Arthur Produce Auction

One of many boxes of canner tomatoes that we purchased at the produce auction. I thought "canner" tomatoes were going to be the ugly, bottom-of-the-barrel tomatoes, but they weren't that way at all. They were mostly quite large, but unsymmetrical or with minor flaws that made them not suitable for #1 or #2 grade. This picture was taken when the box wasn't full.

On the recommendation of a friend of a friend, we headed down to Arthur, IL for a produce auction. I invited my friend Sara, who I knew would be interested and who had a van. None of us had ever been to an auction, let alone a produce auction. It was very cool.

I registered and got my number when we arrived. Before the auction begins, you can walk around the barn and examine the produce. When we went, there were lots of tomatoes, pumpkins, zucchini, onions, and peppers. There were many other fruits and veggies, as well. When the auction began, the auctioneer (Amish, of course) worked his way up and down each row, auctioning off each lot of produce.

It took us a few sales to catch on to exactly what was going on. You are bidding on the price per container or per item. For example, say there is a lot of 4 25-lb boxes of #1 tomatoes (highest grade). You will bid on the price for one box, but will be committing to buy all 4 boxes (at that same price per box). Once we caught on to the auctioneer jabber, we realized that before the bidding starts, he says, "Four times the money" to indicate that. Sometimes when the lots are really large (like 30 25-lb boxes of tomatoes), once the bidding ends, you can say how many boxes you'd like at that price (sometimes he'll offer them in multiples of 4 or 5). Everything is very organized and runs very smoothly. The auction is held every Tuesday and Friday through out the harvest season. I'm not sure what the normal turnout is, but there were probably around 30 bidders the time we went. Since everything is sold in serious bulk quantity, most of the bidders are people who resell the produce (grocery stores, roadside stands, etc.).

And crazy people like us.

The produce and quantity vary from week to week. At every auction, the price sheets form the previous two sales are available. The price sheet shows each item along with the high, low, and median prices for that item on that day. Supply and demand set the prices. For example, when my friend's friend went, the low for a half bushel of apples was $1 and the high was $2.50. I was really hoping for some cheap apples to make applesauce and pie filling, but when we went a few weeks later, there weren't very many apples, so the prices were about ten times higher (which is still cheaper than wholesale, but more than we wanted to pay). Tomatoes, on the other hand, were aplenty, so we got them at a good price ($1 - $3.50 per 25-lb box, we bought several different lots). The auction was very interesting to watch and fun participate in.

This is what we walked away with (we split it pretty much down the middle with the Sara):

6 boxes (11 lbs each) of green beans @ $3/box =$18
6 quarts of cherry tomatoes @ $.50/qt =$3
3 boxes (25 lbs each) canner tomatoes @ $3/box =$9
3 boxes (25 lbs each) #2 tomatoes @ $3.50/box =$10.50
10 boxes (25 lbs each) canner tomatoes @ $3/box =$30
2 boxes (25 lbs each) canner tomatoes @ $1/box =$2
2 boxes (20 lbs each) #1 tomatoes @ $3/box =$6

Around 500 lbs of tomatoes and 66 lbs of green beans for under $80. Not bad.

With prices like this, you'd think we were bidding on gross, low-quality goods, but everything is high quality and good looking.

They close for the season at the end of October, but we are excited to be back there more regularly next year. I have talked to lots of people already who are interested in going and/or sharing the big lots.

I brought the camera, but I was too busy doing the bidding to take pictures and Mike and Sara were chasing after the 4 kids (2 of Sara's and 2 of ours). And if you've seen how Eliza devours tomatoes, then you'd know what a chore it was to keep her out of the boxes of fresh tomatoes that were seen in every direction!

Stay tuned for the canning adventure!