We sold what we could, but people are not in the watermelon mood in September, they like them in hot weather. We had to throw out about two to three hundred of them. We also left thousands out in the field alond with thousands of muskmelon. The year was not a great year for growing them. To cool all summer, we did have enough hot days for them to mature when they were supposed to.
Earlier in the year, my brother did pickle some, but you can only pickle so many.
If you have a fair amount of surplus, you may want to look into a Second Harvest type organization. You can get a decent tax write-off and sometimes they'll even pick up the donation.
The only problem with the tax write off is that the produce is considered inventory. The amount of write off for inventory is limited to the lower of cost of market. The cost of farm produce would be zero. So there is not tax write off for the contribution. By the end of the season we are to tired of picking after doing it for seven days a week and many months that the prospect of picking it to give it away just does not seem to appealing.
I'm sort of looking at the same thing. I have a creek bottom area of about 4 or 5 acres that I'd like to garden. Obviously this will be far in excess of what a family of 4 needs and I'd love to sell farmers' market, but there will be excesses. I'll be very selective about what I grow and I'll also be looking at a large canning outfit. I make a few awesome indian dishes, most of which involve puree of tomato, onion, and garlic, so that will be one out. Excess corn will go to feed cattle. Excess melons and probably excess anything will be the hog mainstay. Compost pile gets the rest so I can avoid having to add fertilizer. I especially don't want to fertilize this area because it's right next to the creek.
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