Yesterday I stopped by a small farm in Shelton, CT to buy sweet corn, I won’t complain about the $8/dozen price tag as that seems to be the going price for sweet corn everywhere around here in CT, but what really dropped my jaw were the price tags below:
Those boxes of figs contain about 10 figs each, probably less than a pound. Now, I have every sympathy with farmers, and I know a lot of them are suffering from the current state of farm economics, but I am really surprised they can sell plums and figs for that much money…
I would rather buy a box of decent size mangoes for $7.98 a box of 6 than any of the finest tasting figs. My wife don’t even like figs all that much. Ripe mangoes, pineapple, peaches, mandarins big yes.
So why am I grow so many figs? Hell if I know. Crazy habit, I guess.
I would rather spend $ 7.98 at Golden Corral than paying $8.00 for a fig, I least I get filled up. Btw, I only do lunches, no money for high end sit down dinners.
US commercial agriculture production is most efficient in the world which brought US food prices low and is affordable to majority of families. But large scale production limited to selected cultivars which may not be the best taste products. Smaller farmers grow cultivars that are suitable for local grow and provide exqusit flavor products to fill in the flavor/fresh gap with premier price. Looking at the price tag alone does seems high but if you buy it online, you may pay half the price but most than double for the shipping cost. So overall the price at the farmers market seems a better choice.
While we criticize our current commercial produces, how much pesticides used, how bad the produce tasted, not fresh etc. We must remember the current system provides many families an affordable living. Organic and smaller farm systems will increase cost of our food bill significantly which will add extra financial stress to fixed income families.
This is a terrible season for productivity of pluots and some varieties of nectarines. Figs must be cracking from rain as well. In CA there are few bad growing seasons- the nightmare there is dry winters.
Not looking forward to the forecast for about 3 more inches Thurs, and Fri. There goes the bulk of my E. plum crop. You can’t buy any from me for less that $25 a pound .
I bought some regular black chillean plums from the supermarket at $4/lb, unwittingly. Usually plums are $2/lb. They, and the pluots (which previously were very good), had no flavor except awful tart skin: a total waste.
When possible, support should be given to small farmers/sellers / businesses/people that care about freedom, even if the price is more, over the big ultra-rich entities.
A lot of varieties at Andy Mariani’s farm store in Morgan Hill, CA go for $7 or $8 per pound, although some are a bit cheaper. Farmer market prices for most fruit are $3 to $4 per pound but quality is usually subpar (underripe fruit). You can still buy very high quality peaches and nectarines for $3 per pound at farms in Brentwood, CA.
This is a capitalist country, Walmart and others started small,so the story goes, we the people made them big.
If I sell stuf that’s crap don’t expect your business to grow. I personally do not give away that’s not up to par and I don’t sell nothing anyway. I grow stuff just for the pleasure of growing stuff. Have a different kind of income called social security and a meager pension, got to make it due.
Yes, but Mariani owns land in one of the most expensive real estate hot spots in the country, so has to justify growing/selling fruit as opposed to selling his land to developers, and also is surrounded by the richest people in the country and I imagine labor costs more in his area of CA than in Shelton, CT. Again, I am not blaming the farm for its prices, if people are willing to pay that much, they would be a charity if they sell for lower prices. Makes me tempted to start selling my fruits .
Assuming they’re locally grown and picked at peak ripeness, that sounds like a bargain for figs grown in Connecticut.
Indeed. The fact that a local farmer offers figs at all is astonishing, let alone organic stone fruit. We have intense disease and insect pressure here. Those fruit can’t possibly be covering costs even at that price.
The corn seems steep though. I saw $6/dozen a few days ago although that was in Hartford County. The closer you get to NYC the more expensive things get.
I have always wondered why sweet corn is so cheap!
On a value basis I would think that an ear of sweet corn is as valuable as a candy bar which cost more than $1.
Also, we have noticed that the price of good quality local food has been increasing over the past few years even before Covid and all the government money.
It’s really good for the local growers but not so good for the consumers of the local food who pay more for the good stuff. Fortunately, we see a big change in the number of folks that are willing to pay a lot more for something they believe is better. We sell almost every peach we can grow for about 3X the Wallmart price. We don’t sell chicken or pork but the local producers sell their stuff for more than 2 times the supermarket price and often have a waiting list.
Corn priced at a dollar and ear (a buck-an-ear) is a joke I heard in the 3rd grade.
My father related to me that this joke “had a beard this long” (hold his arm hanging down from his side with the palm of his hand cupped upward to show the extent of a very long beard) “when I was this tall” (hand cupped downward to indicate a height when he was a young child).
How was the quality? How much is other organic fruits in the area? How much is organic Flavor KIng in the area? If they are always selling out, I’m guessing there isn’t a problem.
I pay a lot for my fruit at the top farmer’s market vendors. A lot more than the typical farmer at the farmer’s market which is a lot more than what is in organic store which is a lot more than at the regular supermarket. I grow a lot of my own and with all that goes into that, the fortune I pay at the farmer’s market is a lot cheaper than the cost to produce what I grow. I grow it because I enjoy the hobby. However, I’m also finding I simply cannot buy fruit that tastes as good as I grow. I do not know why, but that is usually how it turns out.
I didn’t try them, though retrospectively I think I should have bought one Dapple Dandy to try it, as they looked good. Flavor King looked way under ripe to me. I don’t believe in the “Organic” label, I think it is a sham, but I believe in responsible use of pesticides, which unfortunately is hard to tell unless you grow your own. As I stated above, I sympathize with farmers, but such prices are beyond my means, considering that I have a family and we consume large quantities of fruit, close to a bushel per week. For me, my upper limit for plums/nectarines/peaches is $3/lb, since at that price I can usually buy pretty decent fruit, either from fruit orchards, farmers markets or Costco.
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