Crafting with Jo: Gearing up for the Farmers Market Season

 

Last year we couldn't participate in the Farmers Market because of the COVID scare and lockdowns. We continued to craft and build up supplies. Our local market operates from next week through the beginning of August and is open between 8AM to noon on Saturdays. It's about fifteen miles from our homestead.

We got our required 10x10 pop up tent at an end of the season sale. Folding chairs we had. A table was fashioned and painted using a discarded folding table base from the dump. It was missing a top which Mel made out of scrap pallets. It looks very rustic which was the look we were going for.

We decided to invest the $100 fee which is no small hardship for us, Not that our local Farmers Market is that busy, but it would provide contacts for future eggs sales. We really were undecided after losing half of our free ranging hens to dogs an coyotes over the past few months. Now, we get a dozen eggs a day from our hens. If response is good, then we'll buy new hens to supply customers with farm, free range eggs. If there is any doubt about the chickens being free range, I've got pictures of Mel chasing them out of our living room and laying eggs in our back porch that two of them favor, and roosting on our front porch railing. There's little doubt that the flock is free ranging to any visitors we've had. They've been greeted by the chickens and dogs before we can get outside.

I've started four 36-cell trays with herbs vegetables, and flowers to sell a month ago. I've crafted small herb "dish" gardens and pots to sell out of upcycled containers. We've got some cut, fresh herbs to sell ( rosemary, sage, thyme, and oregano). We'll add to the list as the annuals grow. Our market is chemical- free and only home grown produce. Unlike other farmers markets, no wholesale produce is sold. A yearly inspection of farms in the co-op keeps it that way in the truest sense of the words. Even the inspectors operations are checked to maintain the locally grown, chemical-free guidelines of the market.

The baskets, boxed, and cups that came with vegetable and fruit purchases over the last three years have been dusted off and been given a new lease on life to display our wares. An old cube storages rack now will be loaded with plants while another 9-bin cube rack will feature homestead made objects. I'll be carrying our Traveler spinning wheel and plastic yarn (plarn) to spin into worsted weight plarn as an attention grabber. Meanwhile, a Command hooks on one of the cube storage racks will hold market shopping bags (we've made) for sale. One of the cubicles of the homestead made products will hold 350-yard skeins of plarn to sold. This will sit on two ice chests gilled with eggs. It takes a minimum of 2 skeins of plarn to make a 12"x12" sized tote. Mel crocheted some while I knitted some. I made some copies of the patterns we used as a bonus. This pretty much fills our table and tent.

Our total expense including our membership fee should be met within a few short Saturdays. I've spent the last three years talking to most of the regular vendors and watching the traffic flow through the market. The busiest time id either the first hour or the last hour. We may have to build another table with boards and a saw horses, but that remains to be seem. For our first venture, I'm thinking no more than ten of each item. I may change my mind. If we sell out the first Saturday, we'll change tactics the next. It will be a good thing to sell out. Mel will have a notebook for items for people to orders for the following weekend pick up. Anyhow that's the plan. Wish us luck! After all, one man's trash is another one's treasure, right?

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo