The rules, regs, insurance requirements, local ordinances, kitchen inspections and certification requirements, etc. have always kept us from adding any home-made food products to our farmer's market booth. The up-front costs well exceed any possible profit. On personal property sales are much easier than legally selling off-property.

So if you haven't researched all the regulations yet, I'd strongly recommend you do that before worrying about any recipes.

Also check out the previous discussions on selling/business I have linked before as well as the many discussions on regs over on the Market Gardening forum.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Selling/Business discussions

digdirt-- Thanks for your concern about my credentials, but I assure you they are all in order.

I have completed the required micro-processors workshop and received my certificate.

Suggest that you make a few small batches of stuff to see what people like. A 'sampler' of maybe 4 different things in 4 ounce jars may be offered and the customers can decide what they like best. Make a sampler for pickles and relishes, and one for jelly and jams. Another of other things you like yourself. If a farmer there offers a unique, hard to find produce, you can make them into a canned item, that canned item is also compliment to the assortment.

I've sold salsa, habanero gold jelly & apple chutney, mostly to co workers. Jams and jellies I mostly give away as long as they return the jar. I have sold jams at yard sales, laughed when a lady wouldn't pay $4 for practicaly new jeans but would pay $4 for an 8 oz jar of strawberry jam. All of the recipes I got from the experienced posters here.

Yes, that lady must have shopped here too, she squawked about the $2.00 price on my quarts of canned tomato sauce, and said she can buy a can in a store much cheaper. More power to her I say.

Well, you already have a pepper relish, but when I sold jams and jellies at my local farmer's market, my bestseller was far and away my onion-garlic-pepper jelly! I've posted about it once before, but here's an encore for you. I used to sell at least a case (12 half-pints) of this stuff a week!

Gina's Onion-Garlic-Pepper Jelly

1 1/2 cups mixed peppers (both sweet and hot*), seeded and finely chopped
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
5 cups sugar
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin

Combine everything except the pectin and bring to a full, rolling boil for at least a minute. Stir in the pectin, bring back to a rolling boil for five minutes.

Fill jars (this usually yields 3 pints/6 half-pints) and process in a boiling water bath, 10 minutes for half-pints and 15 minutes for pints.

*I like about half red bell pepper and half whatever hot peppers are good to go from the garden. Choose according to your desired heat level, from mild Anaheims all the way up to habaneros, if you dare! I usually use something mild like Anaheim or Nardello, some jalapenos and/or serranos, and maybe some cherry peppers or (red) super chilis for a little more color. And I use the food processor to make easy work of chopping all the veggies.

Serving Suggestions:
The traditional preparation is to serve this spooned over a brick of cream cheese with crackers But my FAVORITE thing to do is to roast a chicken halfway, take it out, glaze it liberally with the pepper jelly, and finish roasting it. The chicken comes out shiny and crispy and sweet and spicy and succulent. SO GOOD!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Luscious (my cooking blog)

I'm bringing this thread back to the top since there has been a few of us that sell our preserves asking the same questions.

I've been selling jams, jellies, preserves, butters, sauces, marmalades, hot pepper jellies, pickles, relishes, salsas, pie fillings, and mincemeats for 6 years. I make 50 different jams. Most all are from my farm or local farms.

What I have found is that people seem to like the low sugar jams, the high sugar chocolate jams, the pickled veggies like okra and sweet peppers, the common Kosher dills, any combo hot pepper jellies, and then the totally unusual savory things like garlic habanero jam, mango raspberry jam, pink onion jam, and a variety of fruit based chutney's to use as salad dressing, to top cream cheese with crackers, or as a glaze. They poo-poo things like local strawberry, peach, plain apple jelly, and Concord grape jelly but snap up other local fruits like Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit, Damson Plum, Beach Plum, Muscadine Grape, Quince, Apple Rosemary, Wild Violet, Pink Rose Petal, Blueberry Lavender, and Persimmon. Maybe because they remember it or that they can't find it on the common corn syrup glop at the local grocery shelves. Which does not tell me why they won't buy strawberry or local Congord grape!! However, there are always people who want things that will never be successfully grown here and can only be bought "imported" like Rhubarb, Wild Blueberry, Rose Hip, and Lychee, and as I have said, the lemon and orange jams that sell well even when I tell them they are not locally grown!!!. I can't sell a single jar of Pear Sauce (like Applesauce) even though it is local and delicious. I also can't sell anything made with local honey instead of processed sugar but I get lots of request for no sugar from the diabetics where I have to tell them that it would not be jam but just canned fruit and would they want to buy that at my prices per jar? Not.

I suggest you make jams YOU like. Unsold they have a use. I have dumped a lot of out of date canned things that did not sell but over the years have narrowed down what sells and what doesn't but my family gets a lot of canned gifts when I make too much. I NEVER ask if they enjoyed any of them.

You also need to know your market = are they cooks or just samplers? Are they looking for something to stir into their yogurt, add to a slice of leftover chicken for a sandwich, or to give as a special gift? It really helps to know how to sell what you have to offer and little recipe cards or suggestions for their use fly them off the table with smiles and inspirations.

I also tell them that they get a free cookie when they bring back the empty jar and ring (so I reduce my overhead) and usually buy something else for their pleasure and for my profit from not having to buy them (recycling works for me!).

Nancy

I have been selling jams and jellies for about 4 years now. I make a variety of pepper jellies such as prickly pear jalapeno, apricot jalapeno, pomegranate serrano, watermelon serrano, etc. As Nancy said, my customers enjoy the varieties I make that are unusual such as the prickly pear, the various chutneys I make, tomato jams, mango jams, banana jams, etc. We also make a Kansas City-Style barbecue sauce that is quite popular. We make between 40-50 types of jams, jellies, pepper spreads, sauces. This year, we made a Polish-style Plum butter and a Chinese-style plum sauce that turned out very well. I now have regular customers and have people requesting, even calling our number on the jars to see if we have such-and-such variety. I also make marmalades. It's great fun and this year, a good friend of mine, set her tent up next to mine at the market and she is a baker so, our products complement each other, additionally, the jams and jellies help bring people to look at my produce too!

Most of my customers, so far, have wanted the traditional ones, like strawberry jam, and such. But there isn't anyone else that is doing them. I want to branch out, but this last year I made sure that everyone knew the fruit was locally grown. I bought the fruit, tried to sell it as fruit, then can/jammed the leftovers. I hope to add more varieties as time goes by. At this time, I haven't experimented with mixing flavors,,,,that's my goal for this coming year.

Hubby wants to get into baking, but I prefer doing the preserves since I can do them any day and still have them for the market. I believe we would have to bake all day the day before market, whether we felt like it or not.

Marla

I haven't sold any jams or jellies but have given a lot out as gifts over the years. The strawberry-balsamic jam seems to be a favorite.

Somebody griped about $2 for a jar of homemade tomato sauce??? I'd pay $10, especially if it was local and organic.

That was an old post. These days the jar alone is worth $1. I haven't figured out yet how much a quart of tomato sauce costs to make, but I know it's more than the $2-3 you see the national brands for.

We can't use tomato sauces, but I won't guess more of the $3-4/pint price. One vendor that is selling salsa (not allowed but they are) sells their salsa for $3/pint and $5/quart. Definitely under-priced.

I live in Ohio & would like to eventually sell at our Farmers Market but I'm thinking that I'm seeing that the rules say you can't sell pepper jellies-is this true?-L