How much per bushel?
 

Since I didn't raise a garden this year, due to the ungodly amount of grasshoppers last year, I have been hittin the farmers markets around here. One thing I have found out is that almost all the people don't sell in mass quantities. They all have little tubs they put thier product in. $3.00 for this, $3 for that, etc. You get three dollared to death on everything! If you wanted to do a lot of canning you'd have to spend a fortune gathering enough to can. The only thing I've found that was sold by the bushel was sweet corn. $18 per bushel.

Just wondering if their would be a market for bushels of pickling cucumbers or canning tomatoes, etc.? Would it be worth growing for the public and how much should they be sold for?

Things ripen when they ripen, I have big enough gardens to do a market, but I don't, I keep it all for myself. Today I got three tomatoes and one cucumber...that is from 60 tomato plants and 20 cucumber plants!!

You can't bring produce in that you don't have ready yet!

A quart box is 4 lbs or so which means 75 cents/lb. A market bushel of tomatoes is 53 lbs and nobody wanting to can would spend the equivalent. I always asked for 2nds (not always available) but know I've never taken home more than 1/2 bushel ever and years ago paid $7 to $10. Years ago. Not sure if that helps. I'd like to pay about 1/6 of the little package price if buying 2nds in bulk. And I prefer paste type tomatoes for canning.

Only thing I know of being sold by the bushel in my area is Purple Hull peas. $25 per bushel.

Hey RH, I only planted a few things myself, and they aren't doing so great either. Thought about not bothering, but I just had to try since we didn't have the drought again this year, lol. That'll teach me! :p

I've found the same problem. The only place I've found anything to buy by the bushel is at the Porter peach festival, and they don't even display them any more, you have to ask specifically. I haven't been in several years, so even they may not sell them by the bushel any more.

There used to be two huge markets in Bixby that sold produce by the bushel. They're still there, but looked at me like I was crazy when I asked. They only sell by the pound, which would cost a fortune for canning, and the quality of their produce has gone way downhill besides. I didn't buy anything there except a few jars of Amish made things, nothing fresh at all, that's how bad it was!

And don't get me started on "farmers' markets", lol. They're such a joke. The only thing I can suggest is if you can find local farmers in your area that would be willing to sell to you directly. Good luck with that, I haven't found any near me in the last 6 years. There aren't even very many U-Pick places in Oklahoma, and most are too far away and too expensive. If you find a good source, please share, lol, and I'll do the same. :)

If you're thinking about doing it yourself, I think there might be a market for it. Surely we can't be the only ones looking for bushel sales, especially now that more and more people are canning. However, I have no clue what to charge. I think the $18 for a bushel of corn was a pretty decent price. How many ears did you get out of that? Maybe $30-40 for a bushel of tomatoes? No clue about cucumbers. It's hard to say. I'll be interested to see what prices others come up with.

There are a couple of people at our local farmer's market that sell that way. I have found the majority of people do not want such a large quantity & that's probably why no one offers it that way.

If I have extra I usually give it away once I can up what I want for us.

We go out to the farms where they grow it and ask.... Beets - $20. Peaches - $17 Green beans - $20, etc, etc. There is a large Amish community and that's normally where we find the best prices! However, the peaches were U pick.... Yummy!

My son sells at a farmers mkt. The reason for all the $3.00 prices on produce is because the Gov. gives out 3 dollar produce vouchers to low income people. They aren't allowed to give back any change for thee vouchers. Many Mexicans bring them there and will buy whatever they can if it costs $3.00.

There is a large produce auction barn in northern In. that has a sale 3 times a week. They sell many things by the half bushel, but not by the bushel. Most of the stuff gets bought in large quanities by buyers from large markets for resale. They list the prices from the previous week in a farm magazine that I get. They sell several large truck loads every sale. It is in the center of Amish country and much of the stuff is hauled in there in wagons pulled by horses. The people who sell at farmers markets have the same problems getting good produce to sell just like everyone else in their area.
If you only have 2 bushels of beans to bring in , it is more profitable to sell them by the pound. That's the goal. More money.

Since you're on the buying end, and you can work directly with the seller, make them an offer.

A couple of years ago I needed more cukes to make pickles. I found a farm stand in an unlikely place-- at a steam engine show. The cukes were priced at thirty-five cents apiece, big or small, which is about the going rate around here. I asked the vendor "How much for the whole box?" It was about half a bushel, maybe a bit more. He looked flummoxed and started counting them out at thirty-five cents apiece, so I stopped him and said that unless his day got real busy, I knew he was likely to have to take a bunch of those back home; and unless his wife was waiting by the canner, a lot was going to be wasted. So I suggested I give him $20 for the box, which would mean an easy fast day for him, and a happy wife. He grinned from ear to ear and said "How about $25?" I countered with $22.50 and he said "Sold!" He even held them for me while I enjoyed the steam engine show with my grandsons. I went home and started my nine day sweets, put some in brine to start to ferment, and put up some more as bread and butter pickles, and both buyer and seller were happy.

Make an offer on what they brought. The worst that could happen is they say no, and you're no worse off than you were when you came. And they just might say yes.

Charging what the market will bear is what you do. :shrug:

2 big baskets for 15 dollars each or 30 small baskets for 1.50... Which would you wish to sell?

My brother raises a big market garden. He sells for .10 lb under the local market and half price if box or more at the farm stand. He goes to 2 farmers markets and everything there is sold .10lb under the local market. Does not sell for less, bulk because it would undercut other vendors. He runs both markets. Everyone knows to go to the farm stand for bulk prices....James

I paid $9 for a half-bushel of canning tomatoes last year. Normally they would be $8, but the drought took its toll. The place I buy from doesn't sell by the bushel because the weight crushes too many in the bottom.

I get winter squash in the fall, just before the frosts hit. All I can get in a bushel basket for $5.

It take the same effort to pick. Why on earth take $18 when you can easily get $72? If I work I want to get paid.

The problems folks have. I wound up with a lot of hot banana peppers, Mildly hot, I am winding up giving them away. And I pick them because I donot want people messing in my garden. We have loads of blackberries this year, I offered a family with four kids that they can pick the big patch above the pond and they do not want to. I do not go to markets since I do not have time and barely get my work done with DH having a rotary cuff tear in every arm. I gave that same family a five gallon bucket of beans for canning because I did not have time, a lot going on that week.

When I sold it was by the paper sandwich bag full. A buck for beans, peas, 25 for small tomatoes, 50 for med size and a buck for the large ones each

I live in northern Indiana and Have found a few markets in Niles MI-just over the border for us that do have upick veggies. Hadn't seen that option in several years. They charge 40 cnets per pound on the pickles, cukes, squash etc... haven't seen tomatoes advertised. we do have a farm market that we can get quantity cherries, blueberries etc... just a reasonable as upick prices and so I tend on going that route this year. Our garden is pretty stinky even though we've had lots of rain. The timing just wasn't right for us.
Sure would like to know where to vegetable auction is up here near Nappanee I believe.

Mennonite Produce Auction
 

I live around the corner, about a mile and a quarter from a Mennonite produce auction. Most of what they sell is in bulk. People come from miles around to stock their produce stands. We have people come from as far away as Missouri, 70 miles that have produce stands to bid, and buy at the auction. The photo is of my neighbor's wagon. Those are his two Belgins. He farms a 30 acre truck patch across the road from me.

Early-on in the season, watermelon goes for around $3.00 a piece in bulk (100 to 150 in a box) - later on towards August, you can pick them up for $1.75 each (in bulk). Tomatoes go for $10 to $15 a box, and your buying choice out of 20 or 30 boxes. Green bean, sweet corn, Ochra, Butternut squash, all kinds of produce, in bulk.
http://www.hedgewoodacres.com/horsesmenos.jpg

If you want to buy enough of something for canning, talk to any vendor about it. Almost all in our market will give you a deal on a bushel or whatever but you'll have to wait until the following week. Then you get what would be called field-run with no washing and only basic sorting. Could also be a lot of irregulars or minor damage, just what you'd find in your own garden.

Martin

Wow - that's funny. If you look really close I am standing next to the man in the yellow shirt with my right hand on the rail. IIRC I took home a couple of those bins that day.

Contact your local Amish or Mennonite church and ask about local farmers who might sell in bulk. Or put a note on the board at your local farm/feed store.

People selling at the farmer's market are including the cost of their market time in the produce they're selling, not just the picking time. Many are probably agreeable to dropping the price for the customer who is willing to stop at the farm to pick up a boxful or two, esp the produce that isn't labor-intensive, like berries. A guaranteed bulk sale from the farm where the farmer already is, no gas is involved, and he has to pick the produce anyway, is probably more attractive than standing around talking to yahoos who want half a pound of one-pound tomatoes.

Get to know them a bit, be on time for your pickups, and bring cash. And don't forget to ask what else they grow.

This is how a guy I met years ago ended up selling his produce from a semi-remote farm in California. He sent out a folded rip-apart postcard early in the season with a list of what he was growing and approx. when it would be ready. The customers tore off half the card (their name and address was on the other side), checked off what they wanted, approx. how much, and their current phone number (e-mail today, if his son is still in business) and mailed it back. When the crops were nearing harvest time, the people would call (it was their responsibility, not the farmer's) and find out what were the pickup days/time, then go and get it. He said that it was a relief not having to go to the farmers market, unload, set up, load, etc. He told them right in the beginning that if they failed to pick up their produce without notifying him, they were taken off his list. He laughed and said that he saw in the newspaper that one repeat customer was in a car accident and had a broken leg, and he figured she wouldn't be in (but had a good reason), but the woman called from her hospital bed and apologized. She stayed on his list.

Small world. I don't go there that often. I live in the middle of them, so I just walk across the road if I want some produce.

i'm always ready with a 1/2 or whole bushel price.example 1/2 bhl of cukes=$15,winter squash-1/2 bhl (25lbs)$12.50.at my stand u can buy 3 cukes for a buck.

When I sold at a FM We charged a buck for a sandwich bag of small taters, peas, beans, peppers

Become good friends with everyone in your community... help out when it looks like someone needs help... be there when people need you...

tell everyone if they have extra 'whatever', you'd love to take it off their hands, and would be proud to weed their garden, or bring over a load of manure or compost....

don't get a garden 'in' each year, but do have some relatives who call once they've filled their freezers or ran out of canning jars... get all the produce I can handle, thataway...

If you want produce in bulk I've always found it easiest to go directly to the source. May farmer won't bother with you if you show up on there door step with a 5 gallon bucket or 2 and something to barter with, but the one's that will are worth it.

I've traded bottles of homemade wine and beer for 5 gallons of beans, wheat, apples and 2 dozen ears of corn. It all depends on what is grown in the area. May farm wifes have trouble finding time to can. Harvest time is all about getting the product to market. I've also worked out shares in the past that they supply the apples and enough canning jars for there 1/2 and I'll do the work of making apple butter on a 50-50 split.

WWW

If I want a large quantity, I go to the auction run by the Amish in Munfordville, KY - or I go to the Amish growers I know.... We help them, they help us!

These days many are to lazy to can. The few that do are looking for cheap stuff you don't want and won't pay fair market price for anything good or even run of the mill. You'd be better off just selling wholesale to a grocer (less time for the same money).