never underestimate the power of thistles!

well, what sorts of mistakes were you meaning? marketing, growing, planning?

I think that food safety issues are the place that you can make the worst mistakes. Improper storage, using manure on fields, washing tomatoes with cold water, these are the things that could kill your business and worse your customer!

At market, don't go in and under cut....it makes the established vendors mad and it will only win you those customers that don't value your hard work (the customers that the established vendors would rather weed out anyways)

At the farm-gate (if you are going that way) build the most attractive sales shed that you can afford. The market gardens that have come and gone in my area did not pay enough attention to this and they didn't last long. People want to have an 'experience' so give it to them, even if you think the folksy stuff is tacky - make your displays clean, clean, clean and fun!

Growing - don't rely on growing tips on the seed package. Every micro-climate is different. We are in a (US zone) 3 but successfully grow hot peppers and varieties of squash that need a longer season by using high tunnels, row cover, bio-degradable black mulch and starting indoors so we can get the timing right.

What province are you in?

My biggest mistake was listening to the idiots that told me to charge the highest prices at the marketin order to validate my hard work growing. I don,t know about the rest of you but where I sell people want value along with fresh,great tasting produce. The Predominate German,Polish population in my area work just as hard as everyone else. No, you do not give them the excuse that your prices are high because of all your hard work!
There is absolutely nothing wrong to offer customers a better price than your competitor--this is america, not some socialist republic.
Your out to make sales and enjoy the relaxed setting of the market . When I shop I look for price and value. Just because you have the highest prices does not make you the best( sometimes people are revolted over that practice)

Hello kritzmicrogrow,
pricing is entirely based on what your market can and will support. I sell in a medium sized city, at a market that is in the main banking district, so the majority of my customers are upper middle class office workers. They are looking for more than the cheapest price.

Some of my customers are the old "german, polish" ex-farmers as well as inner city families, new immigrants etc. that do look for value. I have the highest prices at my market. Sometimes they will tell me what another vendor is charging and I will tell them to go ahead and purchase from that vendor b/c we all need the business. 9 times out of 10 they will just get in line and buy from me anyways. So I do think there is the perception that quality comes with a higher price.

We will see though, what happens this year when economic times are tough. canuckistani, will have to also do some research about his own market location, culture and average price. Most markets in canada have strong regulations against undercutting and dumping so he may not have a choice about price.

But, then again, we are in Canada, maybe it is some sort of "socialist republic". But last time I checked farmers in the USA and here are generally not being paid enough for their hard work providing a basic human right ...food...

I think my biggest mistake was dwelling on what I did not have for too many seasons before I buckled down and started to make thing work.I did not (and still do not)have my own land, much capital, a greenhouse, etc. So I found some land to rent away from my house and concentrate on just selling the best stuff in season and experimenting with little known cold tolerant crops for early and late sales. People must have eaten something before plastic, right? I have never found a veggie I don't like or can't figure out how to cook, so I do grow a lot of odd stuff, but I can talk it all up, and I don't bother with the stuff that does not grow well in my clay like melons and squash. Also, if you have the choice, pick an urban market because you will be able to get better prices. Pile your display high, make sure it is clean, and smile!

When I started out, I was 1 of the cheaper priced vendors, just to get started. Then each year I tried to increase alittle each year. Now I am one of the higher priced vendors.

I try to stay with most of the other longer-timed vendors. I found that the newbies usually were either too high or too low on prices. If I find a newbie with a price really low, I suggest that they might raise their prices and tell them to check other vendors' prices. They usually raise their prices alittle. I also refer customers to those newbies, if I run out or don't have what the newbie has. Our market has a $25/fee daily for daily vendors, so everyone needs to be able to make that much or more.

Trying to grow/sell too many varieties. I sell mainly perennials ( a much harder sell than pretty flowering annuals), and due to time constraints imposed by DIYing a total house reno, I cut back on the number of plugs/bulbs I bought from the wholesaler, and the number of plants started from seeds/cuttings.

Lo and behold, my sales have actually increased. I have also learned not to be the lowest priced seller, but I definitely don't try to be the highest either. Another thing I was surprised to learn- my sales increased as I raised my prices.

I've been at this fifteen years, and still have lots to learn. I do sell a fair amount from home, I have my yard set up with display gardens, and it really does help sales. Though I don't clear as much as I would selling at the farmer's market, I don't miss the loading/unloading...set-up/take-down...loading/unloading again, and the plants do better without all that jostling around.

Take pictures of your display/stand. Then look at them with a critical eye. Until you build up a clientèle you are going to rely on impulse buys so you need to attract/draw them in.

You can not get high prices unless and until you believe in your heart of hearts that you deserve the higher price. That belief will be transferred to the customer. You need to be excited about how wonderful your produce is. You need to practice and you will get better at selling over time. YOu need to size up the customer and learn who will buy and who you waste time with.

Let me say never undersell so that no one makes a profit from their labor. You can not survive on $2 an hour for your work. and you should not push down your friends who are in your same business down to nothing. You must learn to support your profession as worth some money. You must believe in your heart that a good farmer deserves to earn a living and survive in society. You do not deserve to live in poverty.

You hurt yourself and every other farmer in the world if you work for free. You help every other farmer and yourself when you demand and get reasonable prices for you work. But you must work at it and learn how to be successful. it takes time. love your job and you will be successful.

I spent too much on stuff I really didn't need.

Like buying plug flats and pots by the case because they were cheaper by the case, instead of in batches of 10 for a lower initial investment and making do more with scavenged and reused. I bought 3 gallon pots to grow (prechilled) bulbs in, because I didn't know a local nursery sold bulb crates- cheap.

I bought a case of berry boxes online, and later learned that a relatively nearby Southern States (farm/garden supply) sold them individually. Again, I could have bought by the dozen as I needed them.

I didn't join Costco, where I could have saved a bundle on bulbs, bareroot plants, etc.

I was way undercapitalized anyway, but when I eventually gave in and went back to a day job, these mistakes probably accounted for extra hundreds of dollars of debt.