Travis,

I do not think you were necessarily being ripped off, you were selling to someone who still has to do the work of selling the green beans himself, and selling in a very short period of time, because old rubbery beans aren't going to sell. He still has to make his profit after paying you. If you sell to a reseller you are going to get less money than if you sell yourself, but then again, you are doing less work.

Talk to 7 or 8 vendors at the market and ask each what they would pay for okra, and if possible talk to other producers like yourself and see what they get for their okra. Then you will have some idea of local prices.

http://www.thepacker.com/vegetables/greenbeans/commodity-pricing

http://www.thepacker.com/vegetables/okra/commodity-pricing

The commodities lists green beans/okra mostly in bushels, a bushel is 9.30918 liquid gallons, so you can more easily make price comparisons based on your 5 gallon bucket.

Before you decide to sell on the side of the road, look up the statutes in your jurisdiction to see what rules might be associated with that kind of selling (or whether you can do that at all).

Good luck!

Agree with Lucille. Your local market will determine pricing, bundle size that is the most popular (here by-the-pound is far more common than anything) and any rules/regulations for selling to the public. You can contact your county ag extension office for the rules info.

You might also want to ask this over on the Market Gardeners forum here as they deal with pricing and local rules all the time.

Good luck.

Dave

You grew it, watered it, picked it... That's a lot of work. The FM
vendor just washes, weighs and sells... not a lot of labor in that IMO.
At our FMarket it sells for sell it for 3.00/lb.... I'd suggest that you
weigh it then sell it to them for 2.25/lb (or more) per pound. If
he balks then sell it yourself off Craigslist... farm and garden or off
some of the local FB Pages... for hobby gardeners or farm pages...

It looks like you have an operations plan. Now, develop a financial plan.

First, estimate your costs.

respond and I will continue.

He hasn't chosen an operations plan yet. And I disagree with canfan. The seller bears some risk, if he doesn't sell the veggies he is already out the funds he paid the grower. And especially in a farmer's type market customers expect the produce to be fresh and crisp.

I provided a wholesale page and advice to find local selling prices. Those are important figures, and if you sell for more than the local going rate, some people will buy elsewhere.

Travis, I live in Houston, TX area. We priced our fresh a little cheaper than the grocery store. I put an ad on Marketplace and have had no trouble moving 50-60# a week.

I sell our okra for $3 a pound and have no trouble getting that price. You will cut out the middle man and be able to provide fresher goods. This is very new for us. I usually go to grocery store. For instance, Walmart sells fresh greens in about a 2# bag in fresh produce. Sells here for $5.00.

Back in the 80's when grew it I was getting $27 a bussel at the farmers market they were bidding on it at the scales before i got the truck parked. When the price dropped to $15 a Bushel I started looking elsewhere for a buyer I found a Restaurant that would give $20 a Bushel that was 1's & 2's grade they would buy all could produce. They would freeze it. I grew one acre Early planted on good Friday, then planted a second acre for late crop. It yeilded about $ 70 K that year but its hard work. Okra requires Constant Everyday Management leave enough room between the rows to get your tiller through use Underground Soaker hose Irrigation. Another thing that really helped was I grew it under high Voltage Power Lines. I would run between 15- 25 bushels a day production rate per day. According how much I watered it. Be sure wear long sleeves to protect your arms from sun and a big hat. Be Reminded its allot of work everyday. 7 days a week And Constant Magagement to get those kinds of yeilds. Half way through the season Campels Soup Company wanted to set up a contract but I was already committed. The Market is there don't undersale yourselfs. O'Just a Reminder again its hard WORK and CONSTANT EVERYDAY MAGAGEMENT.

if you have any indian grocery store in your neighborhood ask them we pay $5/lb here in los angeles and the store owner buys it from backyard growers for half the price. its a very popular item

I just installed a 400 square foot garden that I keep watered out here on one of the large ranches in George West, Texas. Growing now are Bobcat tomatoes and bell pepperspepperspepperpepperpepper. Two kinds of squash and two kinds of carrots plus cucumber and bicolor corn are planted with high quality seed. I read the other posts thus making me think that perhaps I can rent a spot at the Farmer's Market and bring some of the over 400 lbs. of produce grown. Soon in the other half of the newly created garden thick with the finest souls possiblpossible, two types of okra will soon be sowed from seed. I am very excited about the prospect of maybe being able to generate some cash by selling such excellent product.