Daffodils At The Sea
Power Conserver
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- Jun 11, 2013
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ninny, I don't want to sound like Debbie Downer, but I've been selling fruits and vegetables for 8 years, and it's a tough way to go. Not sure where you are, but if there are several farmer's markets in the area that happen on several days of the week, sometimes there is an overlap of the neighborhoods that attend them, and some of them don't do very well. You have to pay for a space whether you sell enough to cover it and your time or not. You'll have to work every weekend for the whole summer, usually May through the end of November. That means holidays, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day. Everyone else will go on vacation, but you can't. My mother used to get so upset when she'd want to have family dinners or occasions during the summer and I just couldn't go to them.
I have essentially November, December and January as a break. February comes around and all of the seed planting, and transplanting has to start. I have to put in almost 6 months of work before I get any money for what I grow. A lot of customers who go to farmer's markets grow their own tomatoes, so there may be a demand for them early in the season (which means you have to figure out how to get them ripe way before everyone else), but there's not much demand late in the season. Everyone has tomatoes by then. And they want flavor, special, rich flavor, not anything that looks odd or wild. Some of those odd tomatoes don't taste like much.
You'll need to plant steadily through the season to make sure you've got at least 30-50 pounds of tomatoes come ripe exactly every week, without fail, on time to take with you. That means upwards of 200 plants or more. Of course, they won't always be ready, they'll miss by a couple of days, so lots of them you'll keep for yourself or can them or dehydrate them, or donate them. But where you donate them may mean another trip somewhere. There's lots of competition at farmer's markets these days. Lots of people selling vegetables, so customers can get rather overwhelmed. You'll have to check prices every week, and see what the other sellers around you are selling their vegetables for.
They may not be very happy that another vegetable seller has moved in. Some of the farmers in my area resent each other. One women stops by and puts on this big show of how my vegetables don't taste good, (she's the only one who says this) or she accused me once of having tomatoes too early, "You CAN'T have tomatoes yet!" as if I were lying about it. It took some of them a couple years, but they've showed up and bought tomatoes just to get the seeds, so whatever you sell won't be all yours for long. They won't answer emails, they won't be friendly. I am really disappointed on this level, because we could help each other sell if we have extra or something goes wrong. But that isn't what is happening.
You won't be able to stay up late the night before. You'll have to load as much as you can into your car. You'll have to get up early in the dark, get yourself ready, take your own food and drink, enough cash to make change, things for signs, bags, containers, tables, shade umbrella, things to tie everything down in the wind, rain, cold, heat. Then drive to wherever it is, set things up, spend the time, take it all down, pack it all up, drive all the way back with whatever is left, which is sometimes a lot. Is your car big enough to haul all this stuff? You'll have to invest in a canopy, which can be several hundred dollars, and is at least 8 feet long when folded up. You'll need a place to store all the above stuff out of the sun when you're not using it.
When you get back you'll have to water, weed, feed, harvest and care for all those plants that you will rely on for the next week. You will be on your feet 12-15 hours on those days, and all the work has to happen without fail.
And if this all seems fine, don't forget that the gophers, moles, voles, bugs, raccoons, birds, and other critters will be right there messing with your plants. Sometimes the whole thing will flop, which is why selling many vegetables helps, because some won't make it, and you have to have a good variety to sell. One year I planted 300 tomato plants, and in one month 100 of them were pulled down by gophers. It was astonishing to me. And there was no time left to start new plants. Mother Nature is a cruel co-worker.
The booths may all look cute and pulled together, but what went into getting them that way is hard, serious, relentless work.
Lucky, that's amazing that they get to label it with something called a "kitchen not subject to inspection," I don't think there is such a thing. One of the rules of the farmer's markets here is that everything MUST be produced by the seller, they can't sell third-party things. But they can't produce things without a legal kitchen! Creepy!! The Health Department can shut the whole farmer's market down.
I have essentially November, December and January as a break. February comes around and all of the seed planting, and transplanting has to start. I have to put in almost 6 months of work before I get any money for what I grow. A lot of customers who go to farmer's markets grow their own tomatoes, so there may be a demand for them early in the season (which means you have to figure out how to get them ripe way before everyone else), but there's not much demand late in the season. Everyone has tomatoes by then. And they want flavor, special, rich flavor, not anything that looks odd or wild. Some of those odd tomatoes don't taste like much.
You'll need to plant steadily through the season to make sure you've got at least 30-50 pounds of tomatoes come ripe exactly every week, without fail, on time to take with you. That means upwards of 200 plants or more. Of course, they won't always be ready, they'll miss by a couple of days, so lots of them you'll keep for yourself or can them or dehydrate them, or donate them. But where you donate them may mean another trip somewhere. There's lots of competition at farmer's markets these days. Lots of people selling vegetables, so customers can get rather overwhelmed. You'll have to check prices every week, and see what the other sellers around you are selling their vegetables for.
They may not be very happy that another vegetable seller has moved in. Some of the farmers in my area resent each other. One women stops by and puts on this big show of how my vegetables don't taste good, (she's the only one who says this) or she accused me once of having tomatoes too early, "You CAN'T have tomatoes yet!" as if I were lying about it. It took some of them a couple years, but they've showed up and bought tomatoes just to get the seeds, so whatever you sell won't be all yours for long. They won't answer emails, they won't be friendly. I am really disappointed on this level, because we could help each other sell if we have extra or something goes wrong. But that isn't what is happening.
You won't be able to stay up late the night before. You'll have to load as much as you can into your car. You'll have to get up early in the dark, get yourself ready, take your own food and drink, enough cash to make change, things for signs, bags, containers, tables, shade umbrella, things to tie everything down in the wind, rain, cold, heat. Then drive to wherever it is, set things up, spend the time, take it all down, pack it all up, drive all the way back with whatever is left, which is sometimes a lot. Is your car big enough to haul all this stuff? You'll have to invest in a canopy, which can be several hundred dollars, and is at least 8 feet long when folded up. You'll need a place to store all the above stuff out of the sun when you're not using it.
When you get back you'll have to water, weed, feed, harvest and care for all those plants that you will rely on for the next week. You will be on your feet 12-15 hours on those days, and all the work has to happen without fail.
And if this all seems fine, don't forget that the gophers, moles, voles, bugs, raccoons, birds, and other critters will be right there messing with your plants. Sometimes the whole thing will flop, which is why selling many vegetables helps, because some won't make it, and you have to have a good variety to sell. One year I planted 300 tomato plants, and in one month 100 of them were pulled down by gophers. It was astonishing to me. And there was no time left to start new plants. Mother Nature is a cruel co-worker.
The booths may all look cute and pulled together, but what went into getting them that way is hard, serious, relentless work.
Lucky, that's amazing that they get to label it with something called a "kitchen not subject to inspection," I don't think there is such a thing. One of the rules of the farmer's markets here is that everything MUST be produced by the seller, they can't sell third-party things. But they can't produce things without a legal kitchen! Creepy!! The Health Department can shut the whole farmer's market down.
