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Market Gardener

Help please, logistics & sales

19 years ago

All wise wonderful people please tell me what you think of this.

I want to sell to co-workers at my 40 job. There was a previous vendor who sold on pay Friday in the parking lot. He made a niche re-selling cleaned package produce. I don't have the resources to replicate his business and stand in the parking lot at 4:30 on Friday. How can I get FRESH produce to work and take advantage of this opportunity? I could clean and pick on Thurs. night and pack in coolers, then pickup from home on my lunch break. I could take orders only and deliver. I need to find a way to keep it fresh, and not lose my day job. BTW Several people here are familiar with my quality because I gave some away last year even though Bob told me not to. Sorry Bob, live an learn.

BTW I'm not selling at market yet, but am trying to get my feet wet and figure out what I'm doing.

Scott

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Comments (5)

ohiorganic
19 years ago
Email lists are made for this. Send out what you, how many units and the cost and people will pick what they want send their order back to you and you pick up a check when you deliver to goods.

this is a variation on the CSA/subscription model of marketing produce.
Flat_Land
Original Author
19 years ago
Thank you Ohiorganic!

I've read about the subscription system but it never occured to me the practical side of working it. I always thought CSAs/subscriptions as a large all or nothing monster. Thanks for bringing me back to earth. This way I could email what I have and see what takers there are as different crops are ready. Even better yet, I won't have to pick til I have an order. I could email what I will have available beforehand and bring/pick only what was needed.

Please help me with my thought process. Email and get orders back, pick that evening, then deliver the next day. Wash, package and store everything in a cooler until pickup. This would also allow me to make deliveries in the near vicinity. From email sales to securing standing orders in season. Continue to get emails and word of mouth. Then work my way up to a market stall.

One additional question, whats the best way to keep produce cool in the back of a truck for a few hours. I've read several people here putting a damp cool towel over the veggies. But not using freezer packs directly on the produce. Will this work?
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ohiorganic
19 years ago
I use freezer packs on top of at least 2 layers of thick toweling. i also have a big 3 door commercial frid=ge so all my produce is cold when it goes in the coolers.

remember many things, like tomatoes, do not need any refrigeration

I'd say your thought processes are right on.
CorysProduce
19 years ago
Tomatoes dont need refridgration. At work we keep all of our potatoes, squash, eggplant, and cantaloupe in a dry freezer at a steady 50 some odd degrees.
Flat_Land
Original Author
19 years ago
It sounds like I'm going to need two coolers. Or just keep the one cooler above 45/50 degrees. At present I'll only be selling warm season vegies and I located a resource for temps and packing from my extension office. I think it will just take a little experimenting to get the process down.

Thank you!

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