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King City, Mo | I've thought about getting stores to sell our produce but it's prob not worth the headache and lower margins.
Customer direct and grow a wider arrange of stuff that they want. The place you left the truck at doesn't know you as a supplier but a nobody, they don't value you and will drop your product for the next guy who under cuts your price.
I would tell them to pound sand, but i'm kinda independent. If you have a good product people will travel for it and hunt you down for it. I can't say that squash is something that would be a high demand product here. Some people grow what they want to grow and then expect customers to buy it. The better method is try and get a feeling for what people want to buy that isn't being fulfilled locally, or you can add value to.
We've done that with sweet corn, buy offering 7 plantings last year and having tiered pricing where we can move larger quantities so it's worth getting the planter out for each patch. The kettle corn is something that wasn't around locally so we added it and amazed at the response. I got a little aggressive on planting popcorn last spring so trying to market it all over the usa since thanksgiving, we've hit 18 states shipping popcorn too......spent $0.00 on advertising the shipping corn.......I am wanting to get day neutral strawberries started on a large scale as nobody has day neutrals here, i'm sorry but people want strawberries other then when the junes are in bloom! Watermelon and c antelope are another one here the the demand is not met by a local grower. So were trying and i'm gonna fail on alot of the stuff I try and i either adjust and try again for move on to the next thing. Find what works for you and your market area.
I never regret selling our old 10 wheelers and strait trucks.
A diesel pickup and a flatbed or enclosed trailer is the way to go, the strait trucks sit too much and don't get run enough and always need something. I have a 95 pete that we use for grain hauling and it sits plenty, it's easier to keep it up and if we end up needing a box van or refer unit i'll just buy a trailer for the pete to make deliveries for the produce. If you don't have a semi there are prob several farmers or part time truckers who don't use theirs all year round and might be interested in a side gig of pulling your van trailer around for you or leasing you their semi so it's not sitting so much.
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Kick you when your down
