First Farmer's Market

I've been going back & forth about setting up something at the local Farmer's Market.  There is a larger one in the "big" town about twenty minutes from us, but there's also a much smaller one at the local city park just down the road from us.  Like three miles from the house.  And there's no fee to be a vendor whereas the bigger town charges vendors to set up AND some dipstick revenuer came in two years ago and is now making vendors there collect sales tax.  (I feel a political rant coming up....must stop.)

I've been to the local market three or four times, just to get out of the house & to see if there were any goodies I just had to have.  And to sample some goodies, of course.  There were about a dozen participants there with the "normal" farmer's market stuff; soaps, fresh breads, a quiche guy, a couple stands selling fresh veggies/fruits and I maybe two or three people with crafty stuff.

At one point I was thinking about selling breads or cookies, but I felt like that would be rude since there was already a lady there selling bread.  But heck with it.  I make a pretty mean loaf of bread and darned wicked whole wheat chocolate chip cookies so I brought three loaves of bread, a batch of cookies and some goat milk soap I grabbed from our household stash of soap (since I had, like, a hundred stinking bars).

My friend brought some pint jars of goat milk, eggs, lettuce & spinach from her garden & some other miscellaneous plants.   I actually have buyers for all my extra eggs & goat milk so I didn't have any to bring.  Maybe I should get more goats & chickens!  (Can you hear Paul screaming?)

I was going to bring Rhiannon with but didn't get her up early enough.  The area the market is set up is a ways off the main road and there's a walking trail through a little wooded area, a large field and flushing bathrooms!!  I'm going to make sure we're both up earlier next week because I really want to bring her with.  I'm sure she'll enjoy the time outside someplace different than our front yard and there is room for her to roam around where I won't be worried about traffic or other hazards.  I also figured that having a toddler there might increase sales because of the "cute factor".  Or not.

So.  How did I do?  Well, I sold all three loaves of bread and four packs of the cookies (6 per pack) for a grand total of $16!  Sad, I know.  Now I just have to figure out my actual costs and see what I actually netted.  Probably not "worth" it for just those items, but I was only there for 2 1/2 hours and I probably could have sold more had I made more & stuck around until 12:30.

Next week I'll try to bring six loaves and I may make up some whole grain pancake mix (just add oil & egg) and bake some non-gluten rice cookies as there were at least three ladies that asked for wheat free goodies.  The lady that sold breads there last year wasn't here so I'm hoping that I'll be the new bread lady.  But if she does come back, oh well, I'm still going to bring my breads.  Capitalism & the free market and all that jazz.

So my first attempt at selling at a Farmer's Market was only a tiny financial success.  But I'm glad I did it.  It feels good to actually sell some of my stuff.  Kind'a like, "Holy crap, people will actually BUY my stuff!"  And I did come home feeling just a little bit proud of myself :)