You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Our Farmstead Journey Part 3: Finding a Way to Make it Pay
I can understand your frustration! We have tried to sell our microgreens and veggies to this so-called "farm to table" restaurant and never received a call back after bringing them high quality samples and availability sheets. After putting in so much work it was very disappointing. I was growing about 20 lbs a week of sunflower and pea shoots. We came to find that they're really more of a retail outlet for much larger farms in our state and get most of their product from distributors. We decided to just stock up on mason jars and store our food until we can find a better way to sell our produce.
Interesting. I feel like chefs make you work a little harder for it and that placing orders for produce is the last thing on their minds. Grocery stores have been a good outlet, albeit we get less per unit. They tend to do great at a farmers market, especially when offering free samples
There is a farmer's market about 30 minutes away from us. They charge a fee for the space, but it is fairly reasonable. We may explore this option next year. I'd rather be interacting with the consumer directly than with the bureaucracy of a restaurant. Chances are they'll be out of business sooner than later, especially with their attitude towards real local growers. Between fighting the weather, weeds, and bugs this year it's been a challenge. I'm just glad we've been able to stock our pantry this year and have something to show for the work. We'll be more prepared next yet.
That's a great attitude and you're absolutely right, selling directly to the people that will be consuming your produce is by far the most rewarding. We've had people tell us they're 'addicted' to our greens. Can't tell you how good that made us feel.
As for the restaurants, there's a lot of charlatans out there claiming to be all about farm-to-table and at the end of the day they're buying 99% from the big distributors.