Question for you farmer market people

I sell cherry tomatoes in pint ziplock bags. Early in the season I give out samples to establish customers, but later I always sell out of cherry tomatoes early in the day. I think they are easier to sell in baskets, but if your tomatoes taste awesome, it only takes one sample to hook a customer for years. Folks line up at my stand 10 minutes prior to opening to purchase Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. The other kinds sell well, too, but nothing beats Sun Gold.

That's an excellent book. Pay close attention to the display and marketing chapters. They are very right on! Also pay attention to where they discuss planning what to sell. Definitely check out your market before you plant any seeds. Go there at least once a month this year. What sells? What is there a glut of? What is the market lacking? Talk to the manager. What niche might you fit into? I wish I had that book 8 years ago when I was just getting started. I learned a lot of what's in it by trial and error.
Good luck to you. Selling at Farmer's Markets is very rewarding and fun.

 

Hello,
Here is a link to the Ohio Dept of Taxation:
http://tax.ohio.gov/channels/global/contact_us.stm
you should make sure you don't need a vendor license... I am a CPA, but not an expert in the area of sales tax. You shouldn't need one, since food is not taxable in the state of Ohio. But, you should double check, just to be sure.

Kim

 

Dont have a answer for the Cherry tomatoes ive never tryed growing or selling them. But as for expanding your garden. Thats what ive done for the last 3yrs.. Started out very small ,just to see if i could sell my veggies, & added to it a little each yr. Think it depends on where u r at & live as to how u go about selling. I sell most all of my corn from the back of a truck on a vacant lot at a very busy intersection. Sell most of my beans to the local produce stands near here.& some just to indviduals. I need to plan better to try to have some of my veggies all ready at the same time. But mother nature had other ideas this spring lol.I made 600$ this summer, could do much better if i had more time & better planing. Its just somthing i really enjoy doing, Hope it goes good for u... DAVE......

 

I don't sell (yet) but at our Farmer's Market people use the containers to display their goods then empty the contents into a plastic bag. They refill/recycle containers. Who needs more "berry" boxes to toss out at home?

katy

 

Where did you get the book? Cost? Our farm market is going nowhere. No customers Saturday or Sunday. Should we contact the restaurants and produce markets to buy our produce? We have a small farmers market in town usually attended by 5 vendors. Not enough to warrant our long drive and set up. Sure could use some advertising pointers. The local paper's classified is expensive and doesn't really warrant spending the money.

 

You can get the book from Johnny's Selected Seeds, Territorial Seeds, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, Fedco Seeds, etc. I found it at my local library. It is packed full of marketing ideas and ways to drum up customers.