Why a Farmer Might “Buy In” Some Vegetables

Fennel is one of the crops that we will buy in from another farm this year.

In our farm budget each year, we have a line item for vegetable “buy-ins.”  This week I thought I’d talk to you about the role of “buy-ins” for many CSAs.

Wait, what’s a “buy-in”? I thought everything I got in my box was fro my farmer.

A buy-in is an item that we purchase from another farm/producer to fill a gap in our production.

Why would we do this?

There are a variety of reasons we might pay another farm to help fill your box with veggies.

Reason #1: Sometimes a crop just doesn’t grow well in our soil type.

Or we have trouble with pests, and the yield never seems to be there. Examples of this type of buy-in would be sweet corn. The amount of space we would need to grow corn – we simply don’t have the acreage. Cucumbers are also always a struggle for us, and we’ve debated whether we should buy those in too.

Reason #2: It’s a highly intensive crop.

Crops that take a lot of time to manage will cost us more. For example, green beans take forever to harvest by hand. So it’s more economical for us to purchase them from a farmer who uses a mechanical bean harvester. (We don’t own one of those). Snap peas are another example for us. If we can buy these in, we will, because it would take our crew hours to harvest enough for 400 boxes. So we do grow these crops on a very small scale – enough to handle the farmer’s market sales – but not for our CSA.

Reason #3: If we are short on our own crops, and we need to make good on your investment and fill it.

Mother Nature always has a different plan for how the season will go than what we had envisioned. So we have to buy things in to fill in gaps made by lost crops. We’ve had to do that in past seasons a few times after a large flood wiped out something planned for the box. This can sometimes be a hit to our budget, but it’s important that we try to honor our contract with you.

Reason #4: Economics.

Some crops are just expensive to grow. It can make more economical sense for us to pay a farmer for fennel, and then plant a bed cut lettuce (where we would have put the fennel). We can sell the lettuce to restaurants at a high price, and end up making more money that way after all is said and done.

Since our supply of land is limited, we have to be strategic about which crops we grow more of.

It’s important for us that the majority of the box comes from our farm. But we want to be transparent with you and make you aware that we do buy in a few crops that just don’t make sense for us to try and produce.

Some buy-ins are planned way in advance. Some are last minute. 

This year, we farmed out fennel, leeks, and green beans. But we will always give the growing  farm credit in our newsletter, so that you can  know where it comes from. We also make sure to purchase from certified organic growers. The one exception is the sweet corn, which is not organic, and is grown by our parents, David and Cindy Bench.

We used to grow green beans for the CSA when we were smaller. Now, it’s more economical to buy them in.

Buy-ins are also very common at farmer’s markets too. Farmers know that consumers like to have variety. Consumers are more likely to buy when there’s more stuff on the table. So farmers will “round out” their offerings with buy-ins sourced from other places, in the hopes that it will bring them more business.

When I first became aware how much buy-ins were happening at farmer’s markets, it was a bit unsettling. I had always assumed that what was on the farmer’s table was grown by the farmer. But now that I’m a farmer’s wife, I can see the  other side of the story. It’s a story of economics and marketing.

Farmers are business people too, and if it helps them to sell their own produce by having a few “foreign” watermelon sitting nearby, so be it. Farmers who grow on a grand scale, and who sell wholesale, need the local farmers to help sell their product for them. In the end, all farmers benefit.

Vendors at the Perrysburg Farmer’s Market have to sign a contract before they rent their space stating that 65% of the items they bring to market are made or grown themselves. FYI: The Toledo Farmer’s Market percentage is much lower. Anything that is NOT grown by the farmer is supposed to be labeled as such. But often this policy is not practiced.

Bottom line… if it matters to you that the produce you purchase was actually farmed by that farmer, ask them, because buy-ins won’t always be marked. Be specific and ask, “Did you grow this?”

You’ll be able to tell by how they respond.