BIG PROFITS FROM LITTLE PLANTS
(Page 4 of 5)
The professionals' harvest was sold at the farm for
55¢ a quart, and case lots were offered stores at the
same price (delivered). Though it may sound a bit
ridiculous at first to set the same price for wholesale and
retail sales, the reasoning was very logical. After all,
local merchants normally depended on large produce houses
for their supplies. and those firms in turn relied on
commercial growers many miles distant By the time berries
were picked in Illinois or Indiana, shipped to Toledo and
delivered to stores in Tiffin and Fostoria, the fruit was
firmly packed down and some of it mashed. This forced the
retailer to dump, sort and refill each box before he could
offer the shipment for sale. In comparison, John's
fresh-picked produce—which was more attractive to
customers anyway—proved to be a bargain.
RELATED CONTENT
Zoeller's strawberry patch was about as far off the beaten
path as it could be, and he wondered whether the remote
location would hurt his sales. As it turned out, he needn't
worried. He solicited wholesale orders by telephone and
arranged deliveries at the convenience of the merchant.
The Zoeller retail business flourished too, once low-cost
classified newspaper ads and free radio publicity twice day
had alerted citizens for miles around that the delicious
fresh berries were ready. In fact, John's experience bore
out a recent report published by the Ohio Agricultural
Research and Development Center, in which Dr. M.E. Cravens
states that location is no longer especially important to
the sale of freshfrom-the-fields farm produce.
Out-of-the-way or not, Zoeller's business has done pretty
well so far. Although he denies renting an armored truck to
carry his first season's loot to the bank, John does admit
that the total number of quarts picked from his two and a
half acres was a strong average figure even after the
plants' poor start. Over the coming months Zoeller expects
to do even better than the normal expectation of 4,000 to
6,000 quarts per acre.
The same plants can't bear at that rate forever, of course,
and the Ohio grower is managing his plot with an eye to the
future. When John's first marketing season ended, he tilled
under the east edge of every long northsouth row of berry
plants. All runners were then trained toward the west,
where they were contained within 12 inches to form a matted
strip of new, strong plants alongside an equal width of
older stock. By cultivating in this way Zoeller will renew
half the bed each year, and may possibly be able to make
his initial investment a final one.
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