Produce delivery services: Misfits Market vs. Hungry Harvest
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
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6 years ago- 6 years ago
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wholesale vs. farmers market
Comments (13)We only sell at Farmers Markets. I have sold to our school district (the one I work at) and at a grocery store in our hometown and at one 30 miles away where I grew up. We have several chefs who purchase produce from our market and they have a "Local Special" every week. I also had a chef who bought pickling cucs for homemade pickles for their sandwiches for weeks. I don't actively seek out chefs or wholesale markets. I am not large enough to justify it, IMO. Also, if I sell wholesale, that doesn't give me much to sell at the Farmers Markets. All my wholesale "Sales" were because of an excessive amount of produce and low sales due to a glut of produce at the market. My sales to my school were because the head person came and talked to me about it. Problem is, I don't work for free and her budget for food required extremely cheap inputs. I wasn't going to plant, grow, harvest, wash and bag Romaine lettuce for 50 cents a head, when I was selling it for $2.50-3.00 a head at the market. She ordered 15 heads of romaine and 5 pounds of spinach(baby leaf) for the salad bars. I dropped it off at the central Kitchen and submitted my bill for $45. I got an email later that said basically she thought my bill was too high and she was expecting something in the $10-15 range. She paid me and never ordered anything from me again. I have also been insulted by chefs. it was several years ago and a local chef (who is no longer in business) stopped by the market and said he would give me 50 cents a pound for the nicest red slicers I had available. Keep in mind this was mid June and I was selling out at $3.50 a pound. I laughed to my wife after he left. I guess my experience with wholesale, food service and chefs has been nothing but bad, so I never went back to it. If the chef is willing to pay for a quality product, I will work with them. For me, I limit the quantity of what I grow and grow a larger variety of produce. This makes my stand more attractive to customers and helps me gain and maintain my customer base. Also it spreads out my risk over many crops and many plantings. Just my experiences, Jay...See More2nd Misfits box came!
Comments (102)Good haul! I made my next selections and some add-ons. Just about out of last weeks veg. If you grow celery, can you just cut off a few stalks to use and let the plant continue to grow in the soil? The pic posted above, the big plant, nearly 3 ft tall and 2 and 1/2 wide was planted early spring and was harvested all summer up until Thanksgiving. Cutting 3-5 thin stalks with leaves as needed. Starting from a good organic root end. The harvested stalks are not like store bought...about the size of a chopstick but used similar. I also grow par-cel...a parsley that has a celery flavor. I do grow 'traditional' celery where you plant a row deep, then cover up with soil/clean peat or coir as it grows. Then get 8-12 decent plants all at the same time. The deck potted plant right outside the kitchen is celery for months. Just needs rooting time indoors....See MoreTo go with the shopping service thread how frequently do you shop
Comments (28)I get my meats and poultry from a local farm or Butcher Box. For veggies and fruit I use a local CSA and Misfit Market. Dried goods, pasta, dairy and breads I buy at the local market. I buy seafood at the local fish monger. For paper goods, cleaner and laundry detergent I use warehouse store delivery. I stop by the local market for items I need during the week. I feed 5 adults and one child every week and my grocery costs run $350-$450 a week. Before the COVID lockdown, I went to a large supermarket every week, shopped every 6 weeks at a warehouse store and stopped by the local market for fill in items I needed during the week. My grocery costs ran $200-$250 week. The majority of our diet is organic and local grass fed/pasture raised items and wild caught seafood so its expensive. We aren't big on desserts except DH, DD and DS are addicted to Oreos. I hate them; to me they test like a pile of chemicals. The 6 of us used to dine out at a local pub once a week but have cut back to once every 2 weeks due to cost. We seldom have take-out so I cook 6-7 nights a week....See MoreOn-line food shopping, UmamiCart, Misfits, iGourmet, etc....
Comments (11)We are very brand-oriented so like many these days, get specific items from specific companies. - Use our local supermarket chain for certain items. Toilet paper, some basic produce (their produce is, interestingly, more local-oriented and frankly better/riper than Whole Paycheck). They are the only ones, for example, who carry the hydroponic Kumato tomatoes, the Kobayashi Farms artisanal romaine, and real Tuscan melons from a Central Coast farm that only picks when the brix levels are judged high enough. I try to get them from on-line ordering, but sometimes going into the store is the only way. - I use Imperfect Foods (formerly Imperfect Produce) altho as mentioned above, they are very flawed. Still, they have some items I have a hard time finding elsewhere. We love their Great River potato chips - much fresher than the stale stuff in the stores. And thru IF we have discovered some specialty items we would never have discovered otherwise, as they often will feature 'special buy' items for a month or two. I love the Zoi honey yogurt, and again, not easy to find in most stores but IF usually has it. IF also introduced us to Stepladder Creamery's Ragged Point brie-style cheese, which is now a staple in our house. - Normally don't like Stonewall Kitchen products - jams & sauces too sweet - but they carry the Tillen Farms Pickled Baby Cucumbers (cornichons) which are a special variety they grow. They are pickled with fresh dill, onion and garlic, so the brine is mellow rather than harsh; should be refrigerated for a day prior to opening so they will become super-crunchy. For serving you can bring them to room temp. - Some items I get through Amazon. Only use Whole Food on rare occasions, since I dislike their meat/fish/produce. - We get our jam from the WeLoveJam folks, after a NYT article mentioned them. It's a couple who bought one of the few remaining farms left in Silicon Valley, CA, and for over 20 yrs has been making great jams, including some rare fruit varieties like limequat. Their Blenheim Apricot jam has less sugar than any other artisanal brand we've tried, and really tastes like fresh fruit. Sadly, they are trying to retire so have the farm up for sale - one day soon I'm afraid I'll get an email saying they're finally found a buyer who will take over the farm! They want to keep it a farm, but that's a hard sell these days, especially with our drought conditions and climbing interest rates. There is a small independent specialty market we started using more often during the lockdown. I really wish they did delivery, or at least a pick-up service, but unfortunately it's walk-in only. Excellent meat, dairy, and cheese depts. Otherwise, we have numerous ethnic markets around so no real need to mail order. Ethiopian injera, Mexican markets and bakeries, Caribbean grocers, Eastern European delis, Asian/SE Asian/Indo-Chinese markets; along with scores of herbs, coffee and tea purveyors, are all reachable by car within our county. Interestingly, a number of the Thai/Laotian restaurants lately are making their own versions of sai oua, the super-spicy pork sausage, and also sell it in frozen 1-lb pkgs on the side. Used to be that only one or two eateries did it, but now we know of at least half a dozen in our own town that are willing to sell their sai oua retail. Surprising because that's not common for any other Asian restaurants. Chinese restaurants sometimes will have a deli section, but that's as far as it goes....See More
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