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Post by macmex on Jul 15, 2019 8:33:14 GMT -6
That's a big help!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 15, 2019 18:17:06 GMT -6
I sold another 20 pounds of tomatoes to some 'U-Pick' customers this afternoon and still got $1.50 per pound for them (At the customer's insistence) I had priced them much lower.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 30, 2019 10:14:47 GMT -6
Tomatoes have been a tough sale this year, with no restaurant customers. I'm glad I planted lots of okra as a back up plan. I've surpassed 500 pounds in tomato sales, but people are not jumping the counter to get them, the way they do for okra when it first comes ready for market.
I've been harvesting 50 pounds of okra per day with out ever catching up to demand. I still have requests from customers that have not been filled yet. Okra has been keeping me so busy, that often times I have to pick at night with a headlamp, or before dawn, in an attempt to catch up.
Thank goodness there are still some people in this area who can salsa, or I'd be hard pressed to get rid of all the tomatoes I've got going this year. I'm sure glad I cut back to 120 caged plants, versus the 300 I used to grow or I'd be neck deep in tomatoes right now.
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Post by john on Aug 11, 2019 7:34:22 GMT -6
I grow about 75 tomato plants every year. All in various sized cages that I have collected over the years. I grow heirlooms and a few reliable hybrids. In a wet year the hybrids will still be decent. The heirlooms all get splits and are only good for immediate use. No doubt the heirlooms are superior in flavor and texture. However even the hybrids I grow like 'Better Boy' are far, far superior to any tomato from the supermarket. Even a locally grown tomato from a greenhouse is not as good as a fresh garden raised tomato. Ron I handle my tomatoes the same as you. They don't like to be piled into boxes or baskets. I grew up working on a stand and the tomatoes were sold out of peach baskets. THe tomatoes would rot and the customers would bruise the heck out of them. Tomatoes need room to stay in top condition. Also what you say about refrigeration is true, I have read that tomatoes and peaches are the most severely affected fruits from refrigeration. I don't even consider buying peaches from the supermarket. The refrigeration makes them mealy and totally unappetizing. A peach should be juicy and succulent and so should a tomato.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 26, 2019 15:16:29 GMT -6
John,
I pack my vine-ripened tomatoes in handmade, wooden boxes. The bottom of the boxes are made of 1'"x 12" lumber, the sides are made of 1" x 6" lumber. They are 24" inches long, so they hold a little over twenty pounds of tomatoes each. I only stack the tomatoes, two-tiers deep inside each box. I don't have to weigh the boxes to know approximately how many pounds I've picked, because I know about how much weight each box holds. I always pack the boxes a couple pounds over twenty, so I know the customer will be happy. That makes it easier to know when an order is filled; I just count the boxes as I load them on the truck.
My truck is a short and narrow bed GMC, so it holds four boxes wide and three boxes deep. That means, I can get 12 flats per tier.
Twelve flats weigh around 365 pounds (counting the boxes). About 265 pounds of that would be tomato weight.
I have the tare weight written on the side of each box. I weigh the tomatoes again when I get to the customer, so they can see that each box holds a 'heavy-twenty-pounds' of tomatoes. (About 20.6 to 22 pounds). I like happy customers, so I always throw in one or two extra when I deliver. Then, I go out back of the restaurants and sell their poor employees the same grade of tomato, at wholesale prices, because I know what it's like to try to live on what they get paid there.
(There is a lot of peace, in what I do). When people are happy with your service, they treat you right, and are always happy to see you, even if they never learn your name.
A lot of my customers just call me, "Tomato Man" or "Okra Man" depending on what I'm delivering that day. I kind of like that kind of a relationship. Sometimes, in early summer, I walk into the back door of a place that has changed hands over the winter, and don't even realize that no one inside there knows me yet, because I've sold tomatoes there so many times over the years. But once we both get over the initial shock, they are usually alright with that.
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