A week or so ago our good friend from church offered us some free modular shelves. They are large and sturdy. I thought they might be good plant stands for the market. That little thought turned out to be a cascade of blessings. On Thursday, I tested out how I was going to fit all my market plants in the van. I had a flash of inspiration that maybe I could use the modular shelves to make double decker layers in the van. They fit so perfectly I was in tears. I was able to fit twice as many plants as I had originally thought I would be able to haul.
We used bungee cords around the top layer of posts to keep things from sliding around. Each shelf exactly fit three plant trays. It was as if the shelves had been custom made for these trays.
It rained hard from mid morning to early afternoon on Friday. I was afraid that I might have to go reserve our spot alone and sleep in the car and have the rest of the family come later. But the rain stopped just in time and we were able to drive out to the swap and reserve a great spot. We got our tents set-up and had a cold dinner (no campfires in the field next to the vendor area).
It was a windy, noisy, chilly night of sleep. I woke up at 5 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Roosters, pigs, goats, a whole menagerie of farm animals, were in trailers and cages welcoming the new day together at the swap. It worked out well because the sun was up by 5:30 am and I was able to get all my plants out and set-up by 7:30am.
Another blessing was having our friends in town from Utah to help set-up and man the booth. The kids got together and had a lemonade/seed planting station out front. It was free and it gave them good practice inviting kids to come over and try their station. I also thought it would be a good marketing strategy for helping people want to stop and check out what we were selling.
Those modular shelves worked great for displaying my plants. I had also made signs showing what each of our unique varieties would look like when they were grown. I think having a picture and good information was helpful. I had also ordered some brown paper bags with good handles since I know peoples' hands get full at the swap and juggling pots was not an enticing thought. They worked great and gave people an incentive to fill them up with plants.
Once customers started arriving at the swap we were hopping to keep up. The two of us "sales ladies" were busy helping customers the whole time from about 9 to 1 pm.
We wore our matching shirts.
Our first market event was a success! It was stressful, but also incredibly fun to talk to people about plants all day. I brought a little of everything: edible flowers, medicinal herbs, unusual culinary herbs, and the regular garden variety veggies. As predicted by my craigslist sales, the two HOT items were comfrey and elderberry. We had about 40 of those in big pots and they sold out well before the end of the swap. I had a pretty variety of yarrow and that sold surprisingly well. We sold out of yarrow, german chamomile, lovage, skullcap, nasturtiums, and cherry tomatoes. The gusty wind was hard on some of the plants, so we lost some stock around the edges.
My sales assistant with her change belt on -- she did a great job helping customers. Overall, we surpassed my goal of selling 500$ worth of plants and came home with only 30% of what we brought. People were excited to see unique varieties of plants and to hear about them.
Playing a clapping game. The swap was a great experience for the kids.
I think we will definitely try to do this again at the poultry swap next year. Several people asked me which farmers' markets we sell at (especially those who arrived too late to grab comfrey or elderberries). I need to work on figuring that out this year, visiting various markets and seeing where we fit in and then move on to regular farmers' market selling next year!
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