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kydaylilylady

Plans for next year

kydaylilylady
17 years ago

What new marketing ideas did you try this year? Did they work? If they didn't why? Have you been thinking about things you'd like to try next year?

Janet

Comments (17)

  • anniew
    17 years ago

    I tried a CSA this year. It was a very steep learning curve. I plan to change several things next year, which hopefully, will be less time consuming...such as no half shares and no preference list (if they don't like most things, they need another way to buy their produce). I'm hoping the time saved will allow me to grow cut flowers again to sell at my stand and/or at the farmers market. These were neglected this season to get the right veggies in the right bags without giving someone something he didn't like.
    But, I did like that I organized it as well as could be expected before the season started which was a big help.
    Another change I'd make is firing Mother Nature from the weather department. She made it an unbelieveably bad year for producing a lot of common veggies...not good when you have committed to several families. Of course, her replacement may be as bad or worse, but change is good.
    Ann

  • Miss_Mudcat
    17 years ago

    We decided to take plants to the farmer's market for the first time this season. We started approximately 1,000 heirloom tomato plants and a combination of about 300 heirloom peppers and eggplants. The tomatoes were successful and we will certainly do those again next spring. The peppers and eggplants did okay, but we won't be repeating those. Management-wise, it just seems simpler to streamline into one product that can be raised in the same conditions and same number of days.

    Having tomato plants available on the opening day of market was an advantage, as we were able to let shoppers know that we would also be bringing organically grown spring greens and such to market early in the season.

    This was our 2nd year of CSA. Each year gets easier - more streamlined I suppose - so we have plans to refine it even further in regards to veggies we grow/ or don't grow. We are shortening our season to 20 weeks from 22 this season and 24 the previous. (One goal would be to add a winter share for about 8 weeks following the regular season.)

    And we are getting a small greenhouse this year, so hopefully that will increase our production in some ways... though I'm sure it will take a year's worth of using it to decide how best to use it to our advantage.

    Lisa

  • heidi41
    17 years ago

    i IMMENSELY DISLIKE HAULING LIVE PLANTS TO AND FROM THE MARKET. But since they sold well, I'll probably be selling veggie starter plants, herbs in 4" pots, basil in all different sizes and varieties. Also people seemed to like buying morning glories, dahlias and zinnias in 4" pots. I also will be planting earlier and using row covers to get carrots, lettuce and such to the market earier. The one thing that I will notgrow next year is hot peppers. I sold only ONE PINT of them. I ended up composting them. I find that every year is a whole new experience. Heidi

  • starwoodfarm
    17 years ago

    Plant more Broccoli
    Learn to grow califlower successfully
    More everbearing strawberries (tristar or ozark beauty - which do you suggest?)
    More gourmet potatoes
    More snow peas
    More chiogga beets
    I couldn't keep up with the demand on these items
    Four more 13x45 hoophouses
    Full time fun, instead of trying to cram this in with my 40 hour office job
    If I fail, I'll die happy!!

  • mommagoose
    17 years ago

    We grew Tristar and liked them a lot We also had Tribute I would get some of each again.

  • randy41_1
    17 years ago

    i will learn how to control the weather better.......

    i will grow more hot peppers but only poblanos which sold very well.
    i will not grow carrots because digging them up sucks.
    i will plant my sweet peppers earlier.
    i will reconsider growing sweet corn.
    i will continue to enjoy doing this.

  • margaretmontana
    17 years ago

    It has taken several years to convince people that all tomatoes are not red. I have a lot of repeat customers now looking for the heirloom tomatoes but had to develop a customer base first. I have tried a number of different types of peppers but most people only want sweet peppers. A few more each year are asking for different peppers mostly Anaheim type. I grow jalapenos which I don't sell a lot of but I make into jalapeno jelly which sells better each year - go figure?

  • kydaylilylady
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    I determined that there are a few changes that will be made next year too.

    First I'll be growing more okra. I had no idea that many people, including my son, liked the stuff.
    Second, I'll forget growing peppers and green beans. The peppers produced like crazy, just like everyone elses did and apparently there are fewer pepper eaters in KY than there are okra eaters. As far as green beans, they sold well but I also work full time and they take too long for me to pick.

    I planted more blackberries. They're relatively easy for me to care for and sell well at my market. Besides, my kids don't mind picking them as much as they did the green beans.

    I know next year NOT to plant tomatoes where my father planted field corn the year before. Corn spray chemical carryover and tomatoes just don't mix.

    My main seller at market is sweet breads and cakes. I'll continue to look for ways to improve upon recipes used and the presentation of the final product. Just like everything else we sell, if it looks good chances are they'll buy it.

    I also learned that with selling items like the breads that are somewhat considered an impulse buy, it increased sales when I took my 12 year old daughter to help man the tables. If someone is there to help them immediately people will buy whereas if they have to stand and wait to be helped they'll change their minds and walk away. People will stand in line to buy essentials but not the extras.

    Janet

  • loodean
    17 years ago

    This was the second year for my CSA and it grew by leaps and bounds. Next year I expect it will add even more members. And my learning curve was also STEEP. I learned that harvesting is more time consuming than planting (boo!) and that large items take up more room in the boxes (yeah!). Next year I will:

    Not plant any small tomatoes
    Plant more lettuce and greens

    Plant more carrots, because they can be given every week without complaint. Like randy41 I was about to give up planting very many because digging and clean does suck! I have been planting SugarSnax or Scarlet Nantes for several years, but they grew so long, broke so easy, forked miserably, and were so knobby that I dreaded digging and cleaning them. About July I ordered more seed and this time got Vitana from JohnnyÂs. I kept putting off digging them in September because of all the anticipated work. Finally, I had to dig them  what a joy! These were the easiest carrots I have ever dug. All the soil flew off as soon as I hit them with the hose, no knobs, very few forks (and no I do not have rocks, stones or pebbles in my beds).

    Seed the leeks earlier.
    Seed pepper plants earlier. They were just starting to bear when our first frost hit.
    Seed more annuals for the Market.
    Plant more specialty items for the CSA (arugula, yellow beets, purple carrots, etc.) Yes, more gourmet potatoes (yellow, purples and blues).
    Unlike randy41, never grow sweet corn again. It took up too much room, too much nutrients, lots of corn smut. Here in So MN sweet corn is too available & cheap to devote any space to it at all.
    Start bug protection practices from day one. I will move all squash, melons, and cukes somewhere far away from the garden to break the cycle of the squash bugs. I will cover all the plants immediately with row cover and keep it in place Âtil they bloom. I will grow a trap crop. I will use many yellow sticky traps.

    Unlike Ann, not grow as many flowers. They didnÂt sell at the market and few members wanted them. (?? DonÂt why, but I asked on the yearend survey)
    Water more if there is a drought
    Plant fewer varieties of heirlooms (67 was way too many  OK OK I was just trying to use up all the left over seed I had)
    As Lisa, I am considering a fall and winter salad share. I am still waiting for the weather to warm up so I can finish the new hoophouse. It has be 20 to 30 degrees cooler than usual here this fall with lots of snow days, although none hasnÂt stuck yet.
    And yes, my pies, bread and sweet rolls make more profit than produce at the market. Despite the idea that farmerÂs market are a healthier alternative to supermarket food. my fat and sugar ladened products sold better than any other vendors produce.

    Finally, plan the beds better. More succession crops, more interplanting, get the timing down better. How & why does a 42-day cauliflower planted in April, finally head on October 2nd?

  • anniew
    17 years ago

    loodean,
    It is definitely a long time for the cauliflower,BUT part of the problem may be that the 42 days is from TRANSPLANT, not from seed. That still doesn't account for your time elapsed, but keep the Transplant date in mind next time.
    Mine didn't do well this year, unfortunately...Ann

  • starwoodfarm
    17 years ago

    Check out the link for more season evaluations. These really are interesting, aren't they?

    Here is a link that might be useful: more recaps

  • garliclady
    17 years ago

    Tomatoes- Plant hybids again!For a few years I tried heirloom tomatoes and had lots of diesese and poor yeild. This year I went back to Celebrty Parks Whopper Pink Girl and the grew well & sold well(only organic grower growing these) and was able to sell the extras to coop grocery for a good price
    Grow more cherry& grape tomatoes. I had planted 6 varieties of black pink red yellow. They didn't sell well until I put them in clear plastic cups mixed the varieties abd sold them as "Rainbow Mix" I sold out each week after that!

    Grow more okra! I had 150' row but I needed more Also Start okra in hoop house then trasplant again. Mine were 3 weeks earlier than everybody's and they were well established before the weeds

    Continue growing yardlong beans _ now have customers that love them. Found this year that if I bound them in 1/2 # bundles mixed green & red they sold best. I also put a paper sleeve on them with recipes and even sold them to coop grocery stores

    Grow ONLY Yellow dutch shallots The yellows were huge kept well and sold well . The red (new this year)were small didn't keep as long .

    Plant more spinach- I can't plant enough! but have more over wintering plus plan to plant spring spinach too.
    I want to try fingerling potatoes and unusual varieties

    Plant more Anehim & paprika peppers (I plant them for drying and selling in My tex mex blend) I also need to plant them earlier.

    Plant More of certain herbs for drying . I want to come up with one or two more blend to use with my garlic powder.

    One plan is already in affect is to plant more garlic. We have a new bigger field and have bought more garlic seed and not sold garlic seed this year (we only sold what we consider table eating stock)

    We also need more shiitake mushrooms . We plan on Incoculating 100 -200 more logs in the spring. We also want to try some other types that grow on logs.

    We plan to start asparagus this spring also.

  • Miss_Mudcat
    17 years ago

    Loodean, your quote Despite the idea that farmerÂs market are a healthier alternative to supermarket food. my fat and sugar ladened products sold better than any other vendors produce. just cracked me up! At our local farmers' market, the busiest booth, by far, is the Amish baked goods. You know, it is much better than standard grocery fare because it is homemade with whole ingredients and no preservatives... tastes much better too! The truth is SUGAR SELLS!

    I have considered adding baked goods, but here in IN, there is such a strong government deterent to doing so, that it's hardly worth the effort. How are the regulations where you are? When I lived in Wisconsin, it was quite easy to bake at home and sell, so long as you had your name and address with all ingredients on the label.

    Lisa

  • digit
    17 years ago

    For us, as with previous posters, having a nice selection of peppers is eye-catching and interesting for people - however a few hot pepper plants are sufficient. Even tho' customers only buy sweet peppers in quantity - we DO need to help them appreciate Italian Sweets. This is a continuing learning curve for us as growers since we are ALWAYS interested in growing more peppers (what was that about interesting and eye-catching?).

    Too many eggplants . . . just because we finally got a little better at growing 'em and had a good year weather-wise doesn't mean we are going to find sufficient customers.

    Leeks were a good idea. Once again, it pays to have something that differs from the usual supermarket offering. And, we can harvest them pretty much whenever we want 'em. Celeriac, parsnips, heck, we even sold some fennel this year.

    Spread out the plantings of sweet corn a little better. Having very little for Labor Day and none thereafter made ZERO sense (zero cents).

    Long, long carrots on rocky ground don't make much sense either. It matters not a whit whether they like to grow there or not - hours of scrubbing crooked carrots will make Jack 'n' Jill - tired, dull, and stupid.

    Those old jokes about too many zucchinis in every neighborhood just aren't true for city folks. They like zukes and will buy 'em. Just keep the price low . . . after all, the plants ARE productive and easy peasy to process.

    Less flowers, despite continuing good sales  having abundant, top-quality flowers and bouquets is just too . . much . . work.

    Steve

  • loodean
    17 years ago

    Yes, in Minnesota is very easy to sell items the state calls "food crafts". Pickles, jams, jellies, salsas and bake goods, but no cream pies. They passed a law a few years back that exempted farmerÂs market vendors from the usual commercial kitchen laws, however, a vendor can only sell at and during a farmerÂs market.

    And yes the cauliflower was from transplants  I seeded them in March.

  • kydaylilylady
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    In KY we can only sell baked products that have some type of vegetable or fruit in it that we produced. We can also sell canned goods IF we grow the product. Therefore, I have 13 different types of breads, including green tomato bread, muffins and a few pies. We have to renew a license with the state each year, unless we're canning the license doesn't cost anything. They haven't inspected individual homes at this point but the regulations state that they do have the right if the there are complaints or they desire. We're allowed to sell our product only from certified road markets, farmers markets or from the farm. We also have to have labeling on the product. Not that much trouble and besides, it's amazing how many people do actually look at the ingredient label.

    Janet

  • barrie2m_(6a, central PA)
    17 years ago

    Very interesting thread but notice all the conflicting opinions... and they are all probably correct since each year the weather affects crop production and quality.

    First of all, I believe in diversity. Every year you may find that a crop that hasn't produced or sold well for years is getting good publicity and it becomes a "Winner".

    That leads to the Marketing angle. We should all try to do a better job at it. How you present your product has a big impact on long range sales. If you are selling something new are you telling customers how to prepare it? Are we excited about our products and what we are doing?

    Last point I think has been implied but not mentioned directly is budgeting our time. Are we wasting time on some tasks, related or not to certain crops, that we could improve on. I know I could squeek by with a few hours less sleep each night but I'm not willing to readily give up on that comodity unless it the night before a big market event. My goal would be to use the time I have to a greater reward. Reading threads like this is the best place to start the education process to that end.

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