Best place to buy food for storage?

[Forest Beekeeper]

Yes, but you know what your doing. You obviously know something about agriculture and the natural growing cycle. Something that many people outside of the agricultural community lack.
...

I used to be a vendor in a Farmer's Market [today I only sell to a Buyer's Club] where I saw other vendors come in with a truck or box-van filled with flowering plants that they had forced in their heated-greenhouses, in late-February / Mid-March. Snow and ice covering the parking lot that we are standing in. Customers would be all excited to buy tomato sets and flowering shrubs by the arm load.

Mind you nothing can safely go in the ground before June, but they buy every plant available.

It amazes me that tomato sets and flowers set on a snowbank would sell the way they do.

I asked the other vendors about it. To me it seemed unethical, to sell plants while we were still in snow. The attitude was that the city customers would buy live plants and kill them; buy live plants again, and again; until finally the vendors shifted to selling vegetables. It is the same customers week after week, they know the vendors by name.

[Forest Beekeeper]

I did some googling and I found a list of 300+ wheat farmers in NJ who just took subsidy payments for their wheat.

Here is the top 40.

Bitters Brothers, Bridgeton, NJ 08302
Barry R Taylor, Titusville, NJ 08560
H & S Dubois, Pittsgrove, NJ 08318
Frank P Baitinger Shiloh, NJ 08353
Allen Farms Inc Salem, NJ 08079
Floyd Menchek Ringoes, NJ 08551
R Donald Emel Salem, NJ 08079
Scott Robinson Salem, NJ 08079
Durham Farms Bridgeton, NJ 08302
Durr Farms Inc Bordentown, NJ 08505
James N Wenger Bridgeton, NJ 08302
J Christopher Probasco Chesterfield, NJ 08515
Hw Bibus & Son Inc Chesterfield, NJ 08515
Skeba Farms Inc Monroe Township, NJ 08831
Donald C Patterson Cranbury, NJ 08512
Middlebush Farms Inc Somerset, NJ 08873
Dominic J Racite Swedesboro, NJ 08085
Rustin Farms West Windsor, NJ 08550
Ernest F Tark Jr Salem, NJ 08079
George B Wright Salem, NJ 08079
Theodore Wilk Pennington, NJ 08534
Chris B Pettit Pemberton, NJ 08068
Kocsis Brothers Baptistown, NJ 08803
Steven Zamek Hillsborough, NJ 08844
Clifford H Conover Hightstown, NJ 08520
Burjan's Kennels & Game Farm Inc ∗ Flemington, NJ 08822
Good Farms Inc Southampton, NJ 08088
S R Conard & Sons Hillsborough, NJ 08844
Duane A Cruzan Bridgeton, NJ 08302
William D Wagner Kingston, NJ 08528
Floyd Stevenson Jr Pemberton, NJ 08068
John W Cook Pittsgrove, NJ 08318
Thomas Orgo II Colts Neck, NJ 07722
Ian K Baitinger Bridgeton, NJ 08302
F G Rue & Son Inc Cream Ridge, NJ 08514
Rupert H Freiberger Allentown, NJ 08501
Bullock Farms Cream Ridge, NJ 08514
Wood Farms Salem, NJ 08079
Roger A Woolf Washington, NJ 07882
Paul J Hlubik Dba Backacres Farms Wrightstown, NJ 08562



I did not call any of them myself. But honestly it is far too early to do that.

Nobody has any clue today of what prices will be come harvest.

What I suggest doing is 1May call a few of them and ask them:
what are you asking for your 'winter wheat'?;
when do you expect to be running their combine?;
and are you willing to sell by the bag?

For spring wheat make your phone calls about 1 July.

;)

[bbkaren]

Thanks, FB - I had no idea there were that many in NJ, and really, no clue how to find out.

None of those are nearby but if it means that substantial a savings I don't mind driving a couple hours.

I'll get in touch with them, thank you!

[MinnesotaSmith]

I did some googling and I found a list of 300+ wheat farmers in NJ who just took subsidy payments for their wheat.

Here is the top 40.


I did not call any of them myself. But honestly it is far too early to do that.

Nobody has any clue today of what prices will be come harvest.

What I suggest doing is 1May call a few of them and ask them:
what are you asking for your 'winter wheat'?;
when do you expect to be running their combine?;
and are you willing to sell by the bag?

For spring wheat make your phone calls about 1 July.

;)

How exactly did you get that list? I would dearly love to obtain similiar information for a different state.

[bbkaren]

MS, I believe the info is in here somewhere; this is the website that kept coming up in my searches when I did an exact search for the text FB gave me:

http://farm.ewg.org/

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who'd have absolutely no clue where to start to find this kind of info!

[lower_ark]

You have to clean any grain bought straight from a farmer. It's not like you can go home and start making bread or cornbread with it the way it comes off the combine.

I can get a 55gallon barrel full of corn from a local farmer but that includes sticks, pieces of cob, bad kernels, dirt, etc.. There is work involved in gleenning it to a point suitable for milling.

Keep that in mind.

[lower_ark]

Also, you don't really need a database to find a source. Simply drive around in the countryside during season, stop the car, get out and talk to the farmer.

[lower_ark]

One more thing. Most bakeries that produce large volumes of bread daily will have bags of grain you can buy. I've bought grain from Stone Mill Bakery many times. Last I bought was 7 grain mix for $30/50lbs. Looking at the labeling on the bag, it came from Honeymill grains. They buy it by the pallet and will readily sell bags to the public. All you have to do is ask.

[MinnesotaSmith]

And IMO the info in it should be stickied near the top of the board.

[Forest Beekeeper]

Also, you don't really need a database to find a source. Simply drive around in the countryside during season, stop the car, get out and talk to the farmer.

I have done that before.

I have also had very good results from calling farm-wives and asking for their assistance. The farm-wife gossip network is usually up-to-date.

:)