Market Farming

["Shelley Pasco" <whistle AT halcyon.com>]

I have to add something here that blew me away last summer. We had a 
reasonable assortment of veggies all summer at the same market Michaele was
talking about, where the sun was in her eyes. We did fair all summer
considering it was cold and rainy almost every market day! We didn't have a
huge quantity of any one thing until the winter squash came on, and I always
plant lots of varieties because it's fun for me, but we had TONS of squash.
I mean tons.
We took advantage of the situation. We were out in the squash patch the
night before market with our headlamps on, looking at the field, trying to
decide what to do. Do we take a few of everything just for variety? I just
have a little mazda pickup, so it wouldn't hold much squash after the other
veggies were in there. We decided to go BIG. We packed bushels and bushels
of ALL the squash. I stayed up an extra hour and made pretty, descriptive
signs for all 20 or so varieties. We had to take a box van to carry them
all, but market day was amazing. We had people taking pictures of our Wall
of Squash! People came with bags and loaded up on one of every kind, or
fiver or six of their favorite, especially the second week. We easily sold
at least 500 pounds of squash at $1 a pound! No questions asked! Everyone
was having fun, we were happy. We went to a movie on the way home to
celebrate!
Moral of story: make an exciting display of one thing, and make everything
else support the main item. Recipes helped too.
Shelley
Whistling Train Farm
Kent, WA

----------
>From: "Michaele Blakely" <mjb AT premier1.net>
>To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
>Subject: Re: Farmers Market Display ideas/sampling/signs
>Date: Fri, Feb 4, 2000, 9:18 AM
>

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Elizabeth Pike <pike AT always-online.com>
> To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Sent: Friday, February 04, 2000 11:20 AM
> Subject: Re: Farmers Market Display ideas
>
>
> I
>> used.)  Fix up the display with greens on bottom, & serving sized veggies
>> or whatever on top.  Keep dressing in the bottle with those tiny little
>> sample cups for serving. Be generous with size.  Grab them by their eyes &
>> nose, tickle their tummies & you'll have a customer for life!
>>
>
> I'm sure health regulations vary county to county or state to state.  One
> item absolutely demanded by health authorities in our state is a hand
> washing station set up in the booth somewhere.  This doesn't need to be
> complex, a simple large water jug (although in our state it has to be
> insulated) with a free flowing spout, a drain bucket, soap and paper towels.
> Something to clean the knive with as well, and a food handler's card.  Why
> we can't just wash our hands after visiting the restroom and call it good is
> beyond me.  The health department insists that we wash our hands after we
> get back to the booth and I go along with it because it isn't too
> unreasonable.  If we don't cut the samples up, none of this is necessary.
> I have not seen farm signs mentioned in this thread.  A well placed and well
> designed sign really draws the customer.  It also gives credence to your
> operation.  You look more proffessional; your giving off  an air of success.
> It helps the customer separate your stand from the rest of the vendor's.
> I agree with Liz that selling at the markets is a competitive game and
> rather than use pricing as an advantage (it really isn't though)  I strive
> to set myself apart from the rest of the vendors.  I look for making my
> booth distinct, attractive, and a benefit to the customer. Product is
> arranged to draw the eye. I plan my plantings to make sure certain items are
> harvestable at the same times because they draw more if shown together than
> separately.  Sometimes that also means hiring a third or fourth person at
> peak season times to keep customers from waiting too long in line. The extra
> cash paid out evens out in the long run.  I look at the arrangement of my
> booth so customer flow is the best it can be.  At times it can be really
> crazy and I feel at the end of the day I haven't had a moment to catch my
> breath, I still want to try to make a personal connection with each
> customer.  Remember names and tid bits about as many people as you can.
> Bring those names and tid bits up the next time you see them.  Study the
> fine art of manipulation and use it to your advantage.( manipulation isn't
> always a bad thing!)  Enjoy building repoire with your customers, they will
> love you for it.
> With all that being said, it won't mean too much if you are in a spot that
> goes against the psychology of the crowd.  Location, location, location.
> Watch how your crowd flow works.  We were at a new market last year and
> didn't get a chance to help decide where our booth was going to be.  It was
> horrible!  We expected sales to be down by maybe half of what other markets
> had been, but were not prepared for it being a fourth.  The sun hit every
> customers eyes for 2/3 of the market hours and people walked right by us.
> We were also in the middle of two booths that were ez ups and try as we did
> to separate our look we couldn't make enough of a distinction.  I
> continually told the manager it was a bad spot for the three of us.  She
> eventually moved us and we tripled sales immediately.  It was pretty
> dramatic.
> Try to keep your containers of product full and over flowing if possible.
> Nothing slows sales down then a partially filled container.  If I sold out,
> I didn't bring enough.
> Michaele
> Growing Things
> Carnation WA
>
>> Liz
>> Morningstar Gardens
>> Pollocksville NC
>>
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