don't throw away old seed catalogs

[littleminnie]

Use extra seed catalogs for cutting out the photo and description of certain things you are growing to inform your customers. I couldn't sell black radishes until I cut out the description and photo from a catalog and pasted it on an index card in front of the product. I plan to prep this stuff later this winter so when I bring weird squash or colored tomatoes or whatever to market, people can read what they are and not be afraid. It works! Make sure to cross out the seed packet price so people aren't confused.

[flowerpower]

That's a good idea.

When I went to our local harvest festival, there were quite a few veggie sellers. You'd be surprised how many of those growers were clueless as to which varieties they had. One girl told me that the huge BS, green (hard) tomatoes she had were Green Zebra. She had the GZ, just couldn't identify it. Ya think those stripes would be a dead giveaway.

[bluelacedredhead]

I too have run across vendors who can't identify what they are selling.

But I have been to some excellent backyard plant sales where the vendor had catalogues with the variety on hand for reference. In one case, the backyard grower is a member of SSE so she sells rare items that the average homeowner probably hasn't heard of so of course she has the SSE catalogue as well as a few others to provide info as required.

[littleminnie]

We are a small market where all but one vendor grows/makes everything themselves. I am trying to get that vendor ejected for not actually growing what they sell. Their family (big greenhouse business) grows some stuff and buys some stuff to sell at their store. Then they bring all the stuff to markets that are no resales allowed markets. Plus the daughter-in-law who does all this selling at markets doesn't have a hand in growing any of what they actually do grow there so she doesn't know anything about the varieties. When they have sweet corn in early July and I ask how or what variety it is, she says she doesn't know but there are varieties that ripen that fast! She also thinks cilantro is a warm season plant, etc. Anyway that kind of thing brings down the credentials of all the vendors.

[seedywen]

At our local farmer's Market, we've had strict and enforceable 'regulation'for twenty-five years that people can't sell anything they don't grow or make themselves. However the number of people who apply to bend that regulation anyway possible, probably surpasses those that comply!

Even then, there have been countless internal disputes over who can sell, what and why. Last year, I hung up my Market shingle and it's so relaxing to again, sell farm-gate to select customers who value who I am and what I do.

[seedywen]

This thread seems in hibernation.

Maybe I put it to sleep with my last comment
Have used pictures from old seed catalogs a little to sell vegetables, but mostly have used photos of perennial flowers and herbs. When selling perennials for ten years every weekend at the Farmers' Market, much of the time, many of the plant's were NOT in bloom. Plants in 'bloom' tended to sell more quickly.

To encourage customers to consider, purchasing plant not currently in bloom, would often cut out pictures of the plant in bloom and attach to sticks in pot.

However didn't come to this idea alone. Our local garden club holds the club's biggiest fund raiser of the year, for programs with a community Plant Sale. Although I had more inventory, noticed that the vendors who provided pictures of their plants, including ripened tomatoes, eggplants, often nearly sold out. My 'pictureless' tables did not. Monkey see, monkey do:)

Doing so increased both my contribution, 20%, to club coffers and compensated my loss giving up a regular selling day at my Farmers' Market stall.

[littleminnie]

I made my little cutout picture/description pages and put them in plastic sleeves and then tied yarn to the holes to make little booklets. Those worked very well. At the beginning of it I also had a page of my recommendations for what sort of thing they were looking for. I did this for tomatoes and peppers; and also for herbs and perennials. I organized the tomatoes by: paste/all purpose, cherry, striped and gold, red, pink and purple. I was very surprised which ones sold and which didn't. I had too many normal paste tomatoes but always hear people asking for 'Roma' so I didn't expect so few to sell.

[12540dumont]

Seedwen, I'm with you. After years of going to bed at 10 after packing the truck, getting up at 4 to pick flowers and drive to the market, to stand on the burning pavement, while the health department came around to tell you you couldn't stack vegetable boxes on the ground, what a relief to give that up.

I love my CSA customers. I can scan things from seed catalogs, recipes, etc. and put them on my blog. I can pick a little, pick a lot, give them canned goods if I'm of a mind to make jam or salsa. I can bake bread for them or cupcakes or birthday cakes. Last week my customers got homemade meyer lemon extract. (Don't try this at your market!)

One year I got a fine for trying to sell homespun yarn from my OWN sheep. (In case you didn't know, yarn is not an agricultural commodity).

Ha. And I didn't need to pay the County $140 to inspect my field to make sure that I'm really growing artichokes. I don't need to pay the market $40 a week for a booth. I only need to start up the truck to do my once a week delivery. Best of all, Sunday morning finds me in my favorite church, the garden, not standing in a parking lot while people peel open the corn and squeeze the tomatoes.

The market folks call me all the time. A few weeks ago, I finally sold my pushcart. Now it's sitting in an organic market, selling it's own vegetables. Holly

[seedywen]

So Minnie, did the extra pictures/explanations help you significantly market your plants this year? Curious because when I sold my plants/products I always had seed catalogs on hand to show customers photos. Might have saved a lot of talking:)

Holly, I'm into a new marketing arrangement, that started last year, and carrying on this growing season.

You seem to have gotten a successful CSA program going from which I've taken some pointers, should I go that route.

At the Farmers' Market I sold at for eight years, there was an extremely turbulent, internal politics struggle last year, which pretty much was my last straw in active participation. Ditto for a high portion of the vegetable farmers participating.

Several of my fellow growers, formed an alternate Grower's Cooperative where by, only one person could sell at the Market, their produce/products plus everything else produced by the other Coop members. This helped get around that particular sticky Market rule of everyone only being allowed to sell ONLY their own. And saving the Coop growers a TON of valuable time that they felt better spent, growing food.

With this sudden drain of participants, the new Market coordinator changes that particular Market rule early in the season. However the Coop was now up and running. I got asked to join. Since the other members and myself have been networked successfully for years, supporting each other, the Coop so far, is working to everyone's mutual advantage. Plus we've helped create two other small niche markets, on other days of the week, and getting a great group of new, dedicated customers.

Basically now I pick once/twice a week, my stuff gets picked up on the way to the new market(s). I get paid promptly, give the seller of the day, $10 of my take. And about 1x every two months, I do a turn selling for our Coop. That time, I get the 10% of the market take.

I like your idea of including canning in your CSA baskets as gifts.

The legal heat came down heavily two years ago, that stops anyone not canning in a certified kitchen from selling their canning. We already had to get FOODSAFE certificates. There are plenty of certified kitchens locally where growers can rent or borrow to produce their product. However there is an inconvience factor as well, especially for someone like me, who doesn't live that near to those kitchens. Anyway, thanks everyone for their participation on this thread!

[mnjrutherford]

Do tell? YARN??? Do you still spin & sell? I'd like to know!

[12540dumont]

It's a long yarn...

I raised sheep for 7 years. Merinos, Cotswolds, Romneys, and a Suffolk in the wood pile. I washed fleeces, carded fleeces, dyed fleeces, spun yarn, knit, and even wove some. In the "Old" days before the serious state involvement with the farmer's market. I would make dolls in the winter, hand spun hair, clothes, woven bits and pieces. I would spin hanks of yarn, and hang them from my push cart. I'd sell a $40 doll every week and at least $25 worth of yarn or fleece. Sometimes much more. Leo used to say that we made as much off of these things as the produce.

I sold out of pickles, jam and jelly every single week. People would bring me a case of jars to trade for one jar of jam. Those were the glory days of the farmers market.

I would be bring live chickens, ducks, and sell lamb and pork from the cooler. All of these things folks arranged with me the week before.

Well they put an end to that. No dolls, no wool, no canning, no meat, and no live animals.

I still have a LOT of yarn and roving. My time is limited as my only down time from the farm is December. We all know what happens in December and my "free" month is always gone before I know it. I have enough yarn to knit for the rest of my life.

The farmer's market now let's people do pottery. what about farming is this? They also have vendors that sell baked goods. Of course everything must be done in a commercial kitchen. And meat, well that has to be processed at a USDA facility. That's a 400 mile round trip for me. Do the math on gas and I'd be selling $27 chickens.

No more lambs, no more pigs, the goats, geese and turkeys are gone. The chickens and the wool remain.

[mnjrutherford]

I just can't speak what is going through my mind. Let's just say that there are a lot of folks who ought to be damned grateful that I spend as much time reading the bible as I do. It certainly keeps my behavior in check.

ANYhow... Would you be willing to sell me some of your yarn?

[12540dumont]

Do you like royal blue?

[mnjrutherford]

I adore all shades of blue. It's my favorite color!

[12540dumont]

MNJ, the post office says your strawberry will be there on Saturday. Next time I have a car, I'll throw some yarn in the mail to you. I know, I could take it on the scooter. Yarn has good bounce. But the weather is ramping into 90's so, I gotta weed. Be patient, it will come.