Top ten asian products to sell at a farmer's market
adrianag
20 years ago
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Helen_vancouver
20 years agoRelated Discussions
what good unique crops to sell at farmers markets?
Comments (41)Nothing NEW, but from the last couple of years experience at a small-town market, 30+ vendors, that gets a customer mix of local farmers/ex-farmers, "townies" and cottagers from the city, here are some of basic twists that have worked well for me: * fresh carrots w/ tops right through the season: not baby but picked quite young 5"-6". These go at way higher prices for a 1lb bunch, competing with quarter-bushel baskets of regular big mature topped carrots all around me, and they sell out. * fresh basil: sells well at a good price, and is great for the smell, which everyone notices walking by * heirloom tomatoes: Ours is not a trendy high-end market, there's a good mix of people as noted above, and heirlooms (as in big, "oddly" colored and shaped, sometimes "ugly", always tasty) still attract attention, and definitely get repeat customers from taste (and I guess the novelty helps). A basic like Brandywine is fine, and I had a several varieties last year with different looks and tastes (Green Zebra was a distinctive favorite), which helped even more. Curious people try one or two and keep coming back for more(!), and they were going for $1.50-2.00 a pop (12-16oz) - I just made up the price, since no one else had 'em at the market. *snap peas (edible pod): I was amazed by how many people didn't know these even existed! I'd go, "You can eat the pod" and hand 'em one and they'd automatically start shelling it. "No, you can eat the whole thing!" Wow! Child-like amazement :) They're also great to maximize the pea growing and picking effort because you can use 'em young as a snow pea, or mature, which gives more overall useful harvest time. You can maybe premium price 'em, but they're also good just for the word-of-mouth. *mesclun: I'm not sure what my various customers each think they're buying, the idea of mesclun has kinda trickled down to a real mainstream thing from a trendy idea. I sell a couple of mixes, one that's only lettuce (around nine lettuces), which I'll explain to anyone who wants to know, and of the various regular customers who buy a bag (1lb) a week, I don't think any of them really cared about the exact ingredients, they just like colorful, baby leaf salad mix, for their own individual reasons. At $5 a bag, a heavy seller. *spinach: This is probably more specific to our market, where there are several quite big local family farm growers that all concentrate on the basic carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, etc, (easier handling/storage), but not on the fresh greens. So this depends a lot on the other vendors, but here, mounds of spinach is a good thing to have (and other greens, like lettuces, chard, etc, are quick and easy and add to the selection). *radish that's out of the typical early season is quick and easy to grow, and attracts a surprising number of people when no-one else has 'em. *miscellaneous specialty stuff: I plant small quantities of tons of things and bring some in. They're all good for novelty and attracting attention, but (for me in this specific situation...), none most alone don't do much for the bottom line. Stuff like: Eight Ball zucchini (lots of comments), Lemon cukes (comments and some regulars), white icicle type radish, rainbow chard (like, Bright Lights), purple snap beans (comments, but people mainly like the green and the yellow...), and so on, I even sold a few daikon radishes... All fun to grow and present but no magic. Half the fun seems to be trying new things without getting buried in a lot of odd and unusual ;) stuff... The general strategy of growing out of season really does work. This is practical if you're small. Having the earliest stuff is great, and just having it when no-one else does to me is just as much of an advantage. Superfreshness is also great, and probably most easily done when you're small. I mean, extreme freshness: stuff cut/picked the afternoon/evening before, salad greens the morning of... People really notice that: "hey, I forgot your mesclun in the fridge for TEN DAYS and it was still fine..." Also, if you grow natural, even if not certified organic, all kinds of people you mightn't expect to respond to that... Hope that's useful stuff in their! (I've got lots to learn, but passing on the little I have noticed already is always FUN!!)...See Moreselling dahlias at farmers' markets
Comments (3)Hi there, We joined our local farmers' market last summer and had a very good year; we'll be doing it again this year. Part of what we sold were cut flowers - our 'signature' became sweet peas, but we also had a wonderful cutting season for dahlias and other garden flowers. I don't have a lot of experience but can tell you what ours was! Fillers: yes I did little bouquets of dahlias with other garden cuttings which varied according to whatever was blooming at the time: lavender, perennial gypsophilia, shasta daisies, buddleia blooms, lilies, dwarf sunflowers, cosmos, snapdragons. Per bunch I included one dinner plate dahlia with regulars and pom poms. I found colours that are 'grouped' sold better than randomly mixing them (for example all pinks, all yellows, etc.) My specialty wasn't dahlias, it was sweet peas so I'll tell you about that too: Ten stems for $2.50 and they sold out very quickly. 7 stems (broken down to 4 stems dahlias & 3 fillers) for $5.00. You could double the number and the price. My rule of thumb was to price them more competitively than can be found in a florist shop with the advantage of home-grown varieties. Other vendors: I think not too many dahlias are home-grown well enough to sell! so good for you for taking this on! Yes, 4 - 6 days is my experience. All I add to the water is plain white sugar. About 1/4 cup sugar to 3 cups water and change it daily/every other day. It really does make a difference. I have no experience selling tubers! Give it a try! I would think if you had the actual cut blooms beside their 'mother' tuber that would help a lot. The dinner plates were the favourites; also I have a purple/white striped bloom (sorry I don't know the variety because a neighbour gave me about three dozen of them and they were gorgeous). See above for combinations with other garden flowers/fillers. For greenery (which I didn't count as a "stem") I used cosmos stems (without the blooms) which are feathery and hardy; also we have a lot of sword ferns where I live that are free for the cutting and three per bunch filled it nicely. Additional suggestions: 1 - Get yourself a florist-size roll of clear cellophane and a hank or two of raffia. The time it takes to wrap each bunch and tie it with a raffia bow makes all the difference to just selling bunches of flowers and offering a 'presentation' bouquet. Tie the raffia right under the lowest leaf and leave enough stems to present in a bucket of water (see 2). In addition to protecting the blooms from getting bumped or broken, the cellophane wrap provides more of a 'presentation' bouquet. 2 - I found some coloured metal buckets (at Michaels) that were great containers (the kind that are tall, can also be used as wine coolers). Galvanized buckets work well too. Massed flowers always have more appeal and when you've pre-tied them in bunches it's easy to pull one (or more) for easy sale. 3 - I printed up a price tag and stapled it to the top a stick which I just stuck into the midst of the flowers (stick was longer than the tallest bouquet so it was easily visible). Shoppers like to see the price instead of having to ask and you may be too busy!...See Morepropagating perennials for farmers market
Comments (13)Congratulations!!! you did it. You learned something, well actually a lot of things. You do have the skills to sell what you grow. You do have plants that people will pay money for. A simple guide to pricing stuff - if you sell completely out of something then you aren't charging enough. You want to price your plants just at the limit of what the public will pay for them. If you're too cheap they sometimes feel that the quality is low. But if you're too high they won't return each weekend to buy from you (which is the best thing you could hope for - repeat customers). I shop around a lot. I pay attention to what other places sell plants for. If I have a plant that looks like a five dollar plant, I sell it for five dollars regardless of what it cost me to grow it (often less than a dollar). Even if someone else at the market has the same plant with the same quality for a cheaper price, I keep mine where it is and hope they sell out before the end of the day. If something doesn't sell well I retire it and figure out another way to price it and bring it back in a month. Like I break it up into smaller plants and sell them at a smaller size for a smaller price. I never sell the same sized plant for the lower price. The only thing similar that I have done is to bring back the same plants at a future date for a lesser price, but I take them out of their pots and wrap them in newspaper with a rubber band. Making them look like a bargain and not like the same plant at a reduced price. Once you drop prices, people will wait for your end of season sale or they will start haggling you for a discount (something I flat out will not do. I often explain that my garden can use the compost and proceed to take the plant home and compost it!). Every vendor has their own threshold on what they will do to make money. What works for me may not work for you. One year I had a bunch of Rosemary cuttings. I sold them for $1 each in a tiny cup. We are talking about a stick of rosemary for a dollar!! people bought them all day long even though I'm sure one of the cut herb people must have had bundles for $2 or so. Go figure - for some strange reason that spring everyone thought a sinlgle stick of rosemary was worth a dollar. It has never happened since. Yesterday I loaded light because I figured the holiday weekend would find everyone at the beach - wrong! they came to the market in droves. Most were just out sightseeing and showing the town's farmer's market off to visitors. Very few bought plants but the few that did bought over $20 worth so it all worked out in the end. The other vendors have convinced me to sell produce in addition to plants. I had considered this but didn't really want to compete with them since they are so nice to me at the market. But they claimed that they cannot have enough tomatoes at the market. That customers always complain about the selection of produce. So I guess I better put in a few more tomato plants just to be safe....See MoreHow to present loose lettuce at farmer's market?
Comments (24)Wow, lots of great answers. Thanks everyone for your comments, ideas and photos. I ended up getting a big, shallow basket, putting some flat baggies full of ice at the bottom, putting a nice cloth over that, putting a layer of plastic wrap over that, and filling the basket with the lettuce. Then I got customers to scoop out pints of the lettuce they wanted, and I charged $1.50 a scoop. I sold out within the first hour of the market! I'm one of only two organic growers, and I think that must have been a big attraction (I was telling passers-by that "I'm a chemical free farm!" and most often they'd stop :). Anyway, I really like some of the other ideas here, like pre-bagging some mixes (in a vented 6 or 8 x 15 bag or so?) and keeping them in a cooler. My ice basket worked well, but it only went up to about 22C (upper 60's?). I kept rotating the lettuce around too, just in case it started to wilt in the hour I had it there. :) So maybe the cooler would be better in the long run. Anyway, very interesting comments - thanks! -Les...See Moreexop
20 years ago
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