how to sell my hot peppers, because I sell out of almost everything else, but don't sell many hot peppers. Any suggestions on this would be welcome. I'm thinking maybe a Jalapeno Poppers recipe for the Jalapenos, but that leaves 20+ other varieties to figure out.

- One person's garden waste is another person's product. Think the squash blossoms, carrot thinnings (marketed as Bunny Treats, and I get the same price as a bunch of carrots for them - I put them on my price board next to the cat grass), beet greens (with the baby beets still on, but I planted them around the tomato bed and they weren't really getting good size on the beets, so I sold them as greens). You just have to use your imagination and figure out who your customer is, then market the product to them.

[Worth1]

You could repackage regular doughnuts and sweet rolls and sell them as fat free.

A guy in New York did it and made a fortune until he got caught.
People loved them and were eating them by the hand full.

Especially the police.
They couldn't figure out why they were gaining weight.

Needles to say they were pretty hot when they found out why.

Worth

[Cole_Robbie]

Hey, I sold cat grass, too! I thought I was the only one. Next year, I am going to put it into smaller pots at a lower price and also look for a bulk supplier of the seed. Another thing I learned is that cats that go outside won't eat the cat grass. It is for indoor-only cats.

If you are trying to be early with a product at market, you need to be growing under row covers or in a greenhouse/high tunnel. You're not going to be able to compete with other vendors who are.

And regarding an earlier post about fall gourds, people seem to want gourds and pumpkins in September more than October. The closer to Halloween it gets, the less time the customer gets to enjoy their fall gourd arrangement. It seems that by the time of the last market before Halloween, the pumpkin and gourd market has fizzled out.

[dustdevil]

Originally Posted by whistler

- Right now I'm trying to figure out how to sell my hot peppers, because I sell out of almost everything else, but don't sell many hot peppers. Any suggestions on this would be welcome. I'm thinking maybe a Jalapeno Poppers recipe for the Jalapenos, but that leaves 20+ other varieties to figure out.

Offer a recipe for hot picante sauceMore people go for colorful/interesting shaped sweet peppers than hot peppers IMO.