My Partner's daughter has been in Dallas for a year and would have been most
greatful to purchase organically grown food. she is now packing up and
returning to N.Z. There are sure to be others in Dallas who would like to
purchase good food.
Best wishes.
Peter.
- Original Message -
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 7:01 AM
Subject: not CSA, but farmstand
A couple of days ago I forwarded a newsletter I get from a woman
who runs a produce stand in Austin Tx. Granted, her stand is
practically downtown Austin, but they also have about 60 acres
under production in a smaller town nearby. The stand is in her front
yard and only open Wednesdays and Saturdays. They sell out
usually about midday every time. I'm amazed at the quantities and
varieties they can offer year round.
She calls her customers her 'FOFers' Friends Of the Farm, and
sends out a weekely newsletter to them.
To find a way to sell blemished tomatoes and past prime peppers,
her husband devised a smoke shed on the farm. He smokes the
romas for several days until they're smoke cured. They're then
either packaged dry or packed in oil, etc. They have a certified
kitchen and produce salsas and other things out of the 'past prime'
vegetables. Because FoodTV featured their smoked tomatoes on a
Food Finds show, their entire Fall harvest is already sold out.
She even sells Rainwater! I wrote and said, 'you've got to be
kidding'. She said she'd never sell AUSTIN rainwater, but this is
from a man who has a catch and filtration system in Dripping
Springs, and the water is a big seller there at the stand.
Word of mouth has always been the best way to advertise. If you
have an excellent product people who discover it are always
anxious to tell their friends. Besides the gorgeous organic foods,
this produce stand always has 'stationary items' such as goat
cheese (the water), and organic eggs, coffee, breads, etc.
I know of another produce stand open year round 24 hours a day
but it is not manned. It's totally on the honor system and seems to
do very well. They do keep a camera trained on the slide the
money goes in and on the parking lot. This farm is basically a
peach orchard but have 4 or 5 large greenhouses where they grow
tomatoes during the winter. (as a rule greenhouse tomatoes are
yucky but these are wonderful as they have the luxury of being vine
ripened and never shipped green.) This one is not organic however.
I've been wondering about a way to combine the successes of both
of these stands. While we're about 60 miles from any major town,
we're only 5 miles off the Interstate, half way between Houston and
Dallas. I don't know if that market would bear looking into or not.
