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Thread: Best place to buy food for storage?

  1. #31
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    Quote Originally Posted by Forest Beekeeper View Post
    When something is grown; that does in fact mean it is available for purchase.

    What I did, was I located which grains are produced in which counties. I drove there and saw the fields and facilities. I stopped and asked who I should speak with about buying some.

    Something else I have done, is google to find a grain dealer in a county. Call them mid-day, I nearly always get the farm-wife. Introduce myself and ask if she knows anyone in the area who is growing 'X'. Those farm-wives always know the scoop; and are always talkative. By the time the conversation ends, I have a list of names/phone numbers, along with what crop each is producing that year.

    I just make 'cold-calls'. I never misrepresent myself. Just be open and honest about what your looking for.
    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.

    Frankly, I've met too many ignorant city people. People who believe that they didn't mulch properly when their tomato plants die in the winter. Or who believe that one has to have a rooster to get chicken eggs. (One newly out of the city person in my area sold his rooster, because he didn't want any more eggs. )

    I've also had to explain to too many tourists what all my crops and neighbors crops are. Because they have never seen these crops growing. One can expect many people to not be familiar with hop plants, but it's pure ignorance to not know that potatoes grow under the ground and berries grown on vines.

    There is also a serious lack of understanding to the growing cycle. People are used to being able to pick up everything, in every month of the year, in the grocery store. So I get the pleasure of explaining to people that you can't U-pick strawberries in March and the corn is planted but not harvested in May. I will sell them tomato plants in April, and then resell them plants in May after they killed all the original ones by putting them straight into the frozen ground. (in Oregon - zone 7, Safe planting date is around May 10th.) And yes, you can try to milk the hereford bull, but you won't be getting any milk.

    Yes, I admit that I have some deep prejudice against city people. They can be nice people, and may fit in perfectly in their environment, but many couldn't tell you the difference between a grain crop and bean field. They just haven't had the training or the inclination to learn.

    I don't include all people who live in the city. But I've met too many stupid tourists. (Apologies to all Tree people who have a clue.)

  2. #32
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    In fairness, I'd like to mention that, while I'm no dummy (no, really!) until I was about to get chickens a couple years ago, I had no idea that hens made eggs without a rooster...

    I've also made a LOT of gardening mistakes, and am not sure I'd have known what a hop plant looked like (until we planted some of our own) and still might not know a wheat plant if I fell over it.

    And I come from upstate NY, hardly a city person...I've never lived in a "city" - or even "in town". But yes, ignorant. Why? Because that's the culture I grew up in. My parents grew a couple of tomato plants to have tomatoes for sandwiches and if they died, no big deal; the people across the street had a farm across town and brought us all sorts of goodies so there wasn't really a need to learn these things. I guess you could say I grew up in what would become the "suburbs".

    I would also like to vehemently insist that here in Northern NJ, there are no reliable sources for wheat in bulk that are reasonably priced. It sounds simple to "stop at a farm and ask" but here, the farms are "preserved farmland" and they raise alpacas and Christmas trees in order to keep their tax-free status.

    I'm telling you, I've looked. Honeyville was the best I could do! Anyone else in NNJ having any success?
    Last edited by bbkaren; 02-24-2012 at 01:36 PM.

  3. #33
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    I'd like to add that I didn't write my last posting to put down people who live in the city, but more to point out that many would be clueless when it comes to buying anything in the country. Unless they drive past a farm stand or farmer's market, many couldn't find anything to eat. I wouldn't drop a 5-year-old off in the wilderness and expect them to survive anymore than I would take someone out of a big city and expect them to be able to find anything in the country.

    I'd also like to add that I have done a fair amount of cold calling within my community, only to end with failure much of the time. A family owned farm will generally sell to anyone, and are often happy with that little extra cash that may or may not be reported to the IRS.

    But the agribusinesses in my area are not very friendly to the small time purchaser. I've even had to deal with open hostility for daring to take someone's time up with what they figured was a wasted phone call. Or be told that they will only sell to me if I agree to buy $100,000 worth of product.

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by naturallysweet View Post
    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.

  5. #35
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    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.

    ;)

  6. #36
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    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!

  7. #37
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    Default FB, that's quite a list...

    Quote Originally Posted by Forest Beekeeper View Post
    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.

  8. #38
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    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!

  9. #39
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    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.

  10. #40
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    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.

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