i bought a bunch of quart and pint containers from jungs seed company they are wooden and hold up real well, i think they call em berry baskets. bushell baskets i get at a local produce buyer\distributor, or i find them at the local farm store which is the Rural King where I live

Thank you very much for your help!

You can do a google search and come up with several vendors. Personally, I have boxes and boxes of recycled containers. The kitchen staff at my school saves them for me as do many of my customers. If you have connections with anyone in a food service business, I bet you could get all you wanted. The baskets I use came from Texas Basket Co. They are priced reasonably. They have not held up very well, but the company has worked well with me.

Brook

Growers Supply, just added those green cardboard pint (stk#11o426) and quart (stk#110428)plus they now have tomato,bushel boxes and berry flats in their new items section. I saved over $200 dollars because I justbought a new price-computing scale for market. The supplier I did use was over $200 higher,but Growers has a new product sale going on now!

Heck, Brook, I though you might use "shoe" boxes!! (And if your not who I think you are this joke died even before you finished reading it and I beg forgivness in advance). We purchaced some a few years back from a local farm store - was cheaper when shipping factored in but the quality was so-so and they did not hld up to the rigors of transport to market well. Now we use wooden crates I build over the winter from scrap wood. They interlock and fit tightly together in the trailer to haul.

I've used the cardboard tomato boxes, but am considering changing over to something else. I need to squarenish, stackability, and easy on ripe tomatoes. I've figure out that the tomato boxes are just about right, except people look down on them. People think, I'm buying from a large grower, instead of just re-using them. I've thought about contact paper on the boxes, just not sure.

henhouse, if you're going to the so il conference, bring a picture of your boxes and dimensions. They might be just the thing.

Hey, Brook, the conference is in your 'neck of the woods', come on over and us 'Midwesterners' can get together.

marla

Henhouse, Yes, "shoe" boxes would be appropriate, but I'm not a native here--just an import from a county away. Come to think of it tho', I have been here WELL over half my life.

Marla, I would love more than anything to go to those conferences. However, I can't get away from school. I still have a few years to go before I can retire. I'm really just thankful to have a job with the state in the mess it's in. My poor wife is unemployed yet again--fourth time in five years.

Brook

I use Nolt's produce Supply in PA for my pulp tills, they are a lot cheaper than Jung's for about everything and have better service by far (I have had several bad experiences with Jung's and will not buy anything from them again)

Monte Packaging has a huge amount of produce supplies and good service but are not the cheapest

Brook - was pretty sure I was right when you told the deer jerky story a while back. It's funny how one finds people on the web out of the blue. As I recall, the last time you were up here at the house you and your associates built a campfire on my driveway, drank all my beer and used the empties to decorate the house - and I wasn't even home!! Land that must have been 15 years ago. Time sure flies.

Marla - we are going to be there, I'll bring you one to take home and play with. I've been building and have a bunch stacked up on the back porch to take up the the home place.

Tom

Thanks, I pulled out an apple crate that I had hidden, it happens to be larger than my tomato boxes.

Now, if weather just behaves for the conference.

I only have 15 weeks til my first official market day. They sometimes have early markets which I'm not sure about yet. I have a few tomato plants up and a lot of basil plants

marla

I look for baskets at estate sales, yard sales. You can get some great stuff for $.25. The down side of that, if there is one, is that sometimes people want to buy my baskets. I have a couple of unusual ones that have held up well for years.

Tom, All I can say is Oh My God!!! I often wondered where you went--kinda lose track of people after all these umpteen years. Don't want to take up space here, so shoot me an e-mail and we'll catch up: meadowviewer@mchsi.com

Brook

If you are talking about wood boxes or baskets to display in, I bought some 1/2 bushel wood baskets from the local grocery store. They came from Little Rock Crate and Basket, http://www.crateandbasket.com/

Here are some with squash in them. I must of just left them in at the end of the market, usually I take them out.

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If you are talking about what I haul produce to market with, I use Sterlite 28 quart tubs/boxes. These tubs come with a lid and I can stack 4-5 high in the back of my truck. I can put 4 stacks of 4 across the front of my truck. 3 stacks in the middle and 4 across the back. That is 44 tubs. I have had those days when I went 5 high. Then the tables fit on top of the tubs, canopy on top of that and every thing gets two straps thrown over it and away we go. When I get ready to come home, I can stack all the empties and it takes up a lot less space.

You can fit 20 pint boxes of cherry tomatoes in thes and about 20-25 lbs of tomatoes. I usually sell the tomatoes out of the tubs. I never seem to find the time to take them out.

I also put a piece of newspaper in the bottom. This way if a tomato starts to leak, I can easily spot it and it doesn't make a big mess.

Here is a picture of tomato tubs stacked up without the lids. I usually stack them like this on shelves, but I guess the shelves were all full.

To display in and keep everything organized, I use new 1020 web flats.
http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10052&storeId=10001&productId=404375&langId=-1&division=FarmTek&pageId=ItemDetail&isDoc=N

This way everything has a place and they look clean and neat. Best of all they stack and are very durable.

Picture at one of our last markets in October. Very slow day. I have all four kids. # 4 is inside the truck, she was in trouble.

Jay

I use plastic stacking nesting crates that hold 7/8 of a bushel. I used to get them direct from Buckhorn Inc but they now have a minimum of something like 10K so go through Nolt's. these crates last decades with very hard conditions. they also save a lot of space over wooden bushel baskets in both our refrigeration and also on the van/truck. And they can be cleaned and sterilized which you cannot do with bushel baskets. I believe they cost around $10 apiece and will last 20x longer than a bushel basket.

You can see them in action in the picture below. That's my husband in the shot BTW getting ready to price melons

Jay, I used the trays for awhile, til I was stocking more than selling. I guess I'm cheap, by the time I was actually making money, the totes were too small. Now, everything that goes into the van, has to serve at least 2 purposes, except the scales and money boxes. If it can't display AND be hauled in, it's not working hard enough.

Yes, I could take an additional vehicle, but with gas prices, we are looking to cut vehicle expenses. Last year, we were bringing 3 vehicles to market, with at least 2 of them having something needed at market. I don't want to buy a box truck, really tacking in my opinoin. Of course, I may just cut back and let the customers come to the farm.

Marla

I really like the gray produce crates. I am guessing those are the ones that stack one way and nest the other way. The only problem is I don't have an enclosed truck to take to market. I have a small enclosed trailer, but most of the spring I use it to haul seedlings. Then in the summer, I try to take the least amount to market, only my truck. Unless it is raining. Also, my wife sells at a small market on the same day I sell at the larger one She needs the trailer. The containers I use are able to be be closed and they keep my produce dry. Important if it starts to rain. At market when it starts to rain, I can just run around and put lids on tubs. Also, when stacked up, they stay cool. I don't put tomatoes in the fridge, but they are stored in my cool basement. At market, when I open up a new tub, they are always cool.

Marla,
On tomatoes, I just sell them out of the tubs. I also usually sell anything I have a large quantity of out of the larger tubs. My problem is I can't get enough tubs on the tables I have. I am also limited in my stall space. So adding more tables won't work. So the 1020's allow me to put many different products on the table. I stack my produce pretty high.

Jay

Jay,

You are in KS? Where bouts? We are in Baxter Springs. Care to help a newbie out with info and such, lol! Still trying to convince the in-laws I can make a go at this!
MY son has chronic migraines, ad adhd. I work 30 miles away and it takes me 30-45 minutes to get home to him when he has a problem. Trying to make a go a this so I can be home more/closer if needed.

Jamie
dogwoodstar@msn.com

Jay, can you 'tarp' your truck? And maybe some stock racks. We built some for our trucks (to haul the excess bread) out of 1 sheet of 5/8 plywood and 2 2x2s cut into 3 'posts' each 32" long. Each 'side' is 16" tall. by cutting the 4x8 sheet into 3 16" wide, that leaves one for the front (behind the window). We don't worry about the back, but if you tarped it, you could pull the tarp across the back. Or maybe use a cargo net/tailgate for the back. It also took 2-3 screw to screw the posts onto the plywood. Costs less than $30 without the tarp.

I'll be using the sideboards for the plants, so the wind doesn't 'attack' as much.

I understand about the lack of space, I've turned my stand from the straight line to a U-shaped booth. It's added 12-16' of table space out of a 20' booth frontage. I still have the van behind, just turned sideways (it barely fits with 6" to spare).

Marla

boulderbelt, where did you get your price gun? I've thought about getting one, but wasn't sure where to get one or if it would make things look 'storeish'.

Does Nolt's have a website? if so, could you share it?

Thanks for sharing.

Marla

I make all my baskets ....and i do occasionally sell one full for about triple what they cost me to make and fill with produce

Marla we got the pricing gun from a food co-op we used to belong to years and years ago and no, Nolt's does not have a website nor are the open on Sunday as they are Amish

I was afraid of that after seeing where they're located. I may need to ask some of my Amish friends who might be traveling 'east' to see family. Most of my Amish friends came from the Leola/Lancaster area.

Marla

I just finished some boxes for my stand. Cranked then out on my CNC router. They stack really well but are more for display.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Farm

Darlington, you must have used them last Saturday, I wasn't there Sat. Hope to see you this coming Saturday.

Marla