Forget Pick Your Own! We're Picking to Sell!!! :D

[Quail_Antwerp]

Thanks!

We're going to start picking after lunch.

We're also over run with green scallions (onions) so we're going to pick some of those Sunday evening for selling on Monday morning. Figure we'll put them in $1 bundles with 10 to a bundle.

I'm also tossing around an idea of creating fliers outlying the poultry we offer. Those can be handed out to any customers. Right?

 

[sufficientforme]

There are many flyers for peoples "other offerings" that they are not allowed to sell at the market at our farmers market.

 

[Wifezilla]

you can get a free google account and use google documents. The set up part is pretty easy, but the formula is a bit tougher. If you set one up I can help you get the formulas to work once you have the columns and rows marked. Here is mine...
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtnLvCx3SmtUdEQ4ZUFaN01kSVpjbVNvUFAwUTdUbGc&hl=en

 

[~gd]

One more question - how long do fresh cherries keep and how should we store them to maintain their freshness??Ok I grew up on a Fruit Farm in western NY and first I would like to establish just what your cherries are. In the trade pie cherries are RED and SOUR you can eat them out of hand, like you can eat a lemon out of hand ie most people do not do that. They almost never go to the market except for special requests because they don't keep well and they don't taste great raw. 90% of the cherries you see in stores are Bing variety, Dark Red to Black. Juicy and sweet with the stems attached ( they are a PITA to pick with the stems on but will leak juice where the stems were if not picked that way and the stem extends the shelf life by about a week if refrigerated.) There are other sweet cherries sold, the smaller black cherry is sweeter but not as juicy they are often sold without stems because they don't leak like the Bings. these are very good keepers but about half of the weight is pit many people look for these but growers don't like them because the birds love them and will start eating them before they are ripe (I have two trees in my back yard prunned short and covered with bird netting, thats how much I like these little gems)
BTW all these sweet cherries make very poor pie and are never canned for pie mixes or used by commercial bakers. Another sweet is the so called white cherry (they usually have one red cheek where the sun hits them) almost 100% of these go to Marciano(sp?)production where they are bleached out died either bright red or green and end up as the cherry in your cocktail or on the top of your ice cream sunday.They are also often candied or dried for use in fruit cakes etc.

Sorry I got carried away, the question is do you have sweet or pie cherries? it makes a difference in storage and in your customer sales.If you have true pie cherries pick your own is the way to go. they need to be rushed home and canned, frozen or made into pie If you try to hold them til market day you are going to have a sticky mess on your hands even if refrigerated. If you have sweet cherries you have more options. you pick them with the stems on and they should keep for at least a week under refrigeration, sell by pints and quarts most customers in the know won't buy more than 6 pounds (3 qts) because they know they will spoil or they will be sick of eating them. Pick your own is an option (the term "cherry picking" meaning selecting the best or easiest, came from the U-pick business) Most won't go near a ladder but will wander from tree to tree picking the best looking low hanging fruit.
sorry to discourage you but I have been there- done that. ~gd

We're talking about starting to pick today, and if we can pick enough today and through Sunday, we can have plenty to sell on Monday at Auction (they allow locals to set up and sell produce for $10 a spot on Mondays).

For pie cherries most people won't pay more than canned pie filling. For Sweets charge MORE than the stores, your product is FRESH and will keep about a week longer than those shipped in. For pick your own don't forget that the time you spend with the customer is time that you could be doing something else.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I love spreadsheets. Once you have the formulas worked out, it is so nice, easy and quick to get the totals! And your margin of error goes down, since you're not typing the numbers into a calculator each time.

You could also try dehydrating the cherries. I have a little tools for removing the pits, I use it on the small cherry sized wild plums. It works like a charm. It is called a cherry pitter. I am definitely dehydrating those little plums again this year. I snacked on them all winter. I found that cutting the plums in half, made them dry better.

 

[tamlynn]

along the dehydrating line... you can also make cherry fruit leather. In fact, you can puree the cherries and freeze the puree until you are ready to thaw, add sweetener and make leather. You could also add the sweetener before freezing.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

we're pretty sure they are sweet cherries, just small. We eat them straight off the tree and have a hard time keeping the birds out of them - almost got nailed in the head a couple times while picking

We didn't pick a whole lot yet. We picked as many as we could off the low lying branches.

We'll see how they keep between now and Saturday.

 

[TanksHill]

Sounds like you have one more marketable thing on your farm Aly. So what's the trick with cherries? Do they require a length of time in freezing weather? I planted one of those trees that have 5 types grafted all together. My son wanted it so I said what the heck. I have never seen one cherry on that tree. Bummer!!

gina

 

[~gd]

we're pretty sure they are sweet cherries, just small. We eat them straight off the tree and have a hard time keeping the birds out of them - almost got nailed in the head a couple times while picking

We didn't pick a whole lot yet. We picked as many as we could off the low lying branches.

We'll see how they keep between now and Saturday.

You may be lucky and have one of the sweets that don't bleed juice like a stuck pig when the stem is removed. I didn't even try to cover all the varieties known, Just make no claim to them being pie cherries and let your customers make their own mistakes. BTW I would not buy a cherry without a taste, to me it would be like buying a used car without test driving it. Produce managers hate me.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

ok so after more talking and planning, we've decided to turn the cherries and black raspberries into jams, jellies, and pies and sell them that way. What doesn't sell can go in my pantry. (except the pies....)

And I think I'm going to try my hand at making zucchini bread - that would really make my husband happy, as he loves zucchini bread.

We're going to check into setting up at our local Farmer's market on Saturdays and I'm going to have flyers advertising the different breeds of poultry we also raise.

I do believe we can make this work.

This is a tentative start to my flyer:

Evening Star Farms
Address
Phone number

We are a small, locally owned farm specializing in rare and fancy poultry breeds and waterfowl.
NPIP Tested and A.I. monitored with the State of Ohio. NPIP # 31-424
We strive to meet APA standards with our breeding stock. We only keep the best of our personal birds for breed pens.

Prices are per chick/poult/duckling/gosling.
Straight run only, no sexing.
Minimum order of 5 chicks, limit 10 chicks per breed.
Ducklings have a minimum order of 2, limit 6 per breed.
Sebastopol Goslings, limited quantities of these available per year. Only 2 goslings per customer.

Orders must be paid 5 weeks in advance. Orders can be placed by phone or mailed in. Payment methods accepted are paypal, money order, or cashier's check.

We are not set up to ship at this time. All orders must be picked up within 48 hours of hatch date. We will contact you when your order is ready and schedule your pick up.

Standard Fowl
Blue Laced Red Wyandottes.......................$7
Columbian Wyandottes.................................$4
Black Langshans............................................$4
Blue Splash Orpingtons..................................$4
Black Sumatras...........Sold Out......................$4
Apenzeller Spitzhaubens...............................$4
Welsummers..................................................$7

Bantams
Black Cochins............................................$3
Blue Frizzles...............................................$3
Quail d'Anvers............................................$3
Mille Fleur d'Uccle......................................$3

Turkeys
Bourbon Red........Sold Out..................$8

Waterfowl
Domestic Mallards............................................$4
Welsh Harlequins........Sold Out........................$5
Muscovy Ducks.................................................$8
Blue Fawn Pied Call Ducks.....Sold Out.............$8
Sebastopol Geese.........Sold Out..............Whites.....$50-$100
Blues........$75-$125

*New for 2011 *
Standard Gold Laced Cochins
Standard Black, Blue, Splash Cochins
Mottled Bantam Cochins
Gold Laced Cochin Bantams
Guineas
Pastel Call Ducks
Silver Appleyard Ducks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm working on a cancellation policy, too, as I'm sure there will be those who will call and cancel their order after the eggs are set. I'm thinking a fee of somewhere around 20% of their order total. I'm hoping that would deter cancellations, but one never knows.