We went to the market on saturday as a family. So many more vendors on a saturday, but also so many more buyers. Thank goodness there is an amazing playground right in the middle of all of it. So while the hubby took the boys to play on the swings and in the sand I hunted for food.
Our meat share will be arriving in a few weeks, but we have been on the look out for chicken. So I had the hopes of scoping out decently priced chicken at the farmer's market. It was surprisingly hard to find chicken within out budget. I had $60 for the market this week;this is more than usual because I am going to spend a portion of this week making some baby food for Jude, and I knew meat was going to be pricey. But I couldn't find chicken that I wanted. Ok in reality I couldn't find chicken before I had spent all the money....
Ok in full truth I bought wine instead of chicken. That's right I bought $21 on two bottles of Finger Lake wine (are the finger lakes within 100 miles? I'm not sure but I'm already being less strict in the mileage and we haven't even started yet in earnest)
But here's the thing; I am short. How does this translate into wine not chicken you ask? There is a correlation I assure you. It's simple really, the market was crowded and the wine guy had better (more visible) signage. The chicken guy was tucked way in the back, had a few coolers with prices written on them in black sharpie; the wine guy had a tent and bold graphics. I ask you, which would you have gravitated to (and bear in mind the two kids and hubby out of work and making me crazy when you answer).
Plus the chicken guy had chicken that was marinated and all fancy, I just wanted plain cutlets or some wings or something.
And there is still the question of eggs. There were tons of eggs at the market but everyone wanted $4 or more for them. Seriously? who pays $4 for a dozen eggs? Are chickens really that expensive to raise? I would think they weren't, since hey they manage to keep the wild ones on Survivor alive with little resources....So I want to know the true cost of raising chickens, I want to know how people justify selling a dozen eggs for $4. And its not like the sellers had like one or two dozen for sale either, or were just selling eggs. So I don't buy the reasoning that one chicken only produces X number of eggs in a week (how many eggs a week does a chicken produce? I will get back to you on that) because the eggs were not the main product of any of the vendors.
I think if we continue to go on saturdays (and I think we will) we have to go either earlier when it is less crowded to grow a relationship with the sellers, or later when the prices might go down to get rid of unsold items.
7 comments:
$4 seems to be pretty average for farmer's market eggs, more if they're organic or extra-large. I don't mind paying the extra $2 or $3, but I use eggs pretty sparingly... although I have to say, farmers market eggs are waaay better than grocery store eggs!
You could try raising chickens yourself for the eggs...
g- we eat a ton of eggs, almost 2dozen a week between meals and baking, and i suppose i could just budget it in, but i want to know how much profit it would represent. Like are the farmers price raising on eggs to make up a loss on something else?
Liz- I did think about it, a girl in my class last year had some so it's been on my mind as a possibility, but the fact is the backyard space is not mine and we already overstep a little with the kids- i think the landlady would not appreciate chickens- and there is a large feral cat population in our hood that I would worry about...
I'm not sure if it's within 100 miles, but my friend owns this farm in NY. Marina raises chickens for eggs and if you contact her, she would give you the scoop on the economics of eggs. I do know she had a problem with foxes in the henhouse (literally).
http://www.superiorconcept.org/shovingleopard/
Erin- they are not 100 mile- they are just outside the 100 mile radius- I looked them up awhile ago from one of your postings about visiting them!
I have a friend who has schooled me a little on eggs this week. there will be a post next week about what i learned
I am very curious!
You should offer the stands with bad signage a Trainer's Toolbox presentation on proper marking pen usage. Earth tones, earth tones!
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