2 acre farm: First Day at the Market

2 acre farm

The experiences, trials, and lives on a small farm in rural Illinois.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

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!

5 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Great display!

May 11, 2010 at 2:37 PM  
Blogger angie said...

Hi Nathan,

The photos are great - your stuff really looks beautiful. The display is extremely professional as well - I've never seen one like it. Nice job.

May 13, 2010 at 2:01 PM  
Anonymous Herbs in the Garden said...

Everything looks great!

May 20, 2010 at 10:00 AM  
Blogger Nathan (2af) said...

Thanks for all the positive comments. The display was made from repurposed wood and wood that was left in the garage from a previous owner. Last weekend was a rainy market day and some of the parts started to come apart because the wood is punky and dirty. So it didn't hold a screw or glue. I broke down and bought, yes bought, wood to remake the shelves. They are nearly complete and will be finished tomorrow morning.

I will post pictures of the new shelves after the market on Saturday. I think I am going to start claiming that the first round was a prototype.

May 20, 2010 at 10:32 PM  
Anonymous vicki said...

Could you please provide pictures of your market shelving unit?We are a small farm also and we've had serious trouble trying to put something together that would fit in our Toyota Rav4.We have coolers,shelves and folding tables.It's frustrating and we aren't able to visualize anything better.

October 24, 2010 at 10:24 PM  

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