First Day at the Market

(Backpost for Saturday, May-8-10) Today was 2 Acre Farm’s 1st day at the 2010 farmers market in Edwardsville, Illinois. Although last night’s low temperatures were great for keeping the produce fresh, today’s high winds and low temperatures (mid 50’s) were far from ideal Farmer’s Market weather. Also, after talking to some of last year’s returning and more regular vendors, we were told that the turnout was low compared to normal. That being said, despite the low number of market goers we did pretty well.

[Pictured Right] Here is one of the new produce stands built last week. In the past we had setup on folding tables and this worked fine for our old cavalier ways. But our new plans call for something more refined, giving 2 Acre Farm a more professional feel. The new displays setup and worked wonderfully. The entire setup is completely hardware free and ‘snaps’ together in about ten minutes. It all breaks down into a stack of wood pieces about twelve inches tall, twenty inches wide (except the thin legs), and eight feet long. In other words it takes up hardly any space for what it is. When it is all setup there is a twenty inch deep bottom shelf, a twelve inch deep middle shelf, and the top shelf is ten inches. We ended up using a folding card table to complete sales transactions but we have an idea floating around of a stand similar to the other one built but with only one level, which would be shorter and not quite as long. This would be where we would make sales transactions in the future. This is my next project.

[Pictured Left] Certified Naturally Grown (CNG) flyers share a shelf with the French Breakfast Radishes, Cilantro and Green Onions. Not many people are familiar with the not for profit so during the market we handed out a lot of flyers that explained exactly what Certified Naturally Grown is. We decided with all the organic hype, we would make it our mission to educate people about CNG, the alternative to the expensive USDA “organic” label. As a result, we hope our certification will earn the respect it deserves. Aimee and I were really excited by the response we received, the majority of people were extremely receptive and full of excellent questions!

When the market ended at twelve noon I would say we were satisfied, had lots of good observations, and are ready for another round.

[Pictured Right] The French Breakfast Radishes, a very mild variety, were by far the biggest seller of the day and sold out by 10:30am.  [Pictured Left] The Purple Plum Radishes, a stronger spicy radish,were quite popular too.  Both varieties sold much better than we had anticipated, we'll be sure to bring extra for next week!