My first day at market will be this weekend and I am also very excited (the markets open all year, I only participate in the spring).

I sell plants and garden decor rather than produce. I dream of selling mostly herbs and produce seedlings and rooted cuttings - but the reality is that I draw more people to my booth with flashy blooming ornamentals. In the past I have also worked for some pretty fancy greenhouse/nurseries in this area and even though a reputation can built on having the exotic or super rare, if you really pay attention to what is selling it seems that the ordinary and tried-n-true move more. Its like you have to display the flash to entice them in but in the end they are going to purchase what they know.

At my market there is a large foreign audience. Most of them do not own their homes so they don't actively garden. They want herbs and plants that they can raise in a container on the porch. They buy a large sized Cilantro and harvest from it for a few weeks and then toss it and buy another one (I love this!). They want hot peppers and any of the longer Anaheim type, they rarely buy Bell peppers from me. They want red round tomatoes and don't care what kind they are. They love seeing Tomatillos but usually just buy the salsa verde in a jar rather than make it themselves. I sell Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, Basil, Peppermint/Spearmint, Cilantro, Epazote, Dill the most. My Indian/Pakistani customer buy a lot of Basil, Dill, Cilantro, Okra and Eggplants. Africans buy a lot of Basil and hot peppers. Everybody buys Basil I guess, very few buy eggplants. Gardeners like stately things like Artichokes and Cardoon or pots of Parsley for butterfly larvae. Heirloom varieties and Native plants rarely sell but everyone loves seeing them offered.

My biggest seller isn't a plant or homemade craft - its large rocks of waste glass I buy by the ton. I sell it by the pound for people to decorate their gardens with. I cannot keep certain colors in stock.

For me it is garlic & shallots (of course it is the wrong time of year to plant these. Not many garlic growers in our part of the country. Also My garlic powder , dried herbs and dried peppers in spice jars

For me it is heirloom tomatoes (but always grow big red varieties as that is what sells the best in your area hengal), Heirloom zucchini (Zephyr and Pattypans do well). I do peppers in every color I can find (Red, yellow, Purple, brown, orange) but find in the EC IN/SW OH area bells out sell all other shapes.
long day sweet onions do very well for me

but the product that sets us apart from everyone else is everbearing strawberries-we have strawberries all season long, not just in June

I watched my market for a couple years looking at what people were asking for. We have a large retired population. So I sell heirloom tomatoes,(it is hard to get tomatoes to ripen here without help - I have hoop houses) I also sell peppers, cukes,green beans, beets, summer squash and strawberries, apples, plums. So I sell in August and September. We have vendors who sell lettuce and spinach,carrots, greens and a smattering of other things. The unique and different does not sell well here. Corn does sell well but I don't want to bother with it. I have a hard enough time with skunks and racoons, deer.

Ok, I need to know where do you get the recycled glass?
I am all for anything that helps recycle.

I thought they had a website but the business card I have doesn't list one. Here's what I know:

Crystal Rock Shop 1-800-868-3562

The Rock Shop and a small motel are operated by the Collett family in Henryetta Oklahoma 74437. The 800 number is for the rock shop (I have no physical address for it). The address for the motel is 608 East Main, Henryetta, OK 74437

Henryetta in on Interstate 40 which runs from California to North Carolina, just a few hours from Oklahoma City or the Arkansas border.

As I understand it waste glass used to be available at any glass factory but today it is deemed hazardous waste because it is heavy and sharp - so you can no longer walk up to the factory and pick it up. Now it is all handled by companies that have the contract to dispose of it. Crystal Rock Shop is such a company - they have the contract to haul off waste glass from factories all over America. You can drive up and hand pick your rocks (they are sepparated by color) or you can make arrangements for them to ship to you but I believe there is a minimum order for that and it is the wholesale dealer proportions (I think its like 1000 pounds). I probably sell 300-500 pounds of glass a year at my flea market booth in Raleigh NC.

After last years market, I'VE come to the conclusion that it isn't so much WHAT you sell that sets you apart ....it also is HOW you sell and display the items. As others have mentioned, alot of folks like the "familiar items". Example: Last year everyone sells tomatoes. Most vendors seem to sell them by the pound. I was selling all my items per unit. People seemed to like picking up an item and saying"This is only $1.00". I would have different prices for large and medium tomatoes, so on and so forth. Huge signs to advertise what I was selling....These were made out of 12" x 30" pieces of shelf liner( these make great banner sgns)and attached to my canopy. Some times it is the little things that set you apart. Keeping your display very tidy is a great plus. HEIDI

Sell the ordinary veggies, but go with the unusual varieties. Sell only burpless or salad cucumbers, unusual eggplant, unusual sweet peppers (offer samples!), heirloom type watermelons, heirloom tomatoes, zephyr squash (from Johnny's), maybe some kohlrabi, etc. It will take you a little while to get folks to understand what is different about your offerings, but once you pull them in, they'll be back!
DD

Heidi, I'd love to see a picture of your shelf liner banners, what an ingenious idea! I bet it's a lot more durable than paper based signs. How did you print on it?
Garliclady, no one here sells garlic or shallots either, in fact our local grocery store recently stopped selling loose shallots and have gone to selling two or three in a plastic bag for $3.99! How much are you able to get for them at market? They are high on my list of things to try for next year but I've never grown them before so it will be a learning experience.

These days the things that set us apart are leeks, red raspberries (other have some but in June/July we come in with hundreds of boxes for several weeks) day neutral strawberries (still), garlic (again others grow it but not in the quantity we grow so we have garlic 9 months a year and not just for a few weeks), red onions and yellow onions (everyone else does sweet onions which we do as well) arugula, spring mix and asparagus

Everyone has onions & potatoes and garlic. I grow 6-8 kinds of onions,2 od shallots, 5-6 of potatoes and during the winter months I research my products so I can be knmowledgable as to the best uses for each product. I buy some items to supplement my homegrown stuff so I can always ghave a full table. I gaurantee anything I sell will be as I say and everything is presented in the best possible condition. I sell the most garlic because I take large baskets of it, even if I think I will sell only a few heads. lots of stuff is appealing to the buyers, make containers appear full even if they cant be, tip them and spill a few items in front of the boxes, etc. Give a good measure at a fair price.

I don't have A product that sets me aside. I do have large quantities of almost everything, so IF someone wants to can/preserve things, they can come to me and I usually can get what they need. Plus since I also preserve, I can tell them how, if they are beginners. This last Saturday, we sold 8 bushel of green beans, 3 sold as bushel quantities. Also 125# of Roma tomatoes went to new homes in quantities, along with the smaller buyers.

I was told this year that we are the economical and quality vendor.

The thing that sets me apart is value added products. I sell 18 different types of breads and cakes in addition to salsas, relishes, chutneys and pickled items. At the 5 markets I go to I have the most variety of baked and canned goods available.