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  • From: "Liz" <liz AT horseshoegardens.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Success!
  • Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:28:05 -0400

We're tired and beyond exhaustion, but our first day was a success!  For the "new" kids on the block, we were greatly encouraged and impressed by the warm welcome from the other vendors.  I never know when walking into a situation like that if it will be warm, like we experienced, or cold from folks fearing more competition.  Thankfully that was not the case!  Our display looked great considering we had so little to sell--salad mix, transplants, potted & cut herbs.  Oh, & fresh horseradish we prepped at the last minute, and sold every bit.  I didn't even have anything to package it in and ended up folding it into a sheet of wax paper and rolling it up like an eggroll which I then sealed with a "sticker" I printed from our business card, modified to delete the address/blurb info and included the price/info instead.
 
We only sold one thing of salad mix which had me completely confused as I've NEVER had that happen.  I've always sold out and sold out early of anything lettuce-related.  My price was inline with others so I think the container I put it in was the culprit, a large clamshell which I think may have given the impression there was only enough for 1 serving when actually there was enough for 4.  I will change the packaging for the salad mix to a plastic bag, and keep the large clamshells for salsa "kits"...tomatoes, onions, jalapenos and cilantro. 
 
One thing I did at the last minute Friday night made a HUGE difference in our experience today.  I made a "cheat" sheet of all of our tomato transplant varieties.  Remembering the specifics for the 40 varieties we had I knew would just fry my brain and be completely frustrating for both me and the customer.  So instead of relying on my aging memory I'd grab a cheat sheet and hand them one, and look it over a copy myself while we discussed the merits of whatever they were interested in.  I can't believe how fast that cheat sheet turned browsers into buyers.  Many times we handed a printout to those looking while we finished waiting on other customers.  The sheet occupied them (kept them AND their wallet at our booth ; )) while we finished making change and bagging.  Then another interesting mini-phenomenon was the very high percentage of folks who walked off reading the sheet would come back to ask more questions and ended up making a purchase.  I also noticed customers bought more varieties after reading the sheet.  It was a great tool for introducing heirlooms though we had hybrids also. 
 
The sheet was nothing more than our letterhead, which I designed back in January, with a one or 2 line blurb per tomato which included the variety name, hybrid or heirloom, determinate or indeterminate, avg fruit size, and special tidbits such as where it originated, taste, comparisons to other varieties, etc, etc. 
 
so now I'm off to bed!  Hope your first days at market turn out as well!!
 
Liz Pike
Horseshoe Gardens
Hillsville VA
zone 6b/7a



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