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Subject: Market Farming
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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
-
[Market-farming] Success!,
Liz, 04/11/2009
-
Re: [Market-farming] Success!,
Richard Robinson, 04/12/2009
-
[Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?,
Flying S Farms, 04/21/2009
- Re: [Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?, Bobbett, 04/21/2009
-
Re: [Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?,
Road's End Farm, 04/21/2009
-
Re: [Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?,
Flying S Farms, 04/22/2009
- Re: [Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?, Road's End Farm, 04/22/2009
- [Market-farming] Webinar on Hoop Houses, and other hoophouse info, Pat Meadows, 04/23/2009
-
Re: [Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?,
Flying S Farms, 04/22/2009
- Re: [Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?, Richard Stewart, 04/22/2009
-
[Market-farming] Question on Leasing Land, what price?,
Flying S Farms, 04/21/2009
-
Re: [Market-farming] Success!,
Richard Robinson, 04/12/2009
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