I'm thinking of dabbling in the farmers market next year.

[~gd]

Have you thought about a CSA? Then instead of being set up all day every weekend, competing with your fellow farmers, you would be custom growing for a select list of customers. Start small and let it grow. If you are not afraid to "cold call" which means walking into a business and asking if anyone would be interested in fresh vegetables, that might be a way to get your customer list started. Or you could advertise in the local paper, tell friends, tell your church. I always found standing in line at the grocery store, Wal Mart, Dr's office or anywhere you have to wait--provides you with a captive audience. They can't leave, so they have to listen to you rattle on and on about your farm and CSA.

One of the supermarkets here in town runs a CSA type Deal that has pretty much ruined the consept. No ideal of what you will get or when, Produce shipped in and repacked, and a high subscription cost. People that have been burned once usually won't try again.

 

[Wannabefree]

I get more sales from asking ladies at the bank, at the grocer, at the doctors office, church(sometimes), and other places I frequent while out running errands, than I do at the farmer's market. I also have the gift of gab(and business cards). I talk to anybody and everybody about any and everything...anywhere anytime It kinda surprises me sometimes where I get a sale, or get a repeat customer. Most of my sales are word of mouth, and my big mouth running while waiting somewhere in a waiting room or in line. I have found the farmers market a place to just get rid of excess mostly. I have not had a whole lot of repeat or regular customers from the market as much as everywhere else. Just a thought, but maybe you don't really need a venue to go to. A good portion of my sales come to my house, or are on a regular route I take and aren't in a rush so will call me a couple days ahead for me to drop off X amount of X and they generally toss in a extra few bucks for the trouble.

 

[k15n1]

I've thought about doing some days at the market, too. My main anxiety is being able to produce enough product for each given week. I think that the market is better than a CAS for a n00b like me because there's less pressure. More risk, too. You don't know if you'll sell enough to cover the cost of the booth, etc.

One of my colleagues is very successful at the market and he seems to use every strategy. They have weird things but mostly standard products. But there are weird varieties of the standard products, too. They have a blog with recipes and do a lot of cooking-type education with individual customers. All in all, it works.

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

I am not getting some of the replies in my email, sorry.

There are some farms out here that have CSAs, and they are desperate for people. I think they guilt an awful lot of people into doing it. Every season they are on the verge of not getting enough people. They charge $800 for 8 months, that's $25 a week on vegetables. It's hard to put out that much at once. Most folks here have two working adults that have to drive distances to get to work, and don't have time to cook. They get overwhelmed with the amounts of kale and chard and root vegetables that they know they are supposed to eat more, but just aren't that into them. A family of 4 might pull it off, but the population is aging and there are more and more families of 2 and elderly widowed women. It doesn't work to keep telling people they need to eat more vegetables, and a lot of it goes to waste. Asian cultures eat vegetables 3 times a day. People leaving an Asian farmers' market are loaded down with greens and all sorts of vegetables, and way less meat. Even the farmers' markets here, the busiest stands are meat, honey and cheeses.

I know some people do eat a lot of vegetables, but when they come to buy things from me, I take the opposite approach: Smaller amounts, less money, less waste. They are telling me there's too much for them to deal with. And they return each week. But it's really the prevalence of farmers' markets now that keep them from being special. And because we're supposed to buy locally, everyone grows the same thing. Mother Nature sees to that!

And something new just popped up, a request from the farmers' markets for people to become a Friend of the Farmers' Market, meaning they want people to pay them money to exist, to pay a commercial enterprise money to sell products to make money. Should we become a friend of Walmart? Should we become a friend of a gas station? But they have people thinking that somehow a farmers' market is some kind of organic special entity that isn't there to make money? It makes my head spin. If people actually do that, they are completely having the wool pulled over their eyes. But it implies the markets are not doing well. And, honestly, it's their own fault for putting the things everywhere.

Thanks for letting me rant!

 

[ninny]

Wow I didn't get any of that in my email. I am thinking of going more meat now. A few friends and I are raising rabbits and chickens. I love selling things so I'll be the one at the market with the samples and drop offs. I am looking into all the permits we need. Doesn't seem to be much. I'd love to do a CSA if I could make it work. Breeding some rabbits this week I really want jerky.

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

When you sell vegetables the food items are not cut open, so there are very few rules about selling them to the public. Even storage of them is pretty easy.

But the minute you cut open a fruit or a vegetable, all the rules change. And meat production, handling, slaughtering, cleaning, storage and cooking/dehydrating require all kinds of permits and inspections. Cooking any kind of food for the public requires a permitted kitchen with unbelievable equipment involved, they usually cost $25,000, $50,000 or more. Some friends of ours wanted to sell apple cider from their trees, and the kitchen it required to be prepared in was going to cost them $25,000, and continual expensive inspections.

If you talk to someone at a restaurant about what is required to prepare food for the public, you'll get an idea, because that is essentially what you have to become. There are a lot of food trucks that are built to the proper specification, or food trailers (you wouldn't have to maintain an engine), but they are quite expensive, not to mention paying the market where you sell them, and can you store it at your house?

 

[~gd]

When you sell vegetables the food items are not cut open, so there are very few rules about selling them to the public. Even storage of them is pretty easy.

But the minute you cut open a fruit or a vegetable, all the rules change. And meat production, handling, slaughtering, cleaning, storage and cooking/dehydrating require all kinds of permits and inspections. Cooking any kind of food for the public requires a permitted kitchen with unbelievable equipment involved, they usually cost $25,000, $50,000 or more. Some friends of ours wanted to sell apple cider from their trees, and the kitchen it required to be prepared in was going to cost them $25,000, and continual expensive inspections.

If you talk to someone at a restaurant about what is required to prepare food for the public, you'll get an idea, because that is essentially what you have to become. There are a lot of food trucks that are built to the proper specification, or food trailers (you wouldn't have to maintain an engine), but they are quite expensive, not to mention paying the market where you sell them, and can you store it at your house?

All I have to say is that you are assuming that conditions are the same everywhere. of cource I haven't been everywhere. but I have seen differences here in North Carolina. My rule of thumb is the closer you get to cities the tougher the rules become. Here in the rural areas there are very few rules.I used to take orders for dressed ducks to take to Research Triangle and the Ft. Bragg areas. [both hotbeds of asians. Ft='war brides' Research=Hi tech green cards] then the rules kicked in and I would only deliver live ducks. Euined my sales with the high tech crowd while my sales to the Fort increased [I suppose this is when I admit that the research group paid 50% more and I solld my surplus near the fort] Sorry I drifted off subject. My point was that conditions are not the same all over. Even if the rules are the same there is often no enforcement/~gd

 

[Wannabefree]

I agree with ~gd, there is a wide variety of differences dependent upon the area. Here, not much is enforced by way of rules, where there even are any rules to be enforced to begin with

 

[Daffodils At The Sea]

gd, I think you're saying just what I was saying. If it's a live animal (or vegetable) there are fewer rules. If it becomes a dead animal (meat), which is what ninny said, or she said jerky, then the conditions under which "meat" is prepared, stored, shipped, etc., start applying. They may not be exactly the same everywhere, but that's why i said talk to a restaurant person in your area, then you'll find out what the rules are.

Meat that gets exposed to feces, urine, blood, guts in the cleaning process has serious rules about how it's done, where the leftovers are gotten rid of, how the drains, sinks and garbage is taken care of, it doesn't matter where you are. People can die from food poisoning, and states just don't go for that

 

[~gd]

gd, I think you're saying just what I was saying. If it's a live animal (or vegetable) there are fewer rules. If it becomes a dead animal (meat), which is what ninny said, or she said jerky, then the conditions under which "meat" is prepared, stored, shipped, etc., start applying. They may not be exactly the same everywhere, but that's why i said talk to a restaurant person in your area, then you'll find out what the rules are.

Meat that gets exposed to feces, urine, blood, guts in the cleaning process has serious rules about how it's done, where the leftovers are gotten rid of, how the drains, sinks and garbage is taken care of, it doesn't matter where you are. People can die from food poisoning, and states just don't go for that

Well here restaurant persons don't usually convert live animals into meals, and therefore inspected by local health departments. The persons that convert animals to meat are inspected by USDA. here at least the state is not involved with farm animals but have a lot to say about game animals.Have you ever seen the inside of a meat processing plant?~gd