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Post by klorentz on Nov 10, 2009 12:24:46 GMT -5
Hey all,
Been sitting here thinking about this.I know others and myself have brought this up before but I am seriously considering growing things for the local farmers market.Aside from my plans to donate seeds(for 2011) and produce to folks that need them I still wonder how much of a good thing the farmers market would be for my family. Any thoughts on this? Given that we have a strong Mexican American community I also think that perhaps the selection of hot peppers I will be growing would be a good thing for authentic Mexican dishes as the selection at local stores is lacking. Also I have not heard of anyone finding heirloom tomatoes ether.Just the hybrids.Btw found this blurb about the Hillsdale Farmers Market.
Market Description
This is a seasonal open air market featuring locally grown produce, pastured poultry and meats, artisan crafts, soaps, honey, flowers and Amish baked goods.
Location
Hillsdale County Courthouse Parking Lot on the East side of Courthouse in Hillsdale, Michigan
Kevin
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Post by plantsnobin on Nov 10, 2009 17:37:24 GMT -5
Is the market located within easy driving distance for you? Our little county market in Orleans, IN was voted #10 in a national contest this year. You wouldn't think that an area such as ours would be such a good market, since most folks here can grow their own, and the whole county has a population of maybe 20,000! But this market is crazy popular. I think that we are going to sell next year, if I can get myself in gear. Do you have plenty of land? Not to be too nosey, but has your health improved? I would hate to see you try to take on too much and stress yourself out. The peppers should be good sellers, and you could grow cilantro to go with it. I say it is a great idea for you, as long as you feel up to it. You can meet lots of nice folks, and spread a lot of good growing info too in your local community. Forums are nice, but I really think we should get out and talk to 'real' people too. Does no good to preach to the choir. Let me know if there are any seeds I could help you out with.
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Post by klorentz on Nov 10, 2009 19:00:51 GMT -5
Hi Karen, Our local farmers market is about a ten minuet drive from us.One thing around here ya just can not get good maters in the store no mater what time of the year it is. If a person around here can get good maters from the farmers market they would rather go there than get the flavorless things that look like maters. As for peppers I have yet to see Poblanos that look like they are fresh. Same for the other peppers. In fact the last time I checked out poblanos they had mold on them. and they where from a big box store. I had thought about cilantro as well and a few other herbs. We have enough room for at least 100 or more maters and as many peppers. gotta love peppers ya can squeeze more in cuz they do not go all over the place.We can most likely be able to expand if needed. As to my health I think I can manage to do this as long as I have the good sense as I did this year to take breaks when needed.Plus the family can help harvest. The rest I will send a pm about.  Kevin |
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Post by dirtsunrain on Nov 11, 2009 11:43:38 GMT -5
I started down this path but I have had to diverge.
My Island has a strong Fm network with markets 5 days a week in different villages. I find that people just want the basics but they want it fresh. My nearest market draws 1500 people every friday morning and the town only has 900 folks. No one is doing herbs, or garlic or greens, etc.
I've got the garden to do it but I also work full time. I have to get up a dawn to do chores, load and drive. Then I'm at market from 830 until 1pm. Then I scurry home, soothe my angry dogs and hit the paying job from 3 to 11pm.
I could double my income if I could clone myself. But my clone and I would probably kill each other in a week because I'm hard to live with.
As much as I love the markets and the people and the networking, I couldn't make it work. I went with a small CSA instead. Next year, I'll be part of a food co-op on the mainland. I might fiddle around with fresh flowers for weddings, etc.
There are ways to make it happen, you just have to experiment a bit.
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Post by bunkie on Nov 13, 2009 12:13:28 GMT -5
peppers are a wonderful famers market item! at our market, they call me the 'pepper lady'! i made strings of Jalapenoes, Seranos, Cayenne, etc... and hung them all over our umbrella and stand. they were a big seller, and, if they didn't sell one week, they were good for the next week and more colorful as they dried! the sweet bells are a hit too.
we do well with tomatoes too, especially if one can get a large amount to market just at the start of canning season.
imo, as well as selling and making monies, it's a great place to share info with others and just meet great people.
good luck kevin!
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peapod
gardener
Zone 4, acidic soil, and sandy loam that I have worked on for 4 years. Fixing the bad stuff.
Posts: 175
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Post by peapod on Nov 13, 2009 16:21:15 GMT -5
Kevin,
Here here to the folks that are concerned for your health and well being. I second that emotion. I sell at a farmers market and also do a csa. My health is fine and I have two acres of tilled land that I grow stuff in every year to do this.
My question to you would be this... do you have the resources to grow enough food for a market and your family? Land is the what you will need if you dont already have it.
The good thing is you have enough time to weigh all your options and see what will work best for you and your family.
Take that time to concider all of your options with market gardening. It, from my personal experience, can be very stressful and time consuming.
On the good side I make enough money that I dont need to work during the winter. Remember two things the first one is that when you grow food for a marked customers expect perfection in produce. Its true no matter what one may think. The second thing is you will have to load a vehicle twice a day (to and from the market) with gads of goodies to sell. The object is to sell as much as you can while at the Market so that you don't have to take it home again.
As bunkie says...
Good Luck Kevin. Seriously good luck and take the time to make the right decision. Markets are very popular right now and if it doesnt work our for 2010 then there is always 2011.
Peapod
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peapod
gardener
Zone 4, acidic soil, and sandy loam that I have worked on for 4 years. Fixing the bad stuff.
Posts: 175
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Post by peapod on Nov 13, 2009 16:23:16 GMT -5
I dont mean to steal the topic here but... dirtsunrain. If you need any help with wedding flowers I put aside a certain amount of "garden" for exactly that wedding flowers. It just happened with word of mouth. I am sure you have a great handle on what works with weddings I was thinking along the lines of seeds....
Let me know
Peapod
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Post by klorentz on Nov 14, 2009 4:30:07 GMT -5
peppers are a wonderful famers market item! at our market, they call me the 'pepper lady'! i made strings of Jalapenoes, Seranos, Cayenne, etc... and hung them all over our umbrella and stand. they were a big seller, and, if they didn't sell one week, they were good for the next week and more colorful as they dried! the sweet bells are a hit too. we do well with tomatoes too, especially if one can get a large amount to market just at the start of canning season. imo, as well as selling and making monies, it's a great place to share info with others and just meet great people. good luck kevin! Thanks Bunkie. One thing I have noticed is there are top five when it comes to hot peppers here. Jalapeno,Serrano,Habanero ,Pablano/Ancho, Anaheim . These are the main hot peppers. I really want to have the yellow Jamaican Scotch Bonnet to test market and see how folks will like them and perhaps find a good jerk sauce recipe to hand out with them. A lot of my inspiration for growing them came from the Food Network.It all started when Emeril had his show on one night built around these peppers and how I discovered the Scotch Bonnet. Further inspiration came from Bobby Flay as he specializes in Southwestern foods. Tomatoes are a big thing here.You can never have enough tomatoes.Folks are getting tired of the flavorless things in the store. So why pay 2.00 a pound or more in the store for them which have little or no flavor and go to the local Farmers Market and get maters at the same price or perhaps less and have them taste like real maters should. One thing I always had drilled into my head in the restaurant biz is never serve something you would not eat. This I think should cross over to selling produce. After all we eat it.And it is the back bone of every meal we eat. Kevin |
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Post by klorentz on Nov 14, 2009 4:45:45 GMT -5
Kevin, Here here to the folks that are concerned for your health and well being. I second that emotion. I sell at a farmers market and also do a csa. My health is fine and I have two acres of tilled land that I grow stuff in every year to do this. My question to you would be this... do you have the resources to grow enough food for a market and your family? Land is the what you will need if you dont already have it. The good thing is you have enough time to weigh all your options and see what will work best for you and your family. Take that time to concider all of your options with market gardening. It, from my personal experience, can be very stressful and time consuming. On the good side I make enough money that I dont need to work during the winter. Remember two things the first one is that when you grow food for a marked customers expect perfection in produce. Its true no matter what one may think. The second thing is you will have to load a vehicle twice a day (to and from the market) with gads of goodies to sell. The object is to sell as much as you can while at the Market so that you don't have to take it home again. As bunkie says... Good Luck Kevin. Seriously good luck and take the time to make the right decision. Markets are very popular right now and if it doesnt work our for 2010 then there is always 2011. Peapod Thanks Peapod. I am very touched by all the folks that are concerned about my health. Which is why I have been doing my best to take it easy this year. One thing I know is folks expect the best from the Farmers Market. Your produce not only needs to taste good it needs to look good. My biggest concern is the weather. This year we would have had an over abundance of maters but the weather was to cool and wet. This caused a lot of cracking and cat facing . Not something you could sell anywhere. So I am crossing my fingers and hopping for the best. Got plenty of family to help with the planting and harvest . Kevin |
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Post by plantsnobin on Nov 14, 2009 9:50:25 GMT -5
Would it be possible to have a greenhouse? A few early tomatoes couldn't hurt. Do you know any of the other farmers who are selling at the market? Maybe you could ask some of them what they are planning on growing. Although, I have to say that some people don't seem to want to give away any secrets. When our new food store co-op was opening they had a meeting for the growers to tell them what they wanted. Except they really couldn't tell anyone what they wanted to buy, or in what quantities, or how much they would pay for it. I suggested a meeting of the potential growers, and had it at my house. Guess how many showed up? 3. And one of those was Amish who took the time to come by horse and buggy. I just thought that it would do everybody some good to know who was going to be growing what in order to avoid glutting the market with certain things, but people didn't seem to want to share, even though they said it would be a great idea.
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Post by Alan on Nov 15, 2009 21:38:28 GMT -5
Sounds like you already have a good idea of where to go with this. Growing for market can be a lot of fun and a lot of work for sure and sometimes money can get pretty tight, but that's all part of scratching around in the dirt from what I have noticed. LOL You've got some good points here, like the preponderance of mexican americans in your area, you already have a market there which can be catered too, a big part of marketing is knowing who your selling to, and another trick is to openly solicit them for seed varieties which might have been native to their area to begin with or to even ask them for which varieties they might like to see grown! Another big part of making growing for market work is to find a niche and stick with it even if in the first year there isn't much of a demand for it, you have to educate your audience and "sell" them on what you are offering. This will play a big part in differentiating you from the "other members" of the market which you sell at and if you can really get their attention with a bit of banter about what your selling and doing and growing you can gain a bit of a "cult" following who will come to the market and purchase only from you because you become "that guy" so to speak. Hope these ideas help friend. -Alan |
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Post by klorentz on Nov 17, 2009 0:40:59 GMT -5
Hey Alan,
I am sure they will.Good points indeed all around.Will be interesting to see how things develop.
Kevin
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Post by sandbar on Nov 22, 2009 23:18:51 GMT -5
This was our second year at the market. Grow organic. Advertise that you grow organic or "without chemical fertilizers and pesticides." Peppers and tomatoes are our mainstays. We also sell corn, cabbage, squash, zukes, cukes, tomatoes, melons, beets, etc. Peppers: We have the reputation at the market for having the best pepper selection (sweets and hots) at the market. We have some customers come back EVERY WEEK just for our peppers. It's not unusual for us to sell $100 or more of just peppers in a 3 hour Saturday market. 80% of pepper sales are sweet bells (grow all the colors ... red, green, purple, yellow, orange ... listed in order of popularity), with hots (cayenne, habanero, jalapeno, serrano) rounding out the selection. Am adding more of the "stupid hot" peppers this year to sell at market (dry or fresh) and then dry/grind or smoke the leftovers and sell at market or on-line. Tomatoes: This is our cash crop. When our maters are producing heavy, tomatoes are easily 75% of our sales. 80% of our customers want beefsteak maters. It's fun to watch folks fill bags with 2 lb. beefsteaks and give you $15 or more. We do not mess with canning tomatoes other than we put out a row for ourselves and friends to come and do a U-Pick (for free). 95% of our maters are heirlooms. I think the only hybrid I grow is SunGold ... only because our customers request it. Grow pretty tomatoes. Red is the best color, however the blacks, purples and pinks are very popular (DO A TASTE TEST AT MARKET!!!) and a yellow and an orange in your mix will be good, too. Whites have been a loss for me and so are greens (i.e. Aunt Ruby's German Green). Grow a variety of cherries (I grow 4-6 different kinds) and allow customers to sample them and mix and match. Sell by the pound AND by the container. Different strokes for different shoppers. Attractively display your produce/plants at market. Everything should be clean. You should be clean, too! You would be amazed at what your competitors will wear to market ... "Brand" yourself. Wear a T-shirt with your farm's name on it EVERY WEEK. Wear the same hat. Make your booth unique. We put all of our veggies in black plastic bins (we bought a bunch of those tubs that restaurants use to bus tables) and folks remember us by our nice, clean, black bins. Makes the veggie colors stand out, too. Display your farm's name on signs displayed prominently in your booth. Price everything so the customer can see it at a glance. Yep, your competitors will see your prices ... who cares!? We grow premium, organic (not certified) produce and sell it at a fair price. How do I set my prices? I shop Krogers and WalMart ahead of time and make my decision from there. And, I spot check my prices at the market, too. Be faithful to the market. Go EVERY week. Figure out early crops (plants/transplants), midseason crops, and late-season crops. You need to be at the first market date and the last one. If you can, use inexpensive hoop greenhouses that you can construct yourself to give you an early season advantage. You can also use plastic mulch (warms the soil earlier) and cover tender plants (tomatoes, beans) with plastic cups (drill 1/2" hole in bottom of cups to ventilate your "mini-greenhouse cup") or gallon milk jugs (cut off bottom and hold them in place with a stick). You will develop life-long customers who will only buy produce from YOU. Had a gal stop by our booth to buy tomatoes. Told her the "early" late blight has decimated our crop (we lost 85% of our crop) and that we didn't have any. Referred her to two other vendors that still had some tomatoes. "That's OK. Your guys tomatoes are the best." And, then she turned away and went home without buying any tomatoes. Received a call from another customer this evening who bought hot pepper powder from me at the market this summer. Wants to buy some more. I think I'm willing to sell her more ... at $5 per ounce. If you decide to do it, please treat it like a business and not a hobby. You will be much happier with the results and your consistent appearance at the market each week (and the ensuing years) will pay off for you. Lastly, have fun! You will meet great people at the market ... customers and vendors alike. You will also find the vendors are kind of like an extended family. While you compete with each other, you are also excited about each other's success. And, you'll find vendors helping each other out. Gardening is great therapy and so can your Farmer's Market experience. Hope this helps somewhat. Enjoy. |
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Post by flowerpower on Nov 23, 2009 5:33:48 GMT -5
I like the idea of letting people taste test the veggies. It is a good way to draw people to your stand.
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Post by plantsnobin on Nov 23, 2009 9:01:33 GMT -5
Check out the local regulations about testing-around here if it is sliced, you have to have a food handlers permit. It is free to get, but you have to attend a class. Sandbar had a lot of good info there.
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