# I need some opinions from Restaurant owners, Chefs, or Caterers.



## Gallagher (Nov 13, 2017)

Let me make it very clear from the start, I am not trying to sell anything at all on! I just need the opinion of some of you. 
I started growing Baby Ginger, and Turmeric this year. I want to sell my crops to restaurants, or caterers. But I can't find anything on the internet about how to approach them, and what I do find says "to talk to locale restaurants in person". But the closest would be well over 60 miles from me, and Kansas doesn't have very many places interested in things like Baby ginger. 
I have sent out quite a few emails to places asking if they would be interested, and have gotten nothing back. 
Any help would be wonderful, I am new to selling products like this, and marketing isn't easy. 
Thank you.


----------



## desdinova (Feb 8, 2017)

Try to find a CoOp or FoodHub of some sort. Not sure where they are, but as example we have one and many local growers use them as sort of an agent. If I need "local" food, I just go to their website and look it up.


----------



## Gallagher (Nov 13, 2017)

desdinova said:


> Try to find a CoOp or FoodHub of some sort. Not sure where they are, but as example we have one and many local growers use them as sort of an agent. If I need "local" food, I just go to their website and look it up.


Thanks! I will look it up.


----------



## Pat Pat (Sep 26, 2017)

What do you do with a baby ginger?


----------



## Gallagher (Nov 13, 2017)

Pat Pat said:


> What do you do with a baby ginger?


You use it in anything where you would use fresh ginger. It is used a lot in Indian, and Asian food. Mature ginger has a very thick fibrous skin, and the "Meat" of the ginger is also fibrous making it only good for grating or grinding dry into powder. Baby ginger is the same plant but harvested immaturely, before any of the fibers develop. It doesn't even need to be peeled, just wash it well and it is ready to use! 
If you Google search it there are lots of articles about it.


----------



## Pat Pat (Sep 26, 2017)

Oh, I use that a lot but I call it young ginger. I thought baby ginger is something that looks like a normal ginger but comes in a miniature size, like an inch long for the whole thing. LOL.


----------



## Gallagher (Nov 13, 2017)

Pat Pat said:


> Oh, I use that a lot but I call it young ginger. I thought baby ginger is something that looks like a normal ginger but comes in a miniature size, like an inch long for the whole thing. LOL.


LOL Yes it is also called young ginger, I didn't think of that. My fault, sorry.


----------



## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Sorry to say, but if you really want to get your foot in the door you are going to have to hit up these places in person. As a chef, I very rarely ordered stuff from a website of a company that I was not familiar with. This is what I would do. I would set up a website, but then I would plan to spend some time hitting the most populated cities around you and going door to door. Do some research and have a list of places that you want to hit-stay away from the big chains as they are probably limited to who they can order from. Also, do not try to hit places between 11am-1:30pm. The chef won't have time for you, and you will probably piss him off. Take along some samples for them to try and be prepared to make a sales pitch. Take along enough to sell if they are interested and bring business cards with your website's address. But, unless you are at local farmer's markets you are going to have to pound the pavement to make some sales.

Getting involved with a co-op is also a great idea. They will handle the selling for you, but I would still work on selling yourself.


----------



## Gallagher (Nov 13, 2017)

pete said:


> Sorry to say, but if you really want to get your foot in the door you are going to have to hit up these places in person. As a chef, I very rarely ordered stuff from a website of a company that I was not familiar with. This is what I would do. I would set up a website, but then I would plan to spend some time hitting the most populated cities around you and going door to door. Do some research and have a list of places that you want to hit-stay away from the big chains as they are probably limited to who they can order from. Also, do not try to hit places between 11am-1:30pm. The chef won't have time for you, and you will probably piss him off. Take along some samples for them to try and be prepared to make a sales pitch. Take along enough to sell if they are interested and bring business cards with your website's address. But, unless you are at local farmer's markets you are going to have to pound the pavement to make some sales.
> 
> Getting involved with a co-op is also a great idea. They will handle the selling for you, but I would still work on selling yourself.


Thank you so much for taking the time to writing this all out. I knew when I started growing this it would be a problem selling it, just because I am so far from any large towns. But I will most likely end up doing this, so thanks for the advice. It is always hard until a client base is established.

A big thanks to all of you for taking the time to help me, I really do appreciate it!


----------

