Advice for a young farmer

[Betts]

My nephew is a twenty something Ontario farmer who is establishing a raspberry/ strawberry farm and wants to maximize the market for his fruit. He produces a soft, high sugar berry that is very flavorful and distinct from the mass market firm fleshed, low sugar varieties that ship well.

He is experimenting with a raspberry wine ( highly drinkable IMHO) and would like to know if you think that there is a market for this both from the chef user and from the consumer. Do any of you have experience with this?

We had a other ideas from the kitchen table marketing session --

* Fruit puree - frozen seedless but need a source for processing/ distributing

* Fruit vinegars - no LCBO issues but does anyone know a specialty food distributor who might carry them

*Jams/jelly - this market seems saturated. he is looking for something distinctive

Also ways to develop the wine idea.

All opinions and sources of expertise are welcome and gratefully accepted.

[estufarian]

There's a lot of competition - and it's organised!

Fruit Wines of Ontario

[sadistick]

I dont know if he does this already, but a trend I see in the American market is that groups of farmers (cant remember the acronym) actually ship direct to customers fresh fruits and veggies. He should definetly offer a pick your own (where is he located?) and psosibly a shipping program.

[Judd Icious Hand]

How about a line of Sorbet?

[ludja]

If the berries really have a distinctly good taste, maybe he could also approach better restaurants to feature them on their menus seasonally. The berries could be identified as *** Farm berries and this would help with the marketing of his brand name in addition to creating some regular bulk purchasers. I would also include the name of the type of strawberry so that people can begin to associate the presumably better taste and texture with a particular unique product.

Based on your description of the berry it seems that it's special characteristics would be best appreciated in a non-processed form. So I would at least explore some options for selling them this way, as with the restaurants above. Farmer's markets and pick your own are other options if there is sufficient population density close enough. (I realize that the processed items help make it a year round thing, etc, but if you build up a good reputation with the fresh berry it may also help selling the other processed items.)

Do you know what the varietal types are for the raspberry and strawberries? (Curious b/c we've had threads on flavorful berry varieties.)

[Csaville]

My nephew is a twenty something Ontario farmer

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Can you be more geographically specific?

Chantal

[Betts]

He has established a "Pick Your Own" farm near Ridgetown about an hour west of London with strawberries, raspberries and a little asparagus. There is always excess fruit and the goal is to find uses and markets for what isn't picked.

The product goes by the name of SnoBerries - the family name is Snobelen. I'll see about getting varietal info or have my nephew respond on this thread.

[jayt90]

A Grimsby distiller, Otto Rieder, used to make a raspberry eaux de vie. His company was sold, and I don't know if they still do this. But some small distillers in Ontario or Quebec might be interested. It takes a lot of berries to make a little eaux de vie.

[creativeingredients]

Sounds like it would make a great ingredient for ice cream. A company like Gelato Fresco in Toronto might be interested. They use only fresh strawberries in their production.

Are the berries organic? That would open up a lot of doors both in the fresh market and in the ingredient market. Much better margins too! Whole Foods, Pusateri's, Harvest Wagon, Noah's may all be interested.

[Sugarella]

If these are truly exceptional berries it may do him good to contact the Weston company aka President's Choice.

Their blueberries, for example, sold in the freezer case in tubs under the "no-name" label, are very exceptional berries. The entire year's supply is picked in Ontario during the growing season if memory serves me right, and they're flash frozen which doesn't seem to have much adverse affects on their quality upon thawing. They're huge and plump and flavourful ....sure they're frozen but they're a million times better than the california berries we get out of season, and a lot cheaper too.

Worth looking into, I suppose, if he can get them to buy his surplus berries.