The spring-planted (from seed, not bulb, mind you), August/September cured shallots got boxed today. In other words, we spent the afternoon gettin our box on.
It was a nice alternative to real work, like pulling up drip tape in field 2, or cultivating the carrots. It was upper 90s today, so real work sounded pretty tough (especially after a huge lunch of fettucini alfredo and ice cream). I usually hate not doing something in the field during the afternoons, but today was the perfect time to box up one of our precious commodities.
We planted, so I thought, a lot of shallots in April. The yield was okay, but we’re left with ~500 lbs of shallots to sell now (I hope the co-op sells lots of shallots).
Was it a good idea to try to sell this many shallots locally? We will see. We don’t want to get into commercial distribution because the prices suck for a small-acreage farm like Four Frog. We are into getting more money/lb, not less. Therefore, retail first, wholesale next, and, then (hopefully never) distribution. If we ever go into distribution commercially, we will be office farmers, and I want to save that for older age, when I don’t want to be in the field everyday, all day.
Not that distribution is inherently bad. It’s all good. We’re all doing our best to make a living.
Anywho, shallots are so yummy. Ours turned out giant-sized this fall. Yum. Restaurants might be a good outlet for us. If you’ve never eaten one, come buy a shallot from Four Frog at the farmers’ markets. If you live across country, we might mail you one!
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