We have a farmers market in our little town. In order to sell there you have had to produced the final product yourself, maybe not all its components though, which is OK

I have sold there every week all summer...our produce finally came in and it is a learning process for me. Next year I will do better, plant in a more organized and sequential fashion and charge more. People tell me I charge to little... I also give free neck massages to promote my massage business.

We only have about 6 to 8 booths generally, but some of these folks count on the extra income there products bring... so it is serious business and we wish we could get more of the community to come out to see us. We are considering doing a Saturday morning breakfast in the park for the community next year.

I sell homemade liquid soap, jewelry, aprons, homemade vanilla extract, ice tea sometimes, and what ever produce is happening. Sold lots of wild spinach (lambs quarters). I average 40 to $130 a weekend. Next year I may do two farmers markets on Saturday, each is only for 3 hours. Since we now live on one social security check and what I can muster up in a community that has no work available for a nurse, and minimal for massage and nutritional counseling, I count on it.

My neighbor makes and sells homemade laundry soap, as per recipe found on this forum, goats milk fudge, meat rabbits, produce. My other neighbor makes and sells herbal hot packs. Another neighbor, range free eggs, at least until the fox literally got into the hen house.

Someday I hope to sell eggs and free range chicken and when I get around to finally having an oven I will bake bread and oatmeal cookies.

I'm always looking for other ideas so if you have any that you would like to share post them.

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6-8 booths is better then 100 booths of pre bought stuff.

It is hard to find hot peppers with flavor and some farmers markets have them.

All of what you do & wrote sounds great, Arrow.
My only suggestion is to try to find free ways to advertise your farmer's market location, times open/available.
Perhaps through local small community newspapers, notices in/near Dr's or health facilities & stores,
More & more people are becoming conscious of healthy foods & meats.
So the more you can get out the message to, the more customers.
Good Luck!

Farmer's markets are scarce around this area, central TX. So many have lost their crops due to drought.

One of my favorites is a single organic farmer that sets up stands in 2 locations. One in Austin and one near me, which is near the location of their farm. They have collected many emails and send out a post each week to say what they plan to have available. Recently, they have stopped the Saturday morning stands, because of drought conditions affecting their crops. That's sad. It is their only source of income.

It is hard to find farmer's markets with cooked goods. Maybe the health department frowns upon it. I love it when I can find homemade pickles.

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- Jim

�Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.� Sir Winston Churchill

Pickles are illegal. Only fruit things are permitted to be canned and sold unless you live in Wisconson which recently revised its laws to permit it due to the depression up there. People needed more ways to make money.

Pies are a big seller around here, rhubarb and blueberry, apple and cherry.

I'm thinking of adding colloidal silver and Lipsomal vitamin c. Farmers could use a cheap source of CS to treat their animals with.

Can you buy pot plants and seedlings in your farmers markets Arrowwind? they seem to do well here in our markets.
Your produce sounds great Arrowwind.

The Market does sell plants in the spring. We have someone in the area with a private greenhouse and she makes all the veggie plant starts that people use around here. I hope to do the same someday if we ever get a greenhouse made. Looking for things that she doesn't grow.

This year I sold potted basil and purple and magenta flowering yarrow plants. Next year Im going to try Echinacea P. (coneflower) and along with them I might try petunias.. as they survive the chill up here pretty well.,, and next year, asters for the fall.

I need to learn a lot more about rotating my planting so that I have have things available longer. Like my radishes were ready to go last week. This week they are all cracked and pithy.. so maybe planting every 7 days or so might be the trick.

One of the longer term projects Ive started is a bed of asparagus which I will expand next year. Asparagus takes about 2 to 3 years to really produce. Like who ever gets to buy local and organic asparagus?

we have a small farmers market in one of the small towns near me... There use to be a man that sold wooden toys that he had made! I loved it, made it a point to buy at least one thing a month from him...Sadly he isnt there anymore... We also have a man that sells homemade birdhouses... another one that I buy alot from!!!! I enjoy the bird houses...I have bought several, bought a beautiful purple martin house that I am waiting for my son to put up for me, and I also bought a bat house from him.... Down here in Texas, folks sell pickles and alot of other canned stuff...lots of homemade jellies. I also bought all my fruit trees from the lady who sells plants at the farmers market.. There is one lady who sells the bib type aprons for kids... I have bought a few of those and use them for my foster daughter when she is eating... She must sell alot of her sewing projects, she is there every week.... I would love to find directions for one of those potatoe cooker things... its like a heavy duty pot holder with an opening to it that you put your potatoe in to cook in the microwave (yea I know, but people still use microwaves, and these would sell I think!) Also, I just bought a sandwhich wrap from lehmans.com.... I bought it, so I could see how its made...its just basically a square piece of material, with plastic sewn on one side of it, all you do is place your sandwich on the plastic side, and then fold all the sides in, and it has a bit of velcro to keep it closed. there you have it, no need for sandwich baggies.... seems pretty simple... might work at a farmers market... If you want to try and do small wood working projects, there is an ezine called woodworker's journal... each week they send plans for at least two wood working projects, some are big, some are small and simple... I am trying to convince my son that this might be something he would want to check into.. he loves building stuff..

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God is and all is well
~John Greenleaf Whittier~

I like that sandwich bag idea. Just me. Is velcro only on one edge? what keeps the sandwich from sliding out? Im also thinking of making bread bags... been looking at how people stored bread back in the old days.
Id love to see a picture of it if possible.

The kids aprons too. How much did you pay for one?
Im selling my adult aprons for $10 each but I think I will up it to $12 on my next batch. they take about 2 hours to make and the fabric costs about $2 each. I purchase at Home Fabrics that sell a lot of cotton material for curtians and upholstery at huge discount prices.

I just went there an looked at the sandwich wraps.. great idea. I wonder what kind of plastic they use and where to get it. Thanks for the idea Just me. The scraps from my aprons should do it!

https://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen...153325#1153325

Pickles are illegal? Too bad. Although I haven't seen any at a farmer's market, I have seen some at other events, like craft shows. It's the only time I can get watermelon rind pickles, my absolute favorite. I suspect it is different for every state.

My farmer's mkt has an older lady vendor who makes all kinds of jams, jellies, cookies, small nut breads, aprons,
pot holders, cloth bags for shopping etc. all home made. No pickle sellers but we do have a honey & syrup booth.
My 2 favorites are the meat booth - farm raised beef, pork, lamb products &
the egg lady. Both also sell fresh veggies.
I wish someone would sell fresh asparagus but none do/have.
I'm sure gonna miss this place when it closes the last Thursday in October.

Im sorry Arrow, I didnt see that you had responded... the plastic that is used is a bit thicker then the plastic you would put on the windows... I had bought some plastic at hobby lobby a few years back, to use in the middle of two aprons sewn together to provide the liquids not getting onto foster daughters clothes, but I never got to it, and just found the plastic a couple weeks ago... I gave it to my friend who is going to try and make these also...look in the upholstry material section at hobby lobby...

as for the aprons, I think I paid like 7 dollars for a small one and ten for the larger size....

well, I've only sold 2 aprons after 5 farmers markets... maybe they aren't such a good idea. We will see what happens at Christmas.. we will be doing two sales around that time.

So the plastic is sewn right on to the fabric with those sandwich liners, Just Me I've never sewn plastic before.


Did I mention? I started a bed of asparagus this year. Should be able to harvest some next year. Only problem is that I chose Martha Washington and I should have chosen Early Jersey.. guess I'' make an Early Jersey bed next year. Hard to imagine selling asparagus though. It freezes and cans so well that I'll probably want it all for myself. Maybe sell just enough to cover the cost of its purchase.... sorry to all the Early Birds out there.

That is a good idea as long as you don't need a license or permit to sell CS. Some marketing would also be necessary.

Using a CS generator from www.silverlungs.com you can make a gallon for only a buck or two, although it is time consuming, and should be able to sell a gallon of 20+ ppm colloidal silver for $20 or more, and 1 gallon would treat about 150 gallons of water, which would be great for cats, dogs, horses,etc..