Hi jrslick, the same thing happens at my market; as soon as the first week of Sept is under way the sales/traffic at market drop to almost 1/2. I think it is just that people get back into work and school mode and get too busy to come to markets, but I am not really sure.

have you thought of doing a csa or 'pick to order' model with your regular customers? we don't do it but I know some of the farms do and it works for them, so that they know roughly how much they are certain to sell and can pick & haul less to market

We keep our prices up and hope for the best, but really, August is when we do our best sales.

The market in my town is very dead right now...don't know if vendors aren't showing up because they have little to sell right now (between spring and fall growing seasons) or staying away because of low turnout this time of year...the last few weeks there was only the tomatoe guy and a card table of hot peppers, neither of which I could bring myself to buy. I've gone faithfully every week we've been in town and usually purchase something from each of the growers but I admit I don't look forward to my trip next week, I am tired of tomatoes! (Ducking! Lol!)
Best wishes for a better week next week :)

Our market was bad during fair week but took a great rebound this past saturday, my best day ever. Lucky to be able to market at a 100+ year old established farmers market.
We also have a produce auction a few milew distant and a couple more larger ones within 60 miles, these are good outlets for extra stuff. They are wholesale prices but generally strong due to independant grocers and other marketers filling in their tables.

Lowwering prices is a losing proposition, I would compost it first.

Fancifowl: I will compost, freeze, can or throw at rude people before I will lower my price too much. I did lower my price on my little tomatoes (ping pong ball size to a little bigger) I put about a pound in a pint basket and sell them for 1.50. People snatch them up pretty good.

Veggierosalie: Thanks for the ideas. I am a little afraid to do that. I am a full time teacher and now that school has started, I don't always have time for picking everything. Sometimes I pick what I know I can sell and move on. This is one of the reasons I use high tunnels I can maximize my output before the sales start slumping and I have to go back to school.

I will be taking fall radishes this week and summer crisp lettuce. I don't have much, but it will be something different. I wish my spinach and lettuce would not have been ate off by the grasshoppers, or it probably would have been 2 weeks out from selling. I had to replant and put on row cover.

My sales volume is down also. Each year, as soon as the back to school sales start up or a couple of weeks before the schools start, the sales drop to about 1/2. Then a couple weeks later the rise again, but not all the way back. This year it dropped and barely rised at all. Especially on a weekday markets, barely enough to pay for the gas to go in. Saturdays are staying pretty level, but still DOWN over all for the year. People are not buying, even to preserve. I have sold the least number of canning boxes this year, with 8 years of selling canning boxes.

Hi! The sales here are off quite a bit as well and have been for about 2 months now. And it hurts! It seems to be the same situation every year about the time school starts. I have started delivering to some local restaurants and it seems to help take up some of the slack.

I still have some tomatoes, so that helps. Also, I grow winter squash and sell alot. It's about the only thing that saves the month of October and most of Sept. I never seem to get the lettuces,radishes and other crops planted for the fall.

Well I am finishing up my second big rush of tomatoes out of my hoop buildings. It has been so unseasonably cool, that even the determinate set on a second heavy crop. For the last month I have been picking 200 plus pounds of tomatoes a week. That is a lot for me, not for others I am sure. To bad it didn't hold for another few weeks. I am picking up more customers. At one of my markets, they are starting to resell greenhouse tomatoes and out of state tomatoes. I have one more good week and then I will be on the tail end slide. My fall cucumbers are really starting to look bad. Last week they were fine, this week starting to dry up. Okra is still setting a few pods. Green Beans are going crazy. They aren't selling very well. All summer every time I had green beans I sold out. 35-60 pounds it didn't matter. Now I am taking 25 pounds, the only one with them, and I bring home 10-12 pounds. I guess more for us to use! My Cherry tomatoes are still cranking out 45-60 pint baskets a week. Sweet and Hot peppers are finally producing well. Got them in late, will try not to do that again!

Some summer crisp lettuce is starting to bolt. Some is still good. Probably another picking or two. Fall lettuce is about ready. Not a great stand. The grasshopper have caused lots of trouble. Spinach is the same way. Probably not enough to sell, plenty to eat though. Chard, Beets are a disappointment. Some, but none to sell. Radishes are producing well I have soooooo many. I got carried away with the new earthway planter. Planting is so much easier with it! Zucchini still producing, not selling hardly any. Probably will stop picking it this week. Jams and Jellies are selling good along with eggs. Broccoli may make it, but I have 4.5 week until the market season is over! Cauliflower won't. Need to plant 3-5 weeks sooner.

I don't have any winter squash. Wish I did. All this said, the last two market days have been my best in over a month and a half. Hope it holds, we could use it to make it through the winter, easier.

Jay, how many cherry toms do you have to get 60 pints a week? How well do those gangly cherry toms grow in a high tunnel?

Glad to hear things are picking up.

joe-il: I was getting the 60 during the summer, July-August. I am getting back down to 30-45 a week. I have 30 cherry tomato plants. 27 inside and 3 outside (I had the space and didn't want to throw them in the compost heap). How I am picking this many, I don't know. The biggest factor is the lack of splitting. Almost all summer, I had no splits so almost every tomato was a keeper and went to market. Now I am having some splitting issues, I can't pick everyday like I was during the summer, school started. Example. I picked 18 baskets last night for my Wednesday market and I will pick at least 15 more on Friday night for Saturday. I picked at least 15 on Sunday too.

I will never grow cherry tomatoes outside. It is just much nicer to grow them inside. No splits, no standing outside in the rain picking.

We plant 60-100 cherry sized tomatoes and pick between 1-2 bushel in good years, not this year tho. We pick just alittle green and they don't split so easily. TIP-If anyone tells you to wash the tomatoes in cool/cold water, DON'T, they'll split as fast as you can pull them out of the water.

We finally boxed up the spaghetti squash for this year, 20-21 bushel boxes of good squash. Still picking butternut, so I don't know how many bushel we'll have. The acorn squash barely made 3 bushel. Delicata, only 1 bushel, planted too late. My farm really likes growing spaghetti squash, lucky for me, I have several regular customers for it. We get 75 cents per pound or more for most of the season, and drop it to $? each the last week or so. By then, all we have are the smaller ones.

jrslick, do you hang your cherrys or just plant in the ground/house?

I plant them in the ground inside the hoop building. My hoop buildings are not strong enough to hang them from. In fact, they are growing inside concrete wire tomato cages. I wasn't sure how a Florida weave would work, so I went with what I know. I am glad I did it that way. It helps keep them opened up so I can pick.

I have a picture, but I am on the wrong computer. I will share it when I get a chance.

Jay

Here are some pictures of my Cherry tomatoes in the hoop building. They are 9 plus feet tall.

This picture was taken around September 23rd.

I got to get hubby to build me one. Your plants look wonderful. Do you have a favorite variety? I plant Yellow Pear (blessed things never die), Large Red Cherry, Yellow Plum (last year done great), Black Cherry (taste to die for), Snow White (unique taste), and this year we tried a Heirloom Grape (didn't like) and Isis Candy (didn't do well, probably the year).

Actually thinking, I think I need several of your hoops. I know, MORE work.

I don't have a favorite variety. I enjoy them all. I grow Sungold, Yellow Pear, Red Pear, Sweet Gold (yellow), Black Cherry, Tomatoberry, Sweet Million.

Jay

We started with Sweet 100, but gave it up several years ago. Last year we tried them again (free seeds) and remembered WHY we gave them up. Splits like crazy, and SO tiny this year.

Sweet Millions are so much better. My wife liked the sweet 100's. I grew both last year and gave her basket A and Basket B. Every time she preferred Sweet Million. I like to pick them too, well that is inside a hoop building! Very little splitting!

Jay

For what it's worth, we were suffering from the late summer, kids are back in school - moms are too busy syndrome as well. Our local newspaper has been supportive, and they agreed to run a "guest column" written by me essentially pleading for people to come to market. The paper also published an editorial doing the same thing. The next market we had an all-time record for sales. It was a kind of a one time bump in sales, but hey, it worked!

We also have a phone list of steady customers we call every week 3 hours before market, and that works as well. It's really time consuming, but some of those people are buying 30-50 dollars worth of produce, and they really appreciate the call.

One of my sons works for a major greenhouse in the area and when the season for selling seeds is over, they put the extras out for the employees as free seeds, that's the reason I planted 19 varieties this year. Not a good thing.

Peterpotato, I like that idea about calling people, but 3 hrs before my market would be 2-4 am, so I doubt if I would try that. How about emailing? We had one vendor that started taking orders over the internet, for people to pick at the market. Now he's dropped a Saturday market and only does Weds market and he has high-tunnels and keeps growing for most of the year. I really have to think how to work the market for next year.

We have called our market quits for this year. Last Saturday, normally well over $1000, was less than $500. We were 1 of 3 vendors with tomatoes out of a possible 50+ vendors, and still did not sell out. Colder and moist weather. We even had a festival in the adjoining block that normally brought more people to the market, and sales still sucked.

I guess everything is relative. I would love for a $500 day. My best day ever has been $600. With that said, I am sure you have more produce than I. My goal for September and October has been $300 a week. I have been doing better than that, just barely. I go to two markets each week. I have 4 more weeks and the season is over. I hope I still have stuff to sell!

It has been really hard to get everything picked and ready for market since school has started back up. So I see all these sales as just bonuses! All I really get done is picking and some watering. I pick every Monday and Tuesday night. Get everything ready Tuesday night (usually up until at least midnight if not 1:30 or 2:00. Pack up before school, teach all day, then head to the market. It is a crazy schedule, but we make it work.

Hanselman, Why are you not going to the market anymore? My thinking is if I have the product, why not go? Last week was a good example. I was reluctant to pick much, but I pushed on and did. I sold out of peppers, cucumbers, radishes, eggs, and squash. I probably could have sold more, but i ran out. I had more at home, but I will save those for this week. Fall markets can be so "Hit and Miss".

All I have is the winter squash and pumpkins. I have a local produce auction that I can take the 'leftovers' and still get a decent price, but if I wait til after this Friday, the prices drop like a stone. There is a festival that starts on Friday and last 10 days, so people buy other's produce, then re-sell it.

My market has been going since the first of May, and we are tired. We do 3 market days at this market per week from the first of May til end of Oct (if we can hold out). I wish I was closer to you, I'd send my stuff with you to sell. I guess I'm burned out for this year. time for vacation from marketing.

This year has been depressing on our sales. Our best sales day was $2300, we had to have 5 people working a 10x20 booth. We brought in a full-sized pickup plus a 12' cargo van packed FULL. No front seats, everyone needed to drive their vehicles. We barely had room for the tables and canopies.

Hanselman: How many people do you have picking and working for you during the busy season? I am pretty much a one man show. my brother in law helps out, but he is mildly mentally handicapped, so his help is limited to specific tasks. Watering, picking cherry tomatoes, carrying totes, watching the kids, open and closing hoop buildings.

I know one of the areas I get hurt on is selling. I usually have 24 feet of table space (3 8 foot tables) and only myself to take money and answer questions. I am really hopping most of the time. I always have lines. Good I guess, but I know I am probably missing some sales because of it.

My BIL helps with setting out produce when I run out and putting bags on bowls/baskets to be weighed. But he is limited in the abilities. Every little bit helps. Sometimes we even have our 4 kids with us!

That sounds Like it was a really good day. I will never be there, at least with my current situation.

Our help consists of me, my hubby, our 3 sons, all pt, 2 dil's, and 5 grandkids, ages 2-7. At the market, there is almost always 3 adults. Our booth is only 10x20, with an open U shape and 42' of tables. We hang bags with bungees from our 2 10x10 EZUp canopies, so customers can (and do) bag their selections, so we just need to weigh and take money. Plus of course, re-stock. We even have some customers that know our scale well enough, they weigh their own. Usually we have the scale where they line up, place their produce on scale and wait til we can tell them how much they owe us. We do put the items that are sold by 'eaches' separate from the 'per lb' items. That way, if there are customers that only buys 'each' items, we can take care of them without waiting for the scale.

This year's average Saturday sales were between $800 and $1200, with just that booth.

That sounds great! I am happy you get all the family involved. I know that in the years to come, by wife will be able to help along with our 4 girls. However, they are only 7, 5, 3, and 7 months. It is just a chore to take care of them sometimes. They come with me to one of my biggest markets. My wife works in that town and she comes out and helps then takes the kids home with her when it slows down.

I have a stack of these plastic bowls. I zero the scale out for them and if some one wants to go shopping, they pick up a bowl and fill it up. I try to always have a bag on the bowl. This way, I just have to pull up the handles on the bag and they are off. It is really pretty quick. Then I put the bags on the bowls and set them out again.

Thank you for sharing this information.

The hardest thing with everyone working this year, was trying to divide the profits equitably. Everyone thought they worked harder and deserved more money. One son doesn't like the selling part, another one would rather do the market. Each feels that 'their' work was harder or more boring, etc.

The 7month would not be alot of help, but the others can do some things. We don't have any of the grandkids at the market, especially on Saturdays. There is no time to watch them and keep them out of trouble.

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Since labor day I have made comments in my weekly email to my clients that fall is the BEST time to hit the farmers markets because we have more stuff in fall than at any other time of year. This helps to keep my sales up.

i also belong to a farmers market that promotes fall winter food sales. This market is in a college town so our sales go way up in late summer/fall due to the local population increasing by 150%.

I do find having a Facebook page for the farm and sending out weekly emails to my email list has helped a lot. Weeks I do no online advertising as weeks when sales go down 25% to 40%

boulderbelt, could you send an example of what you send out via email. I don't have a list, but I'm sure I could get one started for next year.

here's a link to a newsletter (and a blog that has all my farm Share newsletters as well)

Here is a link that might be useful: Boulder belt's Local harvest Blog

For those of you familiar with me, I changed company name/log on from hanselmanfarms. Same people, just better described us. the farm has been owned and operated by my family line since 1898. I just wish I had inherited some equipment along with the land.

I checked your blog out, very nice. I haven't figured out how to get everything done, let alone add much of a blog. I did start one early this year, but between the end of June and last week, just not enough time to post anything.

Will you be changing much next year? Hubby and I have supplemented our garden with produce from an Amish community, but now we are wondering if we can scale back to be able to grow more with just the 2 of us.

with blogging you really have to love to write (this makes newsletters a lot easier to get out as well) or they will not work out-lots of abandoned blogs on the web. And here I have 2 plus a website. But all drive business to us.

I don't see us doing much different next year than this year, other than finding someone to grow sweet corn for us. I know a young guy who's family we have worked with for about 15 years (I believe this young man was about 5 when we met) who is now married and has a 120 acre farm of his own. if all goes right he will grow several acres of corn for us.

We have always grown about 99% of what we sell and will continue to do that.

May I make a suggestion on the corn? We have got st ome absolutely delicious sweet corn from an Amish farmer, the variety is Seredipity (I probably spelled it wrong). this is a bi=color corn that taste delicious fresh or canned. I tried 'trucker's favorite, yellow', I don't care for it. It is supposed to be a heirloom that can be eaten fresh or for dried corn.