market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market Farming
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- From: "Sue Wells" <farmersue AT hughes.net>
- To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] How was your summer
- Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 07:31:58 -0500
This was a very “challenging” year here in I was late having the normal crops but when they kicked in, they were
great. This was my second year of Farmers Markets. I did 3 each week. It was
just about too much for me. I do all the labor and selling by myself. My
husband and son did help me towards the end. Before that, they didn’t have
the time. It turned out to be a very good year but hard. I started out with
about ½ to ¾ acre and ended up with about an acre. My neighbor is letting me
use some of his land next year, and then I will have about 2 acres or more to
grow on. I am very excited about this. My first planting of squash didn’t grow, later I planted more
that was great. The tomatoes had the early blight and probably more things happening
to them because of too much rain, but I still had plenty, but lost hundreds. My beans did great and didn’t stop producing until we had the
frost. My celery did great, this was my first time planting celery. My green onions got too much water and weren’t as good. We also had an enormous amount of bugs this year. Last year, I planted
a lot of herbs, dill, parsley, and others and planted these in and around the
broccoli, and didn’t see many bugs, but this year, the herbs didn’t
help at all. I lost too much to the bugs. The Wednesday Farmers Market we could pretty much count on it to rain during
those, this year. People still came out, but not as many as when it was a
beautiful day. The Thursday Farmers Market was new this year, when it rained,
and it didn’t but a few times, thank goodness, no one came out. Saturday Farmers Market was new also. It attracted mainly tourists. It
was a hard market for me, as I was at the end, and by the time, and if they did
come down to me, they had already bought their vegetables. I sold a lot of
pickles there and zucchini bread, but not too much of my herb bread. I did sell
a lot of mixed lettuce at this one. I am still trying to figure out how to attract more customers. I made a 24 page vegetable/recipe booklet and gave that out at the
beginning of the season, then ran out and didn’t have time to print
anymore. I had my name and address and about my small farm stand, and the
Farmers Markets I went to. I was in the 4th of July with my new
tractor, handing out small envelopes of marigold seeds I had grown with my name
(Farmer Sue) and where I was. I had also given another lady a basket full of
snow peas to give out to the people to advertise our Farmers Market. The people
loved the peas. I had printed recipes out at the non raining Farmers Markets
for people. My stand looks very nice, nice tablecloths, the main one I have appliquéd
Farmer Sue onto it as well as the top of my tent/shelter. My displays looked nice.
I am still puzzled at what else to do to get more customers. My vegetables look
nice and they are fresh. I think what really hurts me is I am not Organic
Certified. I am organic, not certified. I keep racking my brain as to what else
I can do to attract more people. Other vegetable vendors know more people at the
Wednesday Farmers Markets than I do, and that is a factor. When others had a good supply of vegetables, I was at a slump. I had
lots of things early in the season, when others were having problems, then the
slump hit me. But when my vegetables produced, sales were better. And all in
all, I really had a very good season. I plan on growing fresh cut flowers this coming season. Maybe that will
attract more customers. I would love suggestions on which to grow. I did make and use the concrete blocks to hold the shelter down, and it
was great, but did still blow a couple of time. At one time, I used the
concrete ( I always used these) and also had the back tied to benches that were
cemented into the ground and the shelter took off in the wind, couldn’t
go too far, but it did move a foot or so. I had wanted a website, but I didn’t do that and then I didn’t
have the time for it. Sue |
-
[Market-farming] How was your summer,
SaladG, 11/07/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] How was your summer, Liz Pike, 11/08/2006
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
- Re: [Market-farming] How was your summer, cjmaness AT juno.com, 11/08/2006
- Re: [Market-farming] How was your summer, Sue Wells, 11/09/2006
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