Conflictividad identificada por medio de la GENNJI

How often, on what days, and at what time you should deliver your produce depends as much on the restaurant's schedule as your own. As soon as you've thought it over, meet with the owner or manager and discuss a permanent schedule. He might want the head chef or salad chef to sit in on this talk.

For your benefit as well as the restaurant's, you should deliver at least twice, and possibly three times, per week. A lot depends on how large your operation is. Will an entire order-all you can harvest-fit in your vehicle with one trip? How far d o you have to travel to deliver?

Don't get talked into delivering only once a week if this is your only customer. For vegetables to be harvested at their peak, a week is too long a time between harvests. A restaurant will also have t o store most of a full week's harvest for several days, thereby negating your biggest selling point: fresh produce delivered within hours of its harvest. That's your most important advantage; don't lose it by opting for an "easy" weekly delivery schedule. Remember, to a

commercial grower, a vegetable's most important quality is not flavor, but shipping and keepingqualities. The restaurant has hired you to get something different, varieties that have the flavor and freshness that can't be found in the commercial market.

Making a Schedule

Talk over with the owner the number of meals to be served and when. Some restaurants are closed Monday or Tuesday and have little business on Sunday. Any produce left over from the weekend would be wilted, definitely not top quality. You'd want to deliver t o these customers on the morning of the day they reopen, and again on Friday morning for the weekend trade.

Set up a delivery schedule so your produce is used up in two or three days at the most. This should be easy if you don't get piggy and try t o furnish more than 30 percent of your customer's needs.

The typical restaurant does most of its business over the weekend.

If it's successful, its business during the week should also be fairly uniform. Schedule your delivery for the busiest day, as long as there is one good day following. For example, if Saturday night is the busiest, Friday night next, then Sunday afternoon, then Wednesday evening, closed Monday, slow on Tuesday, I'd try t o set up a Wednesday-Friday or Wednesday-Saturday delivery schedule. I wouldn't go t o three deliveries a week unless that restaurant had a fairly big weekday clientele. Then I'd set up a Tuesday-Thursday- Saturday schedule. Of course, you can stagger your harvest by picking lightly early in the week and heavily (everything in sight that's big enough) on weekends. Despite all your scheduling, Mother Nature occasionally makes her presence known. Just when you've picked all beans in sight, thinking you'll have plenty more by next week, she'll keep Old Man Sun behind a curtain of clouds and you'll get five days of showers. Result: no beans for next week. If this possibility is explained to the owner, he won't plan menus around your harvest.

Don't take orders for specific quantities and items. If you do, you will have to grow twice as much and wind up throwing away half your produce, or rushing around looking for another market to whom you can sell your surplus. Just be sure your customer under- stands your agreement: he'll take whatever you have ready to har- vest each week.

When to

Next question is when to deliver: morning or afternoon? A lot will depend on your habits and your job, if you're working. D o you like t o get up early, or d o you snooze until nine every morning? You might as well run your business to suit yourself, if that's possible. A typical harvest will take two t o four hours, so keep that in mind when you make up your schedule. Don't say you'll be there at 9 A.M.

if you hate t o get up in the morning; your business will turn into drudgery. It's better to choose a more reasonable hour and enjoy your work.

However, you must consider the heat of the sun. Produce wilts fast on a hot, sunny day, even in the shade. Try to harvest and deliver before or after the heat of the day. In the spring and fall that's not as important, and some of the summer vegetables such as tomatoes and eggplants aren't affected by daytime heat. If you wait until after the hottest hours you'll have to rush to harvest and deliver before 6 P.M. Most restaurants start preparing the evening vegeta- bles by mid-afternoon, and this would be far too late for them, so talk it over with the chef.

The best plan may be t o pick all morning and deliver around noontime. Keep everything in the shade, wetted down, and get it into the cooler quickly once you're there. Even if the restaurant is busy with the noon meal, the kitchen help is used to receiving deliveries all day long. There should be no problem, especially if you're willing to unload and store your delivery.

Of course, you rooster types who have your harvest all ready to deliver by A.M. have the ideal situation. You won't get in any- body's way, and you'll have the rest of the day to lie in your hammock, if you don't have t o rush t o your job.

Stick to Schedule

Whether it's morning or afternoon, twice a week or three times, don't veer from your schedule. Always be on time, rain or shine, sick or well, large harvest or small. Be the one person that they can say is truly dependable. It may not seem so important to you now, but your regularity will help guarantee you future business there. The owner will get used t o your fresh produce and look forward t o it;

he'll even look forward t o each delivery. You're something out of the past-an honest-to-goodness dirt farmer who loves his work and is proud of it.