Heirloom cash crops to grow and sell for farmers markets and aiding our communities.

Hello folks! I'm seeking ways to grow and sell crops for more cash to invest in myself and for my community in the long run. I'm a community farmer and gardener who make a difference in his neighborhood day in and day out. I'm growing some corn, beans and squash each year as well as potatoes. Are there any types of heirloom crops that I can grow each year to not only help farmer markets thrive, but also help myself and my community thrive in a brilliant way? Please share some ideas and feedback that can aid and edify me into a great community farmer and seller as well as a difference maker in my neighborhood. Thanks!

I don't know about anyone else, but tomatoes tend to be a hit here. Slicers, paste, and cherry have their fans. I never had issues finding homes for cucumbers of zucchinis either. Yellow squash doesn't move as much as I hoped last year.

I know I've always been thrilled to find local sellers who have perennials that I can both buy to eat and then plant for myself.
If you really want to do the community aspect, then a part of your booth can have crops that are easy to grow and you can sell seeds or viable roots and have little info packages on how people can plant them for themselves. Maybe with pictures of the plants growing etc. Have a way for people to order roots, cuttings or seeds.
Sunchokes, horseradish, aspargus, sorrel, comfrey, perennial onions, garlic, herbs, sweet potatoes, etc.
Flowers are another sub-group where this would also work.

It might seem like you would be reducing your customers but getting people more interested in homegrown food and seeing for themselves what is involved should make them more appreciative of what you are offering as well as giving you another income stream.

As Timothy suggested I am always looking for tomatoes at the farmers market.

Some of the most popular heirloom tomatoes are:

Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Mortgage Lifter.

Mortgage Lifter has a rich history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_Lifter

The other item that I look for a farmers' markets is corn on the cob.

We like Peaches and Cream.

The most famous heirloom corn is Golden Bantam:

There was "an old gentleman,"[1] a farmer in Greenfield, Massachusetts named William Chambers, ". . . who had a fancy for furnishing his friends with some choice early corn long before they had thought of having any ripe enough for the table,— but he would never let any of them have any to plant."

https://victoryseeds.com/products/golden-bantam-sweet-corn

I think fruit is always a good seller for us: raspberries, strawberries (Sparkle is a nice heirloom), pears, apples, watermelon, muskmelon. We also grow grapes but lately they are more trouble and here in the finger lakes, everyone seems to grow them. Our recent plantings have included plums, blueberries and apricots which should be producing in another year or so.

Our strategy for farmers markets has always been to find a way to differentiate ourselves from the pack, offer something less seen or a greater variety of a particular vegetable or fruit. Another consideration is to work with market managers and form a committee to plan market events during off season allowing you to plan ahead for what you'll plant in the coming year. This way promotes farms and brings the community together by creating theme market days, such as a strawberry fest at the market or farm to table taste testing. We introduced the idea of "garlic day" at one of our markets and brought in small growers from the area, our neighbor David Stern (garlic guru & director of the Garlic Seed Foundation for the US) answered garlic questions and demonstrated braiding techniques, vendors were encouraged  to create products with garlic added, and 2 food trucks brought special garlic dishes for the day along with prizes, raffles and games for the children. This event has become the most successful farmers market day each year, not only for our farmers and vendors but for our town as well. We now grow 10,000 garlic a year, 20 different varieties, and I have become known as "the garlic lady" at all my markets, it does give David a good chuckle.

This may seem strange but also having a variety of vegetables has allowed us to help our community. We participate in state and local programs such as WIC, the Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) and Fruit and Vegetable Rx, to bring nutritious produce to those in need. We accept coupons in the amounts of $2 and $5. The bearer cannot receive cash back and must use the whole coupon at once. Because these rules apply we have a variety veggie pack that is bargain priced for those using the coupons. If they wish for something else we have enough variety in our offerings that they are able to find something they like.  

Cool pics!

Amy Jurek wrote: here in the finger lakes.

What are your winters and growing season like there? I’m thinking of doing something in WY but winters and a short growing season will probably create some challenges. I’m moving from Alabama to Wyoming so I’m starting out challenged.

My winters in my part of the Midwest are bitterly cold, but not so much this year. Hope you do well in Wyoming.

Wyoming has such awe inspiring landscape, so worth the challenge!
Our weather is influenced by Lake Ontario. Ontario doesn't freeze over and acts like a heat sink so we don't often experience bitter cold this close to the lake. However, we do have high winds as well as lake effect snow bands throughout winter. Our last frost date seems to be closer to the 3rd week of May rather than the 30th and both spring and fall have been more wet than they used to be. We manage by growing a variety of crops, last year our strawberries failed due to a high temperatures in May, but the raspberries were prolific through summer into fall.

I’m am going to be located in the Wind River Valley at 6095’ of elevation. The tribes call this the “Valley of the warm winds” because it is not near as cold as the valley on the other side of the ridge. It’s not unheard of for temps to drop into the -30- -40 range but not extended lengths but that is bad cold. Snow doesn’t stay around long because the wind blows it away. Which is good and bad. I watch the weather closely from Alabama
This year and there was a few days where the wind was 50mph sustained with gust up to 90 or 100.
Apples will do well depending on variety as I have water rights and one of my property lines is the irrigation canal. USDA did a survey with me last fall and said the same. They will also subsidize the cost of high tunnel green houses up 60%? Or maybe 40% but that’s a huge help also.
I know tomatoes will grow but they didn’t come in last year outside until August. Zucchini, and other squash varieties do well also.
My thoughts are apples, sour cherries, and Asian pears. I’m also thinking about mushrooms in one of the containers that I can sell in the farmers market or restaurants in Jackson Hole where there are deep pockets. That might be my fastest return while I wait the few years for the fruit.

Todd Brewer wrote:
Apples will do well depending on variety as I have water rights and one of my property lines is the irrigation canal. USDA did a survey with me last fall and said the same. They will also subsidize the cost of high tunnel green houses up 60%? Or maybe 40% but that’s a huge help also.

My thoughts are apples, sour cherries, and Asian pears. I’m also thinking about mushrooms in one of the containers that I can sell in the farmers market or restaurants in Jackson Hole where there are deep pockets. That might be my fastest return while I wait the few years for the fruit.

A high tunnel is a great idea! We were approved through the USDA high tunnel initiative program last month and they have promised 50% of the cost, we are in the final process of choosing the company to purchase from. We're going with the gothic style, the choice in this area for best wind resistance. Be sure to follow the specific guidelines for construction, do not add irrigation until after final inspection. We were told that they may be able to help with improvements as well, but only after the structure is finalized. We currently have a small high tunnel that we keep covered in shade cloth through the summer, great for growing peas, lettuce, Chard, etc.. and for drying onions and garlic

Beans might be a good crop to try, Provider is very cold tolerant, we start early with it every year. Glacier is a good cold tolerant tomato to start off with for early maters. You should be able to grow corn and sugar beets as well.

That’s great info and I’m glad to actually communicate with someone who has experience with USDA and the high tunnels. It sounded too good to be true. The tunnel would give me so many more options.
I had to laugh about the “should be able to grow sugar beets” because that’s the main cash crop around this part of Wyoming other than hay and beef I think.
Thanks again for all the great insight and advice.
I’m leaving for Wyoming probably first week in May to get started and I’m really excited and a little bit anxious. But that’s what makes it an adventure.
Been 17 years old for 47 years now. I hope I never grow up and lose that feeling for adventure.

Well that's funny, I've always wanted to grow sugar beets here! It hasn't gotten on the crop list yet, but soon. With sandy soil carrots would be great, they don't require a lot of fertilizer, and leeks would work, especially the blue leaf winter leeks, I over winter some of the Bejo varieties like Bandit, for early spring sales. Bleu De Solaize, Siegfried Frost are 2 more.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is a great resource for  heirloom varieties. They carry the Giant Carentan Leek. There's a German variety Streisen (sp?)  and Swiss variety Zermatt, that are worth a try.

Best of luck, your never too old to start! This is great group for help and direction, I'm working on permaculture beds for areas of our farm with permanent plantings, fingers crossed.

So here it is, last week we had our inspection and our high tunnel is up and "running". Still have improvements to add that were not sanctioned through the high tunnel initiative program like irrigation, fans, etc. we have water down to the site but not electricity. It's really late in the season so I'm just trying some test plots at this point to have an idea of timing.  So far I have kale, provider beans, chard and beets. The volunteer diakon bolted so I might wait until cooler weather prevails to put more radish in. Any ideas of what may work at this point?

Something to think about this winter that you may want to try next year.  Selling bunched cut flowers at your market.  I know some folks that have been growing and selling all their stock each week for the last few years.  They had the land and tools already, they framed a small well insulated cold room in one of their out buildings, with a small a/c unit cut into the exterior wall for cooling the cut flowers.

Just something to share.


Peace

Deane Adams wrote:Something to think about this winter that you may want to try next year.  Selling bunched cut flowers at your market.  

Would love to do this if I could find another way to sell flowers. We have 2 markets that are exclusive for everything but produce that already have cut flower vendors. Would have to try to break into a well established market. There is also the issue of tax required on non-food items and currently we do not have anything requiring sales tax. I have been thinking about growing and painting gourds. If I could figure out how to work this then I guess flowers could be a logical next step if I could find a way to market them.

Amy, let me start out by saying; that is one fine looking high tunnel you have!!!

My friends that I wrote about started with a road side honor stand, selling their extra eggs.  The following years they added veggies and herbs.  A few years later rented space at a nearby farmers market, then added the cut flowers.

Each state and county has different rules, laws and the baddddd T word. ( that is a sure way to send this old guy's pressure off the scale )

I look forward to updated posts about how things are going for you and wishing you all the best.

Peace

I'll contribute three easy ones for your consideration.

- Welsh onions, aka perennial onions. Grow them out in summer, and let them over-winter. They'll be the first onions ready in the Spring when nobody else has onions. If you get good at growing these, you can sell them as Japanese Negi. Egyptian Walking Onions are another option, but aren't as large.
- Horseradish. Early spring horse radish leaves are a delicious brassica leaf you can cook like chard. Once you educate your customers, they'll come looking for these in the spring. Roasted Lamb with a side of braised horse radish greens is a formidable Easter dinner combo.
- Asparagus. You can never grow enough local asparagus to satisfy the demand.

Two more tid bits to add. Rather than focus solely on specific crops, you could always just work on higher quality crops. High quality food always improves the community. Lastly, if you are looking for unique ideas, explore the Slow food Ark of taste. I believe all the best things in life take time, if you are willing to grow something that takes more time, you can open up flavor doors for people who are only used to modern varieties.