Paper short abstract:

Going to the marketplace to sell apples is perceived today as a factor that influences both family relations and the production process of the households in the Voinesti village. The article analyzes how the apple producers combine their business with the need to obey the community rules.

Paper long abstract:

Apple producers from Voinesti village have a long history of producing and selling apples in the marketplace since the communist period until today. Voinesti apples are a very well known food category in the Romanian market and they are similar with "terroir" products. In the communist period the market orientation of the households in Voinesti was different from today and the family relations have changed in the last years. Why are there households that choose to sell apples from the yard even though the profit is half, comparing to the profit in the marketplace? How important are family relations to the apple producers in Voinesti and how these relations affect their business?

The market is not the only choice for apple producers in Voinesti since the household economy is an alternative to the market economy. Diversification strategies result in many options, and the market is only one of them; the barter and the labor exchange are examples of the household's alternatives. Values as profit, development, economic success are sometimes as good as values such as prestige, family, sharing. The article will show that apple producers' economic strategies are neither irrational nor immoral in their orientation towards the market or family. The line between the economic interest and the personal feelings is very fragile in a traditional environment of apple production. The morality of the market is still a debate in the Romanian post-communist society but the household economy has also been questioned in the last years.