First Market of the Season

We had a great first market on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and just the right temperature which made for a perfect season opener. As we drove down to Peninsula we had arugula, spinach, salad mix, scallions, radishes and green garlic packed in the back of the truck, within two hours we had sold everything and had the pleasure of driving back to Cleveland without any produce.

We tried a couple of new things that seem to work well so far:

1. We have a new banner printed on biodegradable vinyl that we hung in the back of our tent. Not only does the it give us a bit more professional cred, but it seems to make us more visible. Although our original homemade sign holds a special place in my heart.

2. We changed our pricing system. Instead of having a 2 for $5 deal we sold everything for $3 each. This seemed to work really well and we didn’t have to repeat our semi-cheap line about how “everything is $3 dollars each OR you can mix and match any 2 items for $5.”

3. Peter made laminated “crop cards” which give a short description of each product with a few recipe ideas. We put one in front of each basket. The green garlic crop card was a lifesaver. Everyone seemed to need a bit of guidance about what to do with green garlic.

4. Due to some mature plants we were challenged by our spinach harvest so we decided to try and sell bunched spinach with roots. We made bunches similar to those found in the grocery. No one seemed to mind.

It felt great to be back out there with everyone and to have one year under our belts. We are looking forward to returning this week and promise to take some more photos. Big thanks to Alex who helped us harvest and prep this week.