THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: THE VALUE OF RESTAURANT SALES.

In a recent post I openly pondered, "What is the value of selling to chefs?" And though I did attempt the question, I still felt I couldn't do the answer justice on my own. So for a little perspective, I called urban farmer Curtis Stone to get his thoughts.Curtis is an interesting dude. Rapidly becoming known for his small-scale, high-efficiency Canadian urban farm, Green City Acres––which famously grosses over $75,000 a year on 1/3rd of an acre––Curtis is sort of a legend in the small farming community. To put his farm's income in perspective, we figure one full acre for us right now grosses around $25,000 per year––it could be as high as $50,000 by next year if we seriously throw down (and we're gonna try). That said, we grow a vast majority of our own food, so that figure may need some adjusting, but you get the idea––$75,000 on a third of that is pretty impressive. (Don't worry, Curtis wrote a book, and no, I can't wait for it to come out either.)So I gave Curtis a call and rather amusingly our whole first conversation lasted only 5 minutes 46 seconds before his phone died. But, if Curtis is as efficient on his farm as he is on the phone, I am not surprised in any way he makes the money he does. I barely needed a follow-up phone call to get what I was after––the man wastes no time.When I reached Curtis he was still packing for the farmer's market, and used that as an example of what makes selling to restaurants so attractive. "Like right now," Curtis explains, "I'm bagging [affectionate expletive] arugula, and it takes me four times as long, because it takes me the same amount of time to pack a quarter pound bag [for market] that it does to pack a two pound bag for a restaurant." And, one could safely assume, it also takes four times less work, and less hours, to sell it to a restaurant than to a market.Restaurants, distributors and wholesalers make up around 81% of his farm sales now (up from 20% when he first started farming). Even with a discount of 25%, he insists––and is the type of dude who would know––it's still highly profitable. "You're getting a slightly lower price point," he admits, "but you're selling at a higher volume. And you're moving more product with less packaging time. So it's a better use of labor to sell in large volume... We move high volumes of high value crops to high value customers."If you're a farmer, dependent upon market sales even to a small extent, what Curtis does is attractive. For Curtis, a single restaurant order can be anywhere between $200 and $1000. "And what it takes to pack that order," he adds, "is negligible compared to what it takes to pack for market." In other words––nay, in his own words––he is saving time while selling more.So what makes restaurant sales worth it is not just having an outlet for food you might not normally sell, or having someone to buy in bulk, it's also about efficiency, and about profit from that efficiency. Now, if I may editorialize, 81% restaurant sales is not our style. We enjoy the diversity of markets, and especially our CSA relationship. But hearing Curtis' take on the value of restaurant sales definitely lends a good perspective to the idea––it shows that restaurants don't just buy produce in bulk, but they save time in bulk, too.For more from Curtis Stone follow the Permaculture Voices Podcast where host Diego Footer checks in with Curtis every week. Cutis' book The Urban Farmer comes out around the New Year, and is on preorder now. And for those really interested in an in depth examination of his practices, check out his online course.- Jesse.