My First Produce Auction Part 3 - Recap

Read Part 1 Here
Read Part 2 Here

I would say that my first produce auction was extremely successful. I will definitly be heading back. I would like to go back in a month or so just to see what is in season and what is offered. Next year I will be planning a lot of my canning around what I can get at these auctions.

Produce auctions are a great way to get large lots of locally grown produce. At this particular auction I was able to pay a fraction of what it would cost me to buy these items at the store, well except for the green beans. I will end this post with a video that Juliecache and I did talking about the auction. If you missed it, you can also read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series here.

Have you ever been to a produce auction? Tell me about it. This post is linked to the Frugal Tuesday Tip hosted here at Learning the Frugal Life.

Watch live streaming video from threesisters at livestream.com

My First Produce Auction Part 2 - Bidding

So if you missed it I am blogging about my first ever produce auction. You can read the beginning of my story here.

First off I want to put out there where you can find produce auctions in Iowa. I have had a lot of people email me and leave comments wanting to know where to find them. Here is a list of the Iowa produce auctions that I could find. Thanks to Frugal Family Examiner for helping me compile this list. If you are not from Iowa, I would suggest doing an online search of produce auctions in your state.

Cedar Valley Produce Auction
Farmsong Produce Auction
Southern Iowa Produce Auction
Frytown Produce Auction
Wapsie Valley Produce Auction in Hazelton, Iowa



I really should have taken a picture of the back of my van with all the produce winnings shoved in there. However I took advantage of eager kids wanting to carry things in and check things over when I got home and never got a photo taken of the whole lot.

Here are the good and not so good deals of the day.

The first thing I bid on was green beans. These went up for sale early in the auction. There was people crowding around the cart when the auction started, so not only was I nervous about bidding in general, I also knew I had a lot of possible competition. The auction was for 2 10lb boxes of fresh green beans. Sweet! I wanted them. I figured at the store I could purchase them at a good price of $.99 lb (non organic) so that is what I was willing to spend on these bad boys. My thought process was I could go up to $20 for the 20 lbs of beans.

Bidding started and I jumped right in. My heart was pounding a bit since this was the first bid I had ever made. It ended up being me and another person bidding against each other at the end. The bidding ended and I won with a price of $19. Great! I stayed under my goal bid! I was so excited I won.

Then as bidding went on for other items I started to think about the beans I had just bought. Was the $19 for each box? I forget or better yet, wasn't experiencecd enough to realize that they bid off "x" item and then take the winning bid times how ever many of that item there are. I would find out later when I went to pay that yes, it was $19 per 10 lb box of beans. Ouch! So that 20 lbs of beans cost me $38 or $1.90 lb. Not such a great deal.

Once I got that first bid out of the way things went alot smoother and I was a bit more relaxed. The next thing I won was a box of jalapeno peppers. I spent $3 on the box and the minimum I could take was 2 boxes. I didn't realize at the time that those boxes weighed 16 lbs. So I had won 32 lbs of jalapeno peppers and paid just $6 or roughly $.19 lb. That's a whole lot of jalapenos!

The winning bids on peppers didn't stop there. I won this beautiful crate of Hungarian hot peppers for a whopping $2. There was 9lbs of peppers in here plus a cool crate!Here is a look at the tags they used. The yellow tags were on each item at the beginning of the auction telling you what it was and the size or weight of the items. Once the item is sold a white sticker is placed somewhere on the box or item with the winning bidders number and then the quantity is written on there so you know how many you won.

My next purchase was red Anaheim peppers. These went so cheap I kinda just jumped in at the last minute. I bought 4 pecks of peppers for $1 each. Here is what one peck looks like.Yes, I admit I went a little crazy with the pepper bidding. It was just so cheap I couldn't believe no one was bidding. So I would and I would win.

My favorite purchase was peaches. Missouri peaches. I bought 4 lugs for, are you ready for this? $11 a lug. That is 120lbs of peaches for $44. I was so psyched. It ends up being $.37 per pound. And they were awesome peaches.

After purchasing all the peppers I decided I had better get in gear and get some tomatoes bought if I could get them cheap enough. The only thing I could think of to do with all those peppers was make a whole lot of salsa.

I was shocked at how high the tomatoes were being sold. 20 lbs was going anywhere from $22-$28. I wasn't willing to pay that much. I had almost given up when some how nearing the end of the auction I was able to win a box of 20lbs of canner tomatoes for $12. Not too shabby.That concludes my winnings. I had filled up the entire back end of my van. By the time I reached home my eyes were starting to water a bit from all the peppers!

Stay tuned for part 3 of my first produce auction.

My First Produce Auction - Part 1

I attended my first produce auction a couple weeks ago. I have read about produce auctions before from one of my favorite bloggers Jennifer from Getting Ahead. She had blogged a couple times about attending produce auctions and I have always been fascinated. After doing some research I went with Julie from Juliecache.com and together we made a road trip to see what it was all about.

What is a produce auction? It's like any other auction, your just bidding on fruits and vegetables. You register and get a number. Sellers lay out the produce on carts and pallets (or leave the really large lots in their wagons) and you can walk around and inspect all the items prior to the start of the sale. The auctioneer starts the bidding and the highest bidder wins the lot. For this particular auction the produce being sold must be grown within 100 miles of the auction house. Special consideration is made for anything not considered local.

When we rolled into our destination I was giddy with excitement at the sites. The auction was mostly supplied if not fully supplied by Amish farmers. There were horses and wagons everywhere and children and men busily unloading produce onto carts and pallets.

I was surprised at how much there was to look at. There was probably 50 different pallets/carts of produce. Some carts would have multiple items on it. For instance it would have 8 boxes of Jalapeno peppers, 4 boxes of tomatoes, 2 boxes of beans, and 6 watermelon. Others would just be a cart full of only one item like watermelon or cantaloupe. I wasn't sure exactly how the bidding was going to go. Would I have to buy the whole cart? Was each item sold separately?

After walking around and viewing all they had to offer the auctioneer finally got things going. The first cart had zucchini. Lots of zucchini. It was in boxes of 25 and the auctioneer was selling 3 boxes of 25. Bidding started at $1 and went up from there. Those 3 boxes of zucchini sold for $3 a box and the buyer would pay $3 x 3 boxes or $9.

(sorry for the turned picture, thank you Blogger for being picky tonight)

Later down the line was a cart of 16 cantaloupe. The bidder won that cart for $.65 per cantaloupe x 16. It was then I started to realize if I was going to bid I would be bidding on a large about of produce at once. There were a few smaller lots, but not many.

The bidding went quick and you had to listen carefully to what was being auctioned off. I got a fast lesson on bushel, peck, #1 and #2 tomatoes as well as some other produce auction lingo that I still don't think I understand.

I made a mental note of what I had wanted to bid on at the begging of the auction. My list included...

Potatoes
Peaches
Tomatoes
Green Beans

Are you dying to know what I won? Stay tuned to find out.