The difference between growing for home and growing for market

I am not a market gardener. I grow what fruits and vegetables I can in my backyard to supplement my family's diet and to share with friends an neighbors.

Today I have been reflecting on how a good garden for home consumption differs from a market garden, not just in scale but also in the what traits are most desirable in the plants grown. What "unmarketable" foods do you like to grow in your home garden?

It strikes me that for home growing I prefer plants which give a small daily yield over a long season. Plants that produce different edibles throughout their lifecycle are appreciated, as are plants that can share space. "Self-seeding" is a plus. Plants that are pretty or beneficial to wildlife are a plus. Pest damage only matters if yield is greatly reduced. Durability does not matter much.

These traits are not what makes for "marketable" crops, however.

Many of my gardening disappointments, I believe, have been due to attempting to to grow "market" vegetables at home. Market vegetables are what I was raised on, after all, that's what's for sale. And the seeds for sale in glossy catalogs promise that I could grow those same market vegetables at home. Except I can't really grown a big, picture-perfect head of cauliflower, not in my climate and not without indoor starts, row covers, and lots of tending and no inconvenient June heat waves. Same with broccoli, celery, head lettuce... and failure can be disheartening.

But then step back and think, why do I even want to grow a huge cauliflower that will be taking space in the garden most of the year and if all goes well yield all at once more than I can eat in one day. Cauliflower I can buy in the market. Cauliflower was positively made to be sold in the market. A nice, durable hard head that won't barely wilt even sitting all day in a truck coming up from someplace better suited to growing it. Big enough to be worth selling. I am glad that market gardeners put the work into growing it.

For my home garden, though, I'll go with the no-fuss, small-yield brassicas. I never cared for radishes growing up. All a radish was was that round red root that was the worst part of the salad. I never ordered a pack of radish seeds, but once got one as a freebie with an order. And I planted them because they were free. And they bolted and I ate the pods and liked those better than the roots. And the flowers feed the bees when not much else is blooming. And then I read that radish florets are basically "braccoli rabe" So I started cooking those also. And eating the flowers in salads and soups. And because they self-seed so thick each year, I eat a lot as "microgreens" early in the spring. I've experimented with using radish seed in place of mustard seed in pickles. That little radish patch gives a little something most of the growing season, unmarketable things I would not have thought to eat except that they were there for the trying.


Radish Flowers, already wilting

seed companies have been experimenting with crossbreeds and hybrids for a long long time. some are good some not so good. there is something to be said about land race.
if your thinking of growing for market. go to the farmers market your going to be a vendor at and see what is there. there is usually a way to make it economically feasible by growing niche crops, herbs, flowers, those small long stemmed sunflowers can be quite a hit. or heirloom tomatoes of all kinds off shapes and sizes.
when I was growing crops and going to farmers markets there was a much older man who befriended me and explained in order to make annual income it in the farmers market game you have to go to every market with, vegetables, fruits, flowers, potted plants and dancing girls. I remember at one market there was a family that only sold worms and worm casings.
you want to have the best tasting and looking crops possible. seems everyone has beans, squash, corn and other very common and easy to grow crops.

Every now and then I pick a bunch my kale for sale in my shop, but half the time it doesn't sell.
Problems are -
people think kale is bitter (mine isn't)
it wilts quickly and becomes unattractive

However my kale is one of my favourite vegetables I grow. It is productive, tasty, tender and highly nutritious. The dogs like to munch on the leaf stalks I cut out. I pick it a leaf at a time and it quickly grows more almost year round. If I want to grow more it easily takes from cuttings. For me it is the perfect green vegetable to grow, yet I struggle to sell it.

For the last two years I've sold my excess plants by the roadside and at least made back my seed and soil cost.  This year I didn't get my peppers potted up when they should have been and therefore didn't have them ready for sale so I'll be planting what I don't give away.

Initially I planned to have a market garden as I want a way to support us if my husband were to have more medical issues.  What I have discovered is that I absolutely hate spending nice days selling plants when I could be in the garden.  Then there's the why don't you have Big Boy (or other popular) tomatoes?  My answer is that I prefer lesser known varieties based on flavor.  We had friends start a new garden last year and I offered them as many plants as they wanted for free and they declined because I didn't have the popular varieties.  🫤

So I've decided to grow what we like for now and worry about selling down the road if it becomes necessary.  Maybe by then I'll have my time management strategies in order.  😁

Michelle Heath wrote:Initially I planned to have a market garden as I want a way to support us if my husband were to have more medical issues.  What I have discovered is that I absolutely hate spending nice days selling plants when I could be in the garden.  

Oh yes - being tied to the store is a nuisance, if only it would rain only on those days and be bright on my days off!

Then there's the why don't you have Big Boy (or other popular) tomatoes?  My answer is that I prefer lesser known varieties based on flavor.  

Sounds like you need to give away free samples, then price them right - don't give them away! The people that can appreciate flavour will still want them.

I tend to think my home grown stuff is too precious to sell!

What vegetables are market varieties is a great question.

Though to me it is not what you see at the grocery store or at the farmers market.

It is what folks don't see.  what are some foods that sell great at restaurants that are not in the local grocery store or at the farmers market?

Anne Miller wrote:What vegetables are market varieties is a great question.

Though to me it is not what you see at the grocery store or at the farmers market.

It is what folks don't see.  what are some foods that sell great at restaurants that are not in the local grocery store or at the farmers market?

Interesting question, maybe any permies who sell to restaurants would have some insight?

Some thoughts from my brief time working in restaurants: for vegetables served whole (e.g. baked potatoes) restaurant will want unblemished units of uniform size. For vegetables that will be chopped up, bigger is better. It’s less work to prep one huge head of cabbage for the chopper than three small heads. Any item needs to be available in volume—you need 100 servings worth, not 10, unless it’s a very exclusive place.

when market varieties are mentioned I tend to think of varieties in seed catalogs of Harris seed, seedway and even johnny's commercial and wholesale catalogs
there are probably at least a dozen or more very good seed companies now that specialize in home garden, heirloom, open pollinated and  organic seed sales.

Similar to Nancy, my kale is tops.  
The best part is the tops of my kale that are like little broccolis

Anne Miller wrote:What vegetables are market varieties is a great question.

Though to me it is not what you see at the grocery store or at the farmers market.

It is what folks don't see.  what are some foods that sell great at restaurants that are not in the local grocery store or at the farmers market?

I sold for a short time to restaurants. Most want minimal prep so unless they are marketing farm to fork it can be hard to find customers. Sadly, these days it isn't about flavor for most, it's about efficient and consistent. My two regular customers said they loved my products and would be able to keep purchasing if I could prep. I simply didn't have the facilities and was pivoting anyways. Hard to compete with the company they get everything else from.

Access to the right type of customer is going to be dependent on location of course.