Aggrevated at Farmers Market customers complaining about prices

[Buster52]

Quote:
I've eaten pekin duck from Maple Leaf Farms in WalMart and eaten many of my own free range duck, and I can honestly say.......

I can't really tell the difference.

Then I would look at my rearing practices.

Seriously, though, I'm not much of a duck person. Maybe there isn't much of a difference. Do they even factory farm ducks?

Perhaps I should amend my statement. Anybody who has ever eaten MY eggs or MY poultry can definitely taste a positive difference.

 

[TimG]

I stopped at a farm stand in front of a house the other day and purchased cucumbers for $0.25 each. (Mmmm, cucumber sandwiches.) I am quite sure that is less than I would have paid at the grocery store. Not all local produce costs more than in the grocery store or WalMart. Of course, this stand will only be offering cucumbers for a few weeks every year.

 

[TimG]

Quote:
Actually, I think they do. They don't want to pay a decent price. They want food to continue to be the smallest percentage of their expenditure. It shouldn't be, and someday won't be. We can't continue with the current system forever.

Let me amend that to say that I don't think most people expect local, small scale, farmers to give their food away. Yes, they expect food items to be relatively cheap in the grocery store and expect that supply to continue.

I agree with you that the food growing and distribution model we use now is not particularly desirable.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
me too I don,t go to the biggest here ( Va beach)because they are just to high on their prices but the farmers with the roadside stands have a lot better prices and are more generous with how much something weighs

and this time of the year you see them picking and carrying out to their stand

 

[sassychickengirl]

Quote:
I do a lot of my business at farmers markets and the trick is, is to educate the consumer. Most of them don't have a clue but most are willing to learn. After two summers at market it's now hard to get a chicken from us. You have to pre order in advance which makes it tough. People start asking about the chickens and I just say... well it has to be good if we are selling 400 of them every week and we are sold out 3 weeks in advance.

So take your time and bite the bullet it takes a couple years to establish a customer base especially at farmers markets... and especially new farmers markets. Try to find markets that have been in business for a few years they seem to attract a better customer base.

Cut your cost a little bit. I sell a whole chicken for $10.00 that weighs 3.5-4 lbs dressed. It's hard to market those bigger birds when your first starting out and once they see the bigger birds that's all they will want. 5-6 pound fryers sell at my farm for $15.00 so you right in that ball park price.

Chick cost? You shouldn't pay any more than $0.88 / chick + shipping
Feed? Find a mill to mill your feed you should get your cost down to no higher than $0.15 / pound
Processing? This has been the bottleneck for small producers for years and the only way to make a living at this, is to do your own.

Hopefully some of this helped, but stick with it and keep educating your customers. Keep in the back of your mind that you know way more than the average person about chickens.... If you have the mentality that every shopper thinks white eggs are just bleached brown eggs and good chickens are cooked chickens for $5.00 than you can sell a chicken or a dozen eggs to God if you had to.

Good luck...

I see you are in Ohio, but where are you able to find feed for .15/lb.? I checked all my local feed mills and they only sell 50 lb. bags for $12-14. Nobody sells in bulk. It's very frustrating. I would love to raise more birds for our family, but have to save up some more beforehand because of feed costs. We are a one income family and blessed to be be that, but we have to watch where our money goes. You sound like you have a good handle on all this, that's why I'm asking

 

[Red Maple Farms]

Quote:
Actually I was quite pleased with the results. I was afraid that free ranging on an open pond might impart a wild/gamey taste to the birds and would be a turn off to the customers.

 

[HeidiG]

Quote:
edensgate - I don't think that at all. I don't have a money tree in my backyard either! I am very frugal with my food budget. (Well, all of my budget, lol.) I have a garden, I get most of my veggies from an organic CSA subscription, and I just started raising my own hens for eggs. But you would be surprised at how far you can stretch a whole chicken with a little planning. Check out this blog on the subject: http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2009/02/1-chicken-17-healthy-meals-26-bucks-no.html

There may be places that can do organic, pasture raised for cheaper. I'm just saying what the price is in my area (Hampton Roads VA) for local, pasture ranged, organic chicken. I have checked the prices at several places, and $3.50 lb for a whole chicken is about standard. And no one's going to do it for $.99 per lb.

Yes, buying it for $.99 lb means almost everyone can afford to eat meat a couple of times a day. But it also means poor stewardship of the land, the animals, and the workers. You can't make it that cheap any other way. For me it means changing the way I think about food. I don't eat meat every day and, when I do, I throw almost nothing away. That way I can afford to buy meat I feel good about.

 

[smilingcat]

To Edensgate and HeidiG,

I'm one of those unfortunate to have lost her job. Haven't had a job in over six month now

and being the age that I am, I am most likely never will get a job in what I used to do. It was a white collar technical job... Long story short no job. Wayy over qualified and close enough to retirement age, they simply don't want you. Not even as a janitor or secretary.

We still eat organic food. We maintain our victory garden around our house. We've stripped out the grass some time ago and we have been growing most of our veggies. We compost so we don't have to buy too much fertilizer. Herbicide, we use vinegar. For fungicide and insecticide we use potassium carb solution we mix...

As for meat, we still eat organic free range bird. It's pricey but... THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT IS "Treat any meat like a caviar". In other words, treat it as a delicacy and use sparingly. We use the meat to season our food. It's not the main item in the dish. Chicken skin is cooked in a cast iron skillet till its crispy. Fried chicken without the meat.

Bones are used to make stock and then freeze the stock into ice cubes. Store it in freezer baggies. You can make stock from chicken that has been bar-b-que'd or roasted or the preferred way ,using raw bones. Gizzards, liver and heart, there are recipes for those... One medium size bird will last us a week. And we even give tiny pieces of it as a treat to our dogs and one of our cats. Cost of our dinner is around $2.00/person most of the time it's less. We have three square meals a day plus snacks.

We are not starving. Just need to look at our food in slightly different way. On rare occasion, we buy grass fed bison meat.

Pricey.. Sometimes, the mindset is so hard to change. Old habits die really hard and painful I might add. But if you don't adapt, you'll be in lot more pain down the road. Just a little bit of meat is enough to keep my craving for meat in check. I don't want a sirlon steak anymore. No need. I don't need nor want half a chicken in one setting.

-----------

To those who say organic price is too high: Tell them that the hidden cost of health is much higher with the CAFO food. The damage it causes to the environment, the tax subsidies that went to grow the 99cent/pound chicken. small scale mom and pop farm chicken is healthier and you the customer will feel better in the long run. Battery caged chicken or CAFO chicken is not cheaper. It just looks that way!!

 

[Morgan7782]

I would love to raise my own meat birds for my own family's consumption, but I live in a city

I don't even KNOW any farmers here in Sacramento that sell their own meat/veggies except cherry stands and such which I stop at frequently. They are MUCH better cherries then Raleys heh, and less expensive! We have a garden with our own veggies and such, trying to perfect that because ironically I live in a poorer side of town, and the only supermarket close by is RALEYS! Ugh.. They are expensive for what? Irks me.

If anybody knows of any farmers selling their meat or produce in Sacramento PM ME!

 

[CarriageStone]

Nine pages of comments and everyone is really dancing around the main point, which is your are comparing a COMMODITY v. A VALUE ADDED PRODUCT.

The $0.99/lb chicken is mass produced to be the cheapest meat you can find. Sometimes it tastes fine, but not up to par when compared to a free ranged, organic chicken. The free range, organic chicken is a value added product. It tastes better. It has no additional hormones or chemicals.

It is up to you, the producer of that product, to patiently and politely explain what that entails. Educate your customer. You'll find once you do that, in a polite non-condescending manner, you will gain not only a customer for life, but an advocate for your goods and services.

Of course, we all run the risk of selling to a lousy cook. All this is out the window when that happens.