I could be as simple as a farm stand at the end of your driveway. Could use a little more information. Are you in town out of town? Do you have a local farmers market?

We are here to help, just need a little back ground.

Eric

How did i get into market farming? I moved to a 29 acre farm that had 2 acres of lawn and a pear tree that gave us incredible yields plus 7 heirloom apple trees. started with a home size garden and kept increasing in size. By year three we were up to 1 acre, by year four we were certified organic and doing market farming full time.

Spring mix was our first serious crop

Here is a link that might be useful: Boulder Belt Eco-Farm

This will be my 3rd year at market, so I am still a newbie. I also started with a garden that got too big. Before I went to market, I donated alot to the local foodbanks. I have 2 acres, not all in garden yet. I have about 1/2 acre around the house that was heavily landscaped by the previous owners. I have been tearing out the ugly bushes and adding lavender, which grows really well here, and blueberrys. The landscaping around the house looks much better and is productive now. I grow a lot of veggies and make some crafts in the winter that I also sell in the summer. It is hard work, low pay, but I love working for myself. 30 years of corporate america was enough for me.

You say you are a stay at home mom. Kids can take up alot of your time, but don't ever regret that. It may be hard to grow enough to sell. Start with what you like to grow, lavender was my first big crop.

I am a stay at home mom alsoI have a 4 year old son and a 2.5 year old daughter. I have been digging in the dirt since I can remember and last year we planted a bigger garden hoping to sell some extra. We live in an area that is close to the interstate but kinda off the beaten path (NE of Denver,CO) and didn't know if I would have enough traffic to keep the produce looking fresh but still sell things. Luckily we have a nice sized farmers market in the town of Greeley and it turned out great for us. Small enough you get to know the regulars (sellers and buyers)but big enough there was lots of traffic on Saturday mornings. I was pretty intimidated (no reason to be, just my personality)but it turned out to be an enjoyable experience that I look forward to this year. My kids came along to the "armer maket" and my husband came when he could.
Things that worked for me were I had one main item which was potatoes red pontiac and yukon gold, I had several regulars who came back week after week for potatoes(chicken egg size sold better than larger).
Kept my prices reasonable but not too cheap.
Sweet Basil handful put in a jelly jar of water kept well and sold out every time will plant more this year.
Small zuccini (6-8 inch long) five to a basket sold very well.
I would start with 2-3 types of tomatoes not 10 (I tend to get carried away). Start your own from seed, might be getting late by now a lot cheaper.
My biggest expense(other than seed) were a canopy (sporting good store) and two plastic tables (Sears).
I not bothering with sweet corn this year it is so plentiful and cheap around here.
Biggest thing to work on for me is sucession planting.
White dish pans work well for transport/display as well as various plastic tubs. Look at Goodwill, ARC and the like for baskets for display.
Little kids and well mannered older kids are great ice breakers and in turn help sales:)
I did not make a fortune nor enough to live off of, but had cash in my pocket this summer and was able to splurge on a few extras. Considering I really didn't take that much compared to the big guys it made it worth my while, since I have a crazy big garden anyway.
Sorry this is long just thinking off the top of my head.
kelley

Wow, Kelley! Thanks for sharing your story. My little guy probably would help with selling just about anything! :)

My obstcale this year is I am due with baby #3 in July so not sure how it will work out. A little frustrated on the timing but we wanted another baby :)

Kelly, Take them when you can get them. Good story too. I thank you for that. I'm trying to get into market gardening. Last year we did a half acre of sweet corn. It sold well but only when cheap. As to kids selling stuff. We went to a family reunion and took some corn for a friend from 120 miles away in an area that doesn't produce corn. We missed the connection with the friend and ended up with 6-8 dozen ears at the hot springs campground. Our little grandson stood by the road singing, "Sweet cone fo say oh, sweet cone fo say oh". It all was gone in one day and he kept the money. It gave me an idea of how to market corn. Campgrounds maybe a hotspot! --Kevin

I've been doing farmers markets for the past 10 years, and 4 of the grandkids were born during market season. We had people stopping by just to check on "mom" during the pregnancy and to see the newest "market baby" when the grandkids were there. They even remember the older 'market babies', they now 5.

Interesting posts. kelley can you explain what you mean by putting basil in a jar of water? Thanks.

Great thread, thanks for starting it. My wife and I are looking at doing some market gardening, but not sure. It won't be a regular gig, at least not likely.

I do have a question for you folks that recently got started. Do you folks go at it like a business or as a hobby. I'm mainly asking if you write off expenses and that sort of thing.

Keep track of all expenses and income. According to IRS, if you make money, you are to report it.

I started out as a business, with the checkbook and everything else. Now I don't use a 'company' checkbook because of the charges the bank thinks they should be able to charge a "business" customer.

I do keep track of my expenses and income, just on a spread sheet to determine whether I'm making money or if I just loosing money. Since 90-95% of my business is cash, the only way to keep track is to write it down.

One year, I kept track of all the hours we were working on the market, along with expenses and income. It was a good year, and we still only made $2.00 per hour.

$2.00 an hour sounds very discouraging. Can you give s any idea of what you were selling and for how much per lb or item?

Around here, $1.00 to $1.25 for tomatos is the going rate. And no one sells heirloom tomatos that I know of.

I live in a rather culinarily sophisicated urban area of NE Oklahoma. I was thinking herbs and heirloom Appalachian pole beans might tickle some of the local gourmet's fancy, since they will not find the same quality in the downtown markets, if at all. I read that even in rural areas, the old time "greasy beans" and "cut short" pole beans sold for around $2.25 per lb last year,
Also, there is the possibility that hot peppers, such as jalapenos, Anaheims and poblanos might sell well come canning season, as would red and green bell peppers and pickling cukes and dill weed.

I'm a retiree, and live on disabled widow's benefits, so the extra money IS a factor with me if I were to enter into this.

Any thoughts?

Barbara

First of all, that was a few years ago. I'm afraid to figure the hourly rate NOW. I figure every hour that was involved from deciding on what to plant, where to plant, prepare the soil, all the weeding, picking, sorting. Everything that happens BEFORE you can sell anything. Plus we were working 20 hours per week per person either selling at market or preparing or disposing before and after market. I love what I do, so even $2/hr is more than nothing per hour. Most hobbies actually costs you money, so if you enjoy what you are doing plus make even a small profit is good.

I researched the market that I currently sell at for entire year before I started to sell at the market. Now after 11 years, I have customers that will ONLY buy from me or someone that I recommend. That took time to arrive at that place. Newcomers to the market have to establish themselves.

How I started was the plant extra of what I would eat or preserve, in case they didn't sell. I was lucky enough to sell everything that I grew. I didn't charge near enough for my produce, but I did get a reputation for having very high quality produce that has followed me throughout the years.

If you enjoy gardening on a large scale and you can afford the seeds and startup costs, go ahead and try it. Worse thing is you will learn that it's not for you, or you will have so much food preserved for yourself that you might not need to buy much at the grocery store.

$2 an hour isn't bad for someone who has been in this line of work under 5 years. i believe the first couple of years I made around 85¢ an hour and worked around 80 hours a week. No it's more like $5 an hour. But I also get perks like not buying much food for myself because I grow most of it.

I mean unless you are very good marketeer it will take several years to grow a customer base. it also takes several years no matter how many books you read and how many workshops you attend to get decent at growing for market as it is not at all like growing a home garden, even a really big one.

So the first several years you work ineffectively, and thus long hours and you will not be able to make as many sales as you will in the future as you as you figure out what you are doing. market gardening and direct sales are not skills most are born with and there is a steep learning curve.

market gardening is not something to get into if you think you will make a lot of money. I don't know of anyone who does this just for the money. but of course making profit enough to live from is one of the goals

boulderbelt, I'm glad to hear that the low rate of wages wasn't just me. I do feel like I'm making more per hour than before, I just haven't tried to figure out how much more. I just know I do enjoy the marketing aspect and I have made enough connections with people who enjoy the gardening aspect but not the marketing part. Between all of us, we're all happy. I also garden, but not enough to supply my customers with as much as they want.

What I found is that I needed to find my niche at the farmer's market. The first couple of years I watched the other vendors carefully, and tried to find things that they didn't have. For instance, most at our market sell round beets, so I sell cylindrical ones. One of our vendors specializes in squash and root crops, so I don't bother with potatoes. No one sells flowers, so I've expanded that. Sweet peas are amazing! People actually follow their noses to the table. I've never brought those home unsold.

Early tomatoes are another good one. I always try and be the first one in with those. I start my own seed, so I can get earlier varieties than I can buying plants. I start them early, transplant a lot, and am a daredevil putting them out in the spring. I can usually beat the market by at least a couple of weeks, and that can make a huge difference. These early tomatoes are a hot commodity, but in September you can hardly find homes for them. Go figure.

If a sale is over, and I have leftover beets or cucumbers, I will go straight home and make pickles. These sell well too, and can extend the whole season. I also will take pickles and jams to Christmas craft sales.

I've found that the best sales come when you are the only one with something, or the first one with something. I've also found that selling at the market is a lot of fun!