Does anyone sell their produce/homeades at the local farmers market?

[buckeye lady]

I was thinking of giving this a try this year. I'm considering some soaps including laundry soap, maybe a few herbs/plants and possibly eggs.

What do you sell/buy at the market? How do you do, Is it worth your time?

 

[The Vail Benton's]

My sister in law sells her bread & her over abundance of zucchini. My IL's sell handwoven & crocheted dishtowels & cloths, hand turned wooden bowls & such that my FIL makes. They aren't getting rich but I think they have alot of fun!

 

[Morgaine]

I sell my soaps(most of my biz) along with some lotions, scrubs and perfumes at our local farmer's market.

First thing you need to do is see if they will let you in. None of the ones in Houston would let me in because they already had soapmakers selling there. Or they were produce only markets.

As far as how much you will sell will depend on a lot of things. How big is the market. Is there a lot of competition?

On average, I bring in about $150 each saturday 8-12. Now I have had some days where I only did $40 and one really bad one where I sold one freaking bar! But I have also had several days where I did over $300.

Now, that said. I am one of the more profitable vendors at the market. Some like people who make jewlery have more up and down days.

I think if you make a quality product, people are willing to keep coming back to you and pay you enough that you are not in the red all the time.

HTH

 

[Wifezilla]

I am going to give it a try this year. I have fresh herbs, quail eggs (eating and hatching), duck eggs (eating and hatching), ducklings, apples, grapes, and any other garden surplus. I also have seeds I purchased in bulk and maybe some starter plants.

I could not sell the eggs if I went to the Fountain farmers market because they are in some organization that requires all eggs to be graded, etc...

The one I am going to set up a both at is run by a church and I have no such restriction.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I should give it a try this year. You guys are getting me thinking about it again. I'll need to research some of our farmer's markets in our area, we have quite a few.

 

[Bettacreek]

I'd love to, however, we don't have one! Closest one is almost an hour away. We're surrounded by state forests, so not much for farmers. :/

 

[SKR8PN]

We sold our sweetcorn at a couple of different farmers markets last fall a d did pretty well. Is was so sweet and so fresh, we kept some raw open ears out on the table for them to sample. People could not believe how sweet it was! We also did custom picking to keep it as fresh as possible, if they wanted it. The local going rate was $3.00 a dozen on average, and we were getting $5.00 for a 14 ear dozen.

 

[hwillm1977]

I was a food vendor at our farmer's market for a summer... I sold spring rolls, thai noodles, chicken balls, egg rolls and rice... prepared chinese food.

I was just hired by someone to work her booth while she was away in China for 3 months... the market here is open 6am-1pm... I usually brought in around $600 a week, with most of it between 11 and 1.

The vendors I notice doing the best are meats, cheese, eggs and veggies... the staples of the market... after that would be soaps and fudges... but our market has the same policy as the houston ones, if someone is already selling what you want to sell you are out of luck. They don't allow more than one vendor of any particular type of food/product.

Edited to add: It was one of my favourite jobs... I love it, although it makes for a long day when you start cooking chinese food at 1 am.... the people are always so fabulous, you make friends with the regulars, and everyone seems so happy to be at the market. If I had something of my own to sell I would love to have my own booth there.

 

[FarmerChick]

I was thinking of giving this a try this year. I'm considering some soaps including laundry soap, maybe a few herbs/plants and possibly eggs.

What do you sell/buy at the market? How do you do, Is it worth your time?

It is what we do...farm for income
yes worth it---average in good months is about $1500-$1800 per weekend

We process hogs for whole hog sausage, 200 layers for egg sales (wholesale also), do very well on my goat milk soaps, and produce from the farm.

Yes do it. Go make contacts, make money. It is a great social fun day of "work" at the market. Hard work, but great.

 

[Morgaine]

I should clarify, I am one of the more profitable vendors with non produce. The produce at the market just flies off the tables sometimes! I know some who bring in $600-800 in the 4 hour market time But I usually have very little produce through out the year. Just some figs in the summer and fresh lavender if I have any left.