Are these locally grown? If so, what are they doing differently? I assume that in May
in Kentucky, any local "tomatoes,peppers, squash, or watermelon" would have to
be greenhouse grown.
As for:
> it is discouraging to watch people pass up our beautiful,
>organic, picked yesterday produce for stuff shipped in from who knows where,
>picked who knows how many days ago.
Guess that answers my question. I assume you eat a lot of your own products, and
therefore stand a decent chance of outlasting your neighbors. Maybe their grandchildren
will catch on, when they see you're still around. On the other hand, you could do a CSA
project, offering produce to people in the nearest city where the cultural level is sufficient
to appreciate the quality of your crops - you could do a web page, advertise in appropriate
media - you might even qualify for funds from some SARE, USDA or SBA program geared
for that (if any). Look for veggie restaurants, food co-ops, universities, exclusive restaurants;
hospitals might go for it. I know organic growers in the LRGV (lower rio grande valley) that
do that - most all their produce goes out of the valley to suscribers (although citrus is
admittedly less perishable). Meanwhile, eat hearty.
D H
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 19/05/99 at 8:45 AM Wiediger, Alison wrote:
>We have to agree with this statement wholeheartedly. However, here in rural
>Kentucky, 100+ miles from a major urban center, it is a 'tough row to hoe'.
>We figure less than 5% of our customers have any idea what organic is, don't
>see any need for it, buy whatever food is cheapest regardless of where it's
>grown or how it's grown. We do a Farmers' Market in the closest large town
>(50,000) every Saturday. Last Saturday, we had beautiful heads of 6
>varieties of lettuce, early broccoli, spinach, radishes, various greens.
>The other vendors had tomatoes,peppers, squash, even watermelon. By using a
>poly tunnel, we will probably have ripe tomatoes, peppers and squash in
>about 2 weeks - about 3-4 weeks ahead of field grown - but we won't have the
>terrific sales we should have for the 'first', because consumers will
>already be used to going to the stalls that always have everything. An
>education process has to happen first, but that's tough to do here. We
>persevere (this is our 9th season at this market and we do have some steady
>customers), but it is discouraging to watch people pass up our beautiful,
>organic, picked yesterday produce for stuff shipped in from who knows where,
>picked who knows how many days ago.
>
>Paul and Alison Wiediger
>Au Naturel Farm
>Smiths Grove, KY
>
>> ----------
>> From: BILL DUESING[SMTP:71042.2023@compuserve.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 1999 8:00 AM
>> To: SANET-mg
>> Subject: Re: sanet-mg-digest V1 #1018
>>
>>
>> Efficient, productive organic farms growing for the existing food
>> distribution system will be only slightly less disasterous for the planet
>> and society than chemical farms.
>>
>>
>>
>
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Douglas M. Hinds
Centro para el Desarrollo Comunitario y Rural, A.C. (CeDeCoR)
(Center for Community and Rural Development)
Petronilo Lopez No. 73
Cd. Guzman, Jalisco 49000 MEXICO
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