When you buy fresh fruits and vegetables for your family, you want the best quality but don’t want to pay too much for it.
I went to Burwinkel Farms in Ross to talk to a local farmer about the price differences between locally grown produce and that found in the grocery store.
“I only come to Burwinkel’s to get corn,” said Neal Sackenheim, a customer at Burwinkel Farms.
For Neal Sackenheim, it would be much closer to buy his corn at the grocery store.
“But here you get really good things and you support the locals,” he said.
Karen Burwinkel, owner of Burwinkel Farms, says there is a reason for the top quality of her products.
“Our corn is freshly harvested every morning at 6 a.m. You won’t find anything like it in the supermarket,” said Burwinkel.
However, you may find these at the grocery store for a slightly lower price.
“I was just thinking, it’s been a while since I bought corn here and I saw it said $9 a dozen,” Sackenheim said. “I remember it was about $6. It wasn’t that long ago, just a couple of years.”
Burwinkel agreed that the products might be a little cheaper at the grocery store.
“You can do special offers and buy in bulk to bring the price down,” she said. “But when you shop here, you know you’re getting the produce from a local farm. You know your producer, you know the produce is fresh.”
And just like customers, inflation also affects farmers.
“We are families too. We have to shop at the same stores as you,” said Burwinkel. “We see prices going up, so we do what we can not to raise our prices.”
According to Burwinkel, production costs, gasoline prices and employee salaries have increased.
“Employee prices have, you know, skyrocketed because we want to treat our employees well,” she said.
“We appreciate that, we appreciate them, and we want them to feel that.”
Sometimes they have no choice but to raise prices, said Burwinkel.
“It is not a significant increase,” she clarified.
“I feel like my grocery bill has gone up 25 to 30%. I’d say our prices have gone up maybe 10%.”
There are also ways to get farm-fresh products more cheaply.
“Sometimes we have an overabundance of a particular product. Take sweet corn, for example. A few weeks ago we had a surplus of sweet corn. We were able to offer bulk discounts at a lower price so you can take it home, freeze it and then enjoy it all winter long.”
You can call Burwinkel Farms and ask to be added to the list and they will call you when they have large quantities of products.
Starting September 28, Burwinkel Farms will feature corn mazes, pumpkin picking, hayrides, a sunflower field and more.
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