Being a former farmer's market salesperson, business manager, and hired hand, I heard plenty about food/produce auctions from other vendors, but didn't really know how they worked. It got my curiosity though, and with my love for food, this became something that I wanted to experience for myself. So when the auction opened up here in my town last summer, I was pretty excited! Being that I live in Amish country, it is owned and operated by a couple of amish families. There are lots of vendors from the community that bring all sorts of things to sell- from flowers to green beans to fresh homemade pies and butter.
Now that I'm a housewife and am in charge of purchasing groceries, I have found it very helpful to keep on top of the going rate for fresh produce, and have enjoyed expanding my education in this department especially being a gardener myself. Dreaming of running a little roadside stand one day, I now have an inside peek at what people pay for wholesale produce, and can measure how much profit they might be making when they resell at their own stand. While I have no desire to resell other people's produce, I DO have an idea how much I could get for my own vegetables, should I have an abundance and decide to take it to auction to be sold.
Our current gardening/canning plan is to pick a couple staple products to grow each year, but plant enough to last us for a few years. For example, next year we will need green beans. Instead of planting enough for us for a year, we plan to grow a large patch of beans, can enough to last three years, and then not have to worry about them for awhile. We planted three rows of beans the summer of 2015, and they will last us until spring 2018. If we plant four rows of beans, we'll be able to take at least a bushel to auction every week, earning us a minimum of $20 per week, for not much extra effort. (According to this year's going rate of $22-36 per bushel of green beans. Auction keeps 10% of earnings.)
Okay, I've gotten a little sidetracked here. While some prices raised my eyebrows at the auction, there have been other times I've found great deals on things I could use. Last week, well... if I was trying to watch my spending, I should've not taken the checkbook, and only limited myself to the amount of cash I had on hand like I normally do. But I did have it along with me, and I ended up needing to use it. Even though my grand total spending for the day was high, I stocked up on some great deals.
Eggs. I bought 24 dozen eggs for $0.50-.75 less than I normally pay per dozen. Yes, 24 dozen is a lot of eggs for a family of two adults and two small children, but we can go through an easy 3 dozen a week. Because these are fresh eggs, they will last much longer than any you'll find on the grocery store shelf. I now have enough to last us into December, but I saved between $12.00 and $16.00 doing so. To me, this is a HUGE savings.
Acorn Squash. This is my favorite. It has great sentimental qualities to me, as this is the squash variety I grew up on. My mom would cut them in half and bake with a pat of butter, chopped walnuts, a dash of cinnamon, and a splash of maple syrup, and it was the most delicious thing ever. Aaron however, grew up on Butternut squash, and that is the only variety he really cares for. Since I'm a general squash lover, I gladly grow his variety to feed us all through the winter. But at the auction I got a box of 40 acorn squash for $0.10 a piece! At that price, I decided it would be an excellent way to feed Adam and me lunch on the days Aaron works away from home. I can put the squash halves in the crock pot and have an easy meal for two for less than 50 cents, including the cost of the toppings! (I will omit the walnuts, to keep cost lower.) That's better than sandwiches, because the bread alone would cost the two of us about 40 cents per meal.
I spent a bit more on produce that day, but that will be another post for another day. It's a big story.
I love acorn squash. One time my mom and I went to the Vickeryville produce auction and I bought a whole box of them, too. I think mine were more expensive though. You got an awesome deal!!!
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