We're officially sold out of peaches
We sold 80 boxes in 3 days.

We made some.money and got.to spend alot of quality time.together.

Jerrys probably glad they're sold-out for more reasons than one.lol

Cathryn, a chiller might be useful for you. You can buy an old one, from grocery stores, that have gone out of business, at auction, for a few dollars. Most people won't bother to move them, so they often get no bids and are just trashed. Newer grocery stores don't want the old chillers.

With a chiller, you can keep peaches and produce for a longer period of time, allowing you to pick up larger loads and to greatly cut down on waste.

Keith

Thank you keithc I'll look into that. We are going to need something. I've got big plans for us.

We saw the produce auction when we took out chickens up Wednesday.
We have a full sized chevy and a trailer

You're welcome Cathryn.

I posted on some of the opportunities flipping produce from Mt. Hope and some of the other produce auctions, a few times. There is a lot of money to be made for someone willing to work.

You may want to check your cottage industry laws for West Virginia. You can likely process any fruit or other produce you don't sell into preserves, jellies, jams, sauces and juices to sell it. I know some people, who make their livings doing that. They do very well.

Your biggest obstacle is that your in a poorer area.

Keith

We are in a poorer area and we know it. That's why are ramps are sold cheaper than anyone else because our population couldn't afford the insane internet prices.

We price low enough so that everyone can afford to buy it and we sell alot of Ramos.

Some of our peach were ramp customers in the spring.

It'd be great to develop this market so Jerry can retire and we can just sell.produce and ramps and make enough to sustain us through the year without having to punch someone else's time clock


That's our ultimate goal.

Keithc do you sell.produce and if you don't do.you know anyone that would sell us some of those basketball sized cantalouoes straight from the field? We'd even pick em of the price was right


I sold all the ones I bought yesterday in minutes at a 66% profit margin and they were still 2.dollars cheaper than at the store.

I think I should move to Mt.Hope.My kind of place.Where I grew up there was smaller auctions like this every week.I would not move back there but I sure like this area.

Side hustles like this depend on your market and supply.We have Hutterites that come to our area and set up once a week selling produce,baked goods and frozen chickens/turkeys.Not my thing but they do well.There is a good local farm who sells produce depending on what's in season.They also sell dressed pigs and beef sometimes.We have a peach seller but he is expensive and his quality is poor.Also we have a frozen fish seller.Product is good but prices are way above market.

Not sure what people in your area would buy but it would be interesting to know what they do buy.

I sell mostly birds, rabbits and plants, but do sell some produce, to people who come here. I'm thinking about doing a You Pick and will probably start work on it this Fall.

I don't raise any melons. The Aphrodite melons were dirt cheap at the Scioto Valley Produce Auction for years. It's just above Mt.Victory, Ohio. This year, they lost three of their largest producers and there is much less available, at higher prices.

I used to buy lots of pigeons and rabbits at the Mt. Hope Auctions and more at the swaps. I met a lot of the Amish and often bought directly from them. More recently I have sent buyers to Mt. Hope, for mostly rabbits, rather than going myself. I lost most of my market because of my health problems.

The Post Office, with their exorbitant rates, almost completely destroyed shipping pigeons out of state. Back in the nineties and early 2000's I personally shipped enough pigeons out of Ohio to significantly raise the prices here.

I've dealt with the Amish communities at Sugarcreek/Mt. Hope, South of Rio Grande, near Indian Lake and around Mt. Victory/Hepburn. You can get better prices on some stuff buying directly from the Amish, rather than going to the auctions. A friend and I, used to go up and drive around the area talking to people at the different Amish stores and any farms that looked like they had what we wanted, which was usually pigeons. Often the Amish we talked to could refer us to someone, who had what I wanted.

When buying from the farms directly, you usually have to talk to the oldest Amish man on the farm. At one point, the Hepburn area got weird. A guy named John Petersheim sort of took control of the whole area. When you stopped at a farm, the Amish would say something like, "So sorry, you've got to talk to Petersheim about that.". Even people who I had bought from many times told me that. I've heard some rumors and believe they were actually scared of him. I heard his brothers were imprisoned. He moved to Illinois. Things have returned back to somewhat what they used to be.

I suggest getting to Mt. Hope early and talking directly to the Amish, who are bringing the produce in to sell. Driving around the area looking for what you want and talking to people, should be productive too.

Some of the Amish are almost painfully shy. They might talk to Jerry better than you. I always try to dress fairly plain, like the Amish, when making first contacts.

Keith

Cathryn, the Aphrodite melons went for $3.50 each in the pallet containers at the Scioto Valley Farms Produce auction today. They probably sold a little over 400 of them. Strangely, the few single and double Aphrodite melons sold for only $2.00 each.

Apparently one of the largest growers of melons in the area had some sort of fungus issue this year. He apparently sold 2300 melons to just one buyer, that had to be taken back.

The little, very sweet cantaloupes went for just 50 cents each.

Mums were only bringing $2.00 each, probably because it's so early and pumpkins mostly went for $1.00 with some as high as $2.00.

I bought 4 half bushels of peaches for $10.00 each. Most of the peaches are fine, but a few have one to two spots of mold, where probably an insect bit them once they were just about ripe. We are processing and canning them tonight.

Keith

Thank you for the fruit price updates ,everyone!

Amish get about $15 for mums here.

Keith..I got some nice cantaloupes and watermelons.for 1
00 at the orchard.
I got another 40 bushels.of apples this.morning too.
They're nice too.

The amish guys said it was "impressive" that I've sold 70 bushels of apples and 55 bushels of peaches in basically 5 days and I bought 40 more bushel.of apples today for selling.
I've done good today and will finish selling them.tomorrow when everyone's church let's out

When I got there this morning the guy (mark) came up to me that I've never seen and said "I've heard about you? My brother(john..the guy I usually deal.with) said you're certainly amazing to have sold.that Michael stuff in such a short time".lol

I don't think they quite know what to think of me.lol

When I walked in they definitely took.notice and 3 or 4 of 2m.came.over and chatted a bit.

I talked to Mark about needing ramps.thia spring and if they are anble.to get them.if needed


I told him we have one guy in ohio that does a great job for us but we may be expanding our customer base this next season because alot if people seemed to have stopped selling them and we may need a bigger supply

He tols.me.to bring em.in and show him.amd he'd see what he can do about having some.of the guys dig for us

Cantaloupe pic from.today

Today's apples

Jerry looks so happy with that cantaloupe he could burst!

beautiful fruit pictures,Cathryn!

Sounds like a good price

Jerry was beyond thrilled.lol

The watermelon and cantaloupes I gave to my customers.for free in appreciation for the business.
I could afford it.

Ive had 2 guys that own produce stands approach me about buying produce for them.when I make a trip.lol

Jerry this, Jerry that, Jerry is always in pictures but never Cathryn! Why is that?

Surely, it can’t be from being shy because you are not shy when speaking your mind! 😄🤷‍♂️

Seriously, I always look forward to hearing you talking about Jerry’s trapping and your making ends meet. Thank you!

How does one get emoticons to work here?

That was to be a smiley face and who knew emoticons from my keyboard.

I’m ok with not seeing Cathryn’s face. Maybe she’s camera shy. Keep up the great work, Cathryn!

3 reasons.. Jerry doesn't know how to run a camera..(no kidding.l#.2..he's better lookin than me and I dont want too many yahoo's knowing who I am.... too easy to hire the hit and all if they got photgraphic evidence..