The Farmer (JFK quote)
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Not exactly. The farmers who sell at farmer's market sells at retail there. And at scale, there must be "bulk pricing" available to farmers for things like fertilizers and weed/insect control chemicals at discounts not available to retail customers at the likes of Home Depot and Loew's. It's very hard to believe that a large scale farming operation has to pay retail for basic supplies and materials.
JFK lived in a time before big box stores are in vogue, before big corporate farming operations, and the quote romanticized away farmers markets.
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Not exactly. The farmers who sell at farmer's market sells at retail there. And at scale, there must be "bulk pricing" available to farmers for things like fertilizers and weed/insect control chemicals at discounts not available to retail customers at the likes of Home Depot and Loew's. It's very hard to believe that a large scale farming operation has to pay retail for basic supplies and materials.
JFK lived in a time before big box stores are in vogue, before big corporate farming operations, and the quote romanticized away farmers markets.
@Axtremus said in The Farmer (JFK quote):
Not exactly. The farmers who sell at farmer's market sells at retail there. And at scale, there must be "bulk pricing" available to farmers for things like fertilizers and weed/insect control chemicals at discounts not available to retail customers at the likes of Home Depot and Loew's. It's very hard to believe that a large scale farming operation has to pay retail for basic supplies and materials.
JFK lived in a time before big box stores are in vogue, before big corporate farming operations, and the quote romanticized away farmers markets.
Supplies like fertilizer and weed/insect control are bought at Farmer's Co-op, not Home Depot. You do get quantity discounts, but its all done at retail. Farmer's Co-ops existed in JFK's day, and no, it is not a group of farmers joining together to buy in bulk - it is a retail chain.
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@Horace said in The Farmer (JFK quote):
I've seen fruit with stickers on them at roadside stands. Clever.
Eres a little secret most people don't know.... most people hear "farmers market" and then see some old guy running a booth selling tomatoes , corn, watermelons, etc.. . And they just assume he went out in his field that morning and gathered it all and then brought it to town to sell. Maybe he did.... but most of the time, he didn't. Most of the time he makes a run once a week to a produce wholesaler and buys product shipped in from Florida, Mexico, Peru, etc. And then sells it at the farmers market. Find the wholesaler, be ready to buy ten bushel plus of tomatoes at a time, and you can be a "farmer" selling at the farmers market.
In my area there are 4 or 5 farmers markets, several permanent produce stands along the road... hardly any of them grow a thing. In fact, most of them buy from the same wholesaler. Then once in a while, you'll see an old man sitting on the side of the road next to his pickup truck, with maybe 2 dozen cucumbers in a box for sale. He grew those in his garden....
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There's a decent living in truck farming, but it's super labor intensive and darn hard work. Guy down the road from me, farmed forty acres until he got too old to do so...I graduated high school with his oldest son...The son inherited dad's farm and since he's about to retire from a career as a petroleum engineer, is talking about starting the farm back up. If he can find labor.
Most of the farm's product (at least in the old days) was either sold at wholesale to a local grocery store chain, with some fields being a "you-pick-it" for a certain amount of money per bushel. He had a small stand out at the farm with a walk-in cooler, for the retail customers. You'd rarely find him or one of the family there...They had an honesty box you put your money in or if you really needed to talk to him, there was a plantation bell by the stand. But you better not ring that bell just to chit-chat...
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There's a decent living in truck farming, but it's super labor intensive and darn hard work. Guy down the road from me, farmed forty acres until he got too old to do so...I graduated high school with his oldest son...The son inherited dad's farm and since he's about to retire from a career as a petroleum engineer, is talking about starting the farm back up. If he can find labor.
Most of the farm's product (at least in the old days) was either sold at wholesale to a local grocery store chain, with some fields being a "you-pick-it" for a certain amount of money per bushel. He had a small stand out at the farm with a walk-in cooler, for the retail customers. You'd rarely find him or one of the family there...They had an honesty box you put your money in or if you really needed to talk to him, there was a plantation bell by the stand. But you better not ring that bell just to chit-chat...
@Jolly said in The Farmer (JFK quote):
There's a decent living in truck farming, but it's super labor intensive and darn hard work.
There's a woman who runs a farmer's market here. I once got her to describe some of what you talk about. We're chatting at 11am; by then she's been at work for hours. She gets up at oh-dark-thirty, harvests the products, cleans them up, bundles them for sale, loads the bundles (along with her setup) onto the truck, drives to the market, unloads, and sets up. By the time we unwashed with our sunhats and Raybans stroll into her market, she's put in a workday that would drop most people to their knees.
I got tired just listening to her.
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I've got a fair sized garden. If I'm picking, I get up at 0530, have a cup of coffee and get out there around 0600. Depending on what I'm picking, I'll get through at 0700 or maybe as late as 0900, mostly because I'm slower than Christmas. I sweat enough, that when I bend over, the sweat will drip off the brim of my hat.
We'll snap, shell or put up stuff during the heat of the day. Usually, I'll go back out at around 1800 and water or do whatever. Right now, I need to Paula Deen some tomatoes, help the wife make a batch of bread-n-butter pickles and slice some eggplant for supper (eggplant parmesan tonight).
I'm just doing for me. I cannot imagine the work it takes to do it for a living.
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Not exactly. The farmers who sell at farmer's market sells at retail there. And at scale, there must be "bulk pricing" available to farmers for things like fertilizers and weed/insect control chemicals at discounts not available to retail customers at the likes of Home Depot and Loew's. It's very hard to believe that a large scale farming operation has to pay retail for basic supplies and materials.
JFK lived in a time before big box stores are in vogue, before big corporate farming operations, and the quote romanticized away farmers markets.
@Axtremus said in The Farmer (JFK quote):
Not exactly. The farmers who sell at farmer's market sells at retail there. And at scale, there must be "bulk pricing" available to farmers for things like fertilizers and weed/insect control chemicals at discounts not available to retail customers at the likes of Home Depot and Loew's. It's very hard to believe that a large scale farming operation has to pay retail for basic supplies and materials.
JFK lived in a time before big box stores are in vogue, before big corporate farming operations, and the quote romanticized away farmers markets.
On a % of farms (maybe not on a % of acres farmed), a pretty high majority of farms in the US are family owned and operated.
