That's right. We will not be attending the Farmer's Market today. Last week was our first, and perhaps last day at the market. I've learned several lessons for those of you contemplating selling at the market.
First, this is how I imagined it: (Please don't laugh yet!) We would arrive with our beautiful produce, herb seedlings, fresh warm bread, apple muffins, and it would be lovely. People would be thrilled to have REAL FOOD and VEGGIES at a farmer's market, instead of snow cones and kettle corn. We would bask in the appreciation of these grateful folks and then come home, tired but satisfied.
Now, this is what happened. I woke up early saturday (after baking late friday night) and made bread and muffins and chocolate dipped pretzels. At about 8:30 things became chaotic since I was supposed to be there at 9 and the bread would just be coming out of the oven at 9. I called Annette's family, who was sharing the booth with us, and they were in the same frantic state. The Spy twins loaded folding tables, seedlings, warm bread, markers, white boards, cash box, etc. into the truck and I took off and the rest of the family went to the ward activity.
Annette and I both got there in the nick of time and the booth did look fantastic. Annette had four huge glass jars full of mint brownies, cinnamon almonds plus all our other stuff. Oh yes, and I'd brought granola.
The market went from 10 to 2. The kids did rejoin us and helped sell lots of stuff and had funny experiences while they were at it. By 2:00 we were exhausted and ready to come home. After paying all our fees and expenses, we both made about $80.00.
That sounds great except for that when you consider how many hours I spent planting seedlings and baking I made about 50 cents an hour. And since I paid the kids, I donated lots of time to this cause! The worst part was that it didn't seem like anyone appreciated the real food. So, I know now why there are not farmers at farmer's markets. The name sounds great, but the farmer's can't make any money selling anything.
I will relate the horrors of trying to sell our eggs there on a different post. Talk about over reaching government bureaucracies. Uggh.
No comments:
Post a Comment