Thanks for that…
When a single cabbage start costs more than a head of cabbage. I cant help but stop and scratch my head and wonder if people really buy those starts? I suspose they do, because they sure sell a lot of them.
Cost of living increase is crazy. For basic necessities. Too many people in my area are closing up for good. In Apple Valley CA we went to fall peach picking with a lady who’s 4th gen peaches. And she’s done. Charged $1.50 for first time.
Haha. The mechanic for my wife’s car wanted $249 an hr last month. Talked him down to $149. Sheesh.
I’ve debated that logic on quite a few veggies and ended up buying them from the grocery store instead. More productive things can go into that space.
I’m one of those that would gladly pay premium prices for premium products. I suspect theres a lot of us out there but the biggest thing would be being able to reach your customer base.
There are cheap customers, those who don’t care, and those who don’t mind paying premium pricing.
As long as you reach your targeted customer base and your prices aren’t exorbitant but even then… people still buy things from Miami Fruit so that customer base may be tiny but even then, it’s still there.
There’s a higher number of people who want things cheaper but there’s also a moderate amount of people who will buy at slightly higher pricing as well when they know the details that go into a product.
I’ve always been a premium purchaser myself and I try to put out premium products as well. I may not please everyone but my customers have become long terms friends. I’m still friends with some of my old coffee customers stuff and I haven’t done coffee in over 8 years now.
Even when i sell plant starts, I start at a premium price and i sell out before those who sell for half of what I do.
If you can create a high demand, aesthetically pleasing, and healthy plants or even food, you can demand higher pricing than grocery store or nurseries.
I had one guy who after a month with 2 of my tomato starts, bought almost my entire collection of starts for that year because he was so please with how quickly they grew because of how I took care of them and how he continued that process.
Are you kidding? WOW. … Were people unwilling to pay that price? or Taxes? Or ??? Did she say or was she just to tired of the work?
We used to pick in that area when I was a kid (I grew up in Huntington Beach).
I’ve done Strawberry exactly as you show here. I’ve even sold them at cost to draw people to our place when we sell more nursery type stuff (I may start this again some day). If you know what you’re doing and have the time, ya, that can be a ton of fun and some nice cash.
Sadly, as much interest as there was, she’s getting older … the trees need replaced or at least maintained better … can’t afford staff. Most of the work for selling was done by kids/grandkids. Simply a matter of not able to afford the manpower to keep going.
She did a “flash sale” one single day - and then a second one about a week later. And that was it this year. All U-Pick.
Sad, but I understand. Most farmers today are over age 60 (I just hit that mark). It’s very hard work and not a lot of money in it unless you’re into commercial sales, and even then the grocery stores squeeze you really tightly (Especially if you’re in CA, which I am not).
In Tennessee there aren’t many fruit sales. The weather/fungus/bugs put an incredible amount of pressure on fruit trees. So when some like us shows up and offers a U-Pick we get such a response that I have to limit who can come (And we’re limited ).
I’m in the process of putting in High-Density trellises, a different way of farming from peaches. At least I can stay on the ground and do most of my work. I’m hoping I live long enough for this to be a good retirement thing for my wife and I.
My whole reason for starting into fruit trees and grafting after decades of being a “gardener” was inspired by my Grandpa who passed 3 years ago at 100 years old. His love was plums/prunes but had extensive apple, grape, and berry plantings as well. My great Grandpa had tried everything from strawberries to Easter lilies. The bill payer was their sheep for decades though. 40 acres +/- of plums didnt have enough return but my Grandpa refused to give them up - pruning, spraying and tending them until his mid-90s. Two of my Uncles took over - they had a successful cattle ranching company. And i didnt want to see Grandpa’s and Great Grandpa’s varieties lost.
This actually inspired an idea - my Uncle Rich was happy to show me the methods they used for the last 100 years there but he’s into his 70s now. But in talking with him he is looking at converting 10 acres into a heritage orchard with a collection of all their old varieties and any the neighbors with contribute. Basically as a “scion bank” if that’s the right term.
In no way was I trying to be condescending. I hope it wasn’t taken that way. I know a ton of hard work goes into growing great produce and you deserve to have a fair price for the literal fruit of your labor!
I understand what your are saying and your reasoning. I was just curious as to what your main purpose(s) were with your pricing. i understand your produce is better than the most grocery stores. I was just mentioning the idea of not pricing yourself out of selling your produce since it is perishable items.
There was one local orchard close to me that raised their pricing quite a bit from one year to the next, basically doubling their pricing. People were not buying a lot of their produce and they ended up with a lot of apples and other fruit that went bad on them even with having coolers. i knew the manager at that time and she was upset that they had to throw away so much produce. They tried to make cider from the apples but again you can only sell so much cider in a season.
That was when I decided to plant my own fruit trees. Did my research over the late fall and winter time. I planted what ones my family liked and really never when back there. I would occasionally go back to buy cider in the late fall when they used sweeter apples.
They eventually sold off to another owner and these new owners mainly use their one barn for events ( weddings and eventing) and fruit selling is a 4th business for them. Eventing, coffee shop, donuts and coffee cakes, then fruit sales.
That was why I was asking. Just for my clarification.
That’s the cheapest I have heard of for a plumber. I charge double that to fix computer networks.
I’m looking for a Yates persimmon on DV. If someone has one, hit me up!
Pedro
That is very cheap for a plumber. They start at 150-200$ over on my end.
I sure hope this comment doesn’t sound rude, because I sincerely don’t intend that. The price on your jam is in line with current market prices. So you are good there, but your prices on fresh fruit are far too low and you are shooting yourself in the foot. I run a farmers market not too far from you and I am acquainted with prevailing market prices for this area. You are far below that. I have no doubt that your fruits are much better than groceries stores, but if you sell higher quality fruit for lower than normal prices, you will never be profitable. If you don’t ascribe value to your products, how can you expect customers to do so? I’m certain you do have many return customers because once they cautiously buy a little to try and then find out that it is that good…well yes, they are coming back again for a bargain like that! Great for them, but you are working for pennies.
Blueberries & Blackberries (from Niota, BTW) are $25/g [farms in Chattanooga tend to sell by volume, while farms in Knoxville tend to sell by weight]
Strawberries $20/g
Pears $1.70+/lb
Apples $10-12/ half-peck ($2+/lb)
Peaches $14/ half-peck (2.40/lb.)
Citrus - There is one farm from NE AL selling satsumas but I do not know his prices. He is the only one around here with any citrus. (greenhouse grown)
We never see plums. (They bloom so early and we get hit with late frosts most years.)
Peaches $14/ half-peck (2.40/lb.)
I hope that helps some. If you are interested in joining a farmers market, contact me.
In an earlier day of my farming times I used to grow tomatoes. Growing tomatoes under cover has been the norm here in the Skagit Valley ever since the irresponsible practice of growing potatoes became popular. At one time I had 5 greenhouses devoted to tomatoes. It was only natural, as time went by to start selling tomato starts as well. As I was selling at farmers markets I did notice that many of the vendors selling tomato starts were not putting much effort into it. They were bringing in 2" and 4" pots of tomato starts each weekend that were just the same plants until they finally sell them all. About half way through the 8 week marketing season these plants were effectively junk. The vendors would start marking them down to get rid of them instead of just throwing them away like they should have.
At the time there was definitely a need for quality tomato plants in the Seattle area. I decided to go into it as much as I could without heated or lit houses. I also wanted to do gallon sized plants as this would give the customer the best chance at success.
After a little experimenting with the timing of growout and the spring season I managed to workout a seeding / planting / transplanting schedule that would allow me to sell gallon plants of around 20 varieties at 7 farmers markets starting first week of May through 2nd week of June with a priority of all plants being the same size each week.
I did this for several years and it went over very big. My “nursery” business ended up taking over all of my greenhouses and I was all set to build another.
It surprised me, at the time, how much more people were willing to pay for a plant than they would for food. I was charging less than my only other competition at the time, Joes Gardens. Once I established a reputation there was no problem selling the plants, no haggling over prices like one would with produce. Customers would line up before opening to get the varieties they wanted.
Definitely, customers being successful with growing is what brings them back and gets the good word spread. They will put up with a gradual raising of prices as time goes by.
Long after I had to quite the nursery business, 20 years ago, I still have long time customers and friends requesting my plants.
I got my first two asian pears off my multi- graft tree this past summer. Soon maybe I’ll be able to set up a stand! Was already thinking about doing plant starts last year…
Maybe I’ll get some figs fruiting this year!