Saturday, July 27, 2013

Walk the Walk





So today I finally decided to put my money where my mouth is. For years I been harping about local small farming and how it was going to be the wave of the future. How energy prices were going to make local production more viable etc. etc. etc.

Since it has been such a good year for honey production and I have built up a pretty good surplus it was time to take a trip to a local farmers market and stick my big toe in the water. All the friends, co-workers and relatives are stocked up and supplied. Time to see if selling honey is actually worth my while.

At the crack of pre-dawn I was out loading the truck with some $200.00 worth of honey in various sized bottles of both plastic and glass. Why I even had a few of those cheesy bears to sell. I also threw in some garden produce as well figuring "why not".

Sales were steady and the farmers market I chose only ran until noon. I figured I didn't want to over do it for starters or anything. I had no honey competition nor had there ever been any at that particular market I was told in years. Without knowing anything about pricing I listed most items at about 10% above grocery store honey. I was not trying to get the exorbitant raw honey prices I see on the net, just make it a viable alternative to grocery store honey.

After all this isn't about becoming rich. This is about proving the time has come when local small producers can actually compete against the large scale transportation food conglomerate cheap oil has produced.  I am not even trying to make a market niche here using terms like "it's better for you" or "Know where your food comes from" type stuff. I am only interested in the bottom line.  Period. Has the day of small farming began to dawn again?

Well what can one trip really tell you? As I said sales were steady and I unloaded over half the honey I had to sell. I also unloaded almost all the garden produce I had as well. The other sellers had auction bought produce they had purchased and it looked exactly like any produce you would find in any given grocery store. There were a few others with farm grown eggs, jellies, baked goods that type of thing so I am not counting them although they seemed to have their own niche and repeat customers as well.

If one judges by looks a local farmer cannot compete against the auction produce buyers. However as I found out the small farmer can now compete price-wise easily and has an advantage I made good use of.

The honey of course sold itself. On it's own it was well worth the trip as after expenses for about four hours of work I walked away with about $120.00 profit. Of course if I figure in all the hours I put into it I probably only made about $2.00 an hour but hey being your own boss?..... Priceless lol.

Produce was the real razor margin. I had to end up selling everything at about .25 cents an item. That did add up fast. Of course my cucumbers weren't as uniformly green as the auction stuff or as shiny but where the big draw came was in variety. Shoppers went gaga over the Lemon cucumbers and patti pan squash. Especially when I had photo-copied recipes to give with purchase. I was asked several times about heirloom tomatoes of which sadly I still do not have enough ripe to bother selling.

All in all I maybe sold $10.00 worth of veggies but I consider that an actual success. Would it be enough to support a small farmer? Not yet. But the prices for the auctioned stuff has bottomed out and that means the time has come. We have already reached the point that farmers markets are actually cheaper than grocery stores. At this point it is simply a matter of the general population figuring it out for themselves and once that catches on the boom period should begin in earnest. I have been watching produce prices for the last five years predicting this cross and I believe it has finally arrived.

Again this is only one jump into the breach. I had been visiting often waiting and watching the tide though so it is not just a cold turkey thing. I have been waiting for this set of circumstances to finally arrive. Now it is just a matter of seeing if the tides continue or if things shift once again.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!




18 comments:

  1. The farmer's market that I attend only allows locally grown produce. The prices are a little steep compared to the grocery/auction boys, but the price difference is made up in taste.

    When the collapse comes, our group plans on selling produce and fruit to pay our taxes..err, I mean protection fees. A portion of the harvest will go for neighbors, might as well have them on our side!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. K - Yes some markets attempt to do the only what you grew yourself rule around here. They don't last long because it boils down to five people all selling the same thing really until about this time.

      Delete
  2. Glad you went! The little one I attend has one honey truly home-grown honey guy, although I don't know how much he sells his honey for. The produce guy also sells quarts of honey for $9. He's a reseller of most of the produce & honey (except for the summer squash & cucumbers), but he personally knows the farmers and they are all from a 50 mile radius.

    It's nice to see people coming to get "real" food and putting money into local pockets. But we still get a handful who scoff at the prices; we just tell them they should shop at Walmart if they want cheap food. Nobody wants to hear that, but it's true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carolyn - The guys who sell the auctioned stuff around here claim it comes from local farmers as well but I sometimes wonder about that. Makes no difference to me honestly as I am just exploring things. $9.00 a quart is about what I was selling for although I rarely bother to bottle up anything larger than 16 oz. except for direct customers. Not that I have had to sell small bottles much but I used to get alot of requests from co-workers.

      Delete
  3. Wow! Proud of you for jumping in and testing the market. A little profit is good. I have gone to the small.farmers market here near our estate and there is only one man selling local honey. There is also a new Bee supply store I want to check out. I hope they are open Sunday afternoon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JuGM - There have been a few who have tried here over the years as I mentioned. They never last long and they are always using honey they purchased not their own hives. One guy I know buys honey from all over and keeps a few hives himself do help the illusion of it all being local honey to the casual observer.

      Most people don't realize how many hives are really required for the volume some of them are pushing.

      Delete
  4. The best thing about your bee keeping is that honey has so many uses, and people like it so much. You've got something there you can sell no matter what the economic situation is. Better start calculating how much you want for the honey in .22 LR cartridges and cut up silver coins.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. HF - Ya and if there was a disruption in the food supply it would be about the only sweetener one could get around here. Pretty much everything I get from the girls is usable from the honey to my candles to reloading.

      Delete
  5. I have a waiting list of people wanting my honey at a whopping $10 a lb. Now if only the bees will cooperate......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gracie - ten bucks a pound is about half again as much as I was priced but I am sure I could raise my prices a bit as well. ATM I am really making sure I don't price myself into any competition locally as well.

      Delete
  6. PP - if i told you what we pay here for local honey - you would FAINT! but our honey supplier sets these incredibly high prices, has an incredible reputation, and anyone with a brain gets there to the farmer's market early to buy up a ton!!! what you need to do is establish a clientele that knows your product, trusts your product and relies on your product. i don't want to tell you how much we would pay for our honey man's product - that's how important it is for our lifestyle!!! most people don't know that honey is a natural antibiotic...and that if you consume locally-sourced honey, it can cure a variety of ills...such as asthma, allergies and a whole pile of other stuff. plus, it acts like an antibiotic! locally-sourced honey is medicine...natural medicine. maybe do some research (i will help if you want) and then make up some pamphlets about the benefit of locally-sourced honey. start off your prices the way that you are...and once you build a client-base, start increasing the price. slowly...and explain to your customers why. again - you would die to know what we pay for ours. but i would gladly pay double what we are paying now for something so beneficial to our health.

    your friend,
    kymber
    (all your honeys are belong to me! bahahahah! couldn't help it buddy!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. kymber - Oh I have done the research I originally started the bee thing for my son's allergies actually. The thing is you have to also know which plants are pollinating that you are allergic too so you can get that particular season of honey. Many people have bad Fall allergies but not in the Spring. Many may think they have pollen allergies when in fact at certain times it is mold or dust.

      Eventually I will collect some propolis which has wound healing abilities and the actual pollen as well. I collected a wee bit of pollen this year but no where near what I need to begin messing with it.

      Delete
  7. At our local market we have both auction sellers as well as local growers and the prices are similar for both. The difference is the taste and quality. The auction produce looks perfect, almost like plastic, and tastes about the same! The locally grown produce may have some flaws and not be as pretty but it tastes much better. I don't know if a small farmer can make enough money in the growing season to last the entire year without some form of winter income such as firewood. But when TSHF and we go to more of a barter system out here in the rural areas I think the local producers will be on top of the heap and be in a good position to prosper.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DDB - Exactly my thoughts on the matter. Although I also think a local farmer could in fact begin building a market now as well. Transportation costs are leveling the playing field I think.

      Delete
  8. Given that your super market honey is often not honey, you could probably raise the rate a little bit.

    Our local farmers market only allows local grown, and not auctioned. It does make it a little pricey.

    We do have a couple of people that do honey.

    It's the eggs that are always sold out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Russ - Lately there have been a number of new honey brands showing up at each store proclaiming to be from Missouri and pure/raw honey. They are typically priced about the same as the generic stuff actually. Not sure what the entire scoop is on them but they are definitely pushing it as real honey at cheap Chinese sugar syrup prices.

      Delete

Leave a comment. We like comments. Sometimes we have even been known to feed Trolls.