yes but most of us are very very busy this time of year what with planting, harvesting and marketing. Did a very stormy market this morning. Hope to sell 50 pounds of spinach but sol only a couple of pounds. Did sell out of strawberries and radishes. About 25% of the normal traffic came today because of the weather.

we're here... just busy weeding!!
weather was miserable at our market today also.

I spent the day planting and meeting new customers.

This year has been crazy. I too had tons of spinach. Lettuce is selling at $2 a bunch and spinach at $2 a bag. I did notice all the supermarkets are selling tomatoes at $1 each and Walmart was out of them. I am holding off planting the toms until after our next batch of cold weather on Wednesday. I do have tons of everything else coming up, just not producing yet due to the cold and rain we have been getting. I have not had to water the yard yet once this year. With storms every week I might not have to all year. So far for the CSA I have lettuce, spinach, radish and potatoes.

Good luck to all!

Bryan

I'm here because I am not selling this year due to last years drought (I sell plants and it ruined most of my spring crop). I didn't even go by the market this weekend because I didn't want to see how low the crowds would be due to the 100+ temps. The weather is such a big problem with marketing.

Set up and break down ideas - I haul my plants in plastic bulb crates (crates used to ship bulbs in, just google bulb crate and you should find a picture). They stack well and are the perfect size for one person pick up and set down. I use mostly my black ones which I use as tables when I get to the market. I have to unload everything (umbrella, folding tables, plants), I take the smaller plants out of the crates and set them on the ground while I stack some of the empty crates upside down to make a tall table with the bottom of the last crate as the top of the table. Larger plants can just stay in their crate, smaller plants are arranged on the tables or crate stack.

To help haul tall plants I take some of the older bulb crates and cut the bottoms out of them (leaving the edge) with a circular saw. This is used as an extender to give me a tall collar when stacked onto another crate full of plants. I usually don't stack more than one collar/bottomless crate on top but you could stack them as high as you want. When I get to the market I stack the bottomless crates first and then top them off with intact crates. If I am stacking them to make a table for smaller plants I stack them all upside down so that their edges interlock, otherwise I just stack them normally.

I tend to grow a lot of my plants in pots set down inside the bulb crates, that way I don't have to spend a lot of time packing the crates to go to market. During the week I arrange and re-arrange the plants depending on who is going to go to market or not.

Bulb crates can cost from a few dollars to almost ten dollars depending on where you get them. I'm lucky in that I have access to free ones - but I can only get them once each year and I have no idea how many I'll get until I get them.

Thanks for your replys, I used to come to gardenweb years ago and this was such a busy forum, even during the season. But then they sold this site to someone who messed up my log on and I quit visiting for a long time.
Triangle John I have been to NC before, didn't realize you got such long hot summers if you already have 100+ weather, it has been in the 50's here and my hot weather plants are struggling. I have some plastic crates that power drinks came in that I use for my plants. And yes, I have been leaving them there during the week and using them for displays. Perennials were my best sellers last week. Market day was the only day of the week it did not rain.
Last week was the first time I set up, ran and broke down the whole thing and I could barely move when I finally got home I was so tired.

I moved here from Oklahoma because I hated the heat and the wind (love the state, hate the weather). Last summer and now this one are looking more and more like my summers on the prairie! Normally there are only a few days in the high 90's or low 100's. Last year's drought was extreme with many days above 95 and not enough rain ($1000 fine if you were caught watering plants with city water, second offense ended up with your water turned off!!!! Drinking water was measured in days not weeks or months). This summer is supposed to also be hot and dry. I garden inner city on one acre but most of my property is wooded.

You have to be very careful that you don't spend all your energy on loading, hauling, unloading. It really helps to have someone else with you but that also cuts into your profits (if you pay them). At my market many of the other vendors would help each other set up and break down. A truly nice group of folks.

We take my van with the seats that fold down full and my hubby's pick up truck with a shell on it full too each Saturday to leaves with the van--then I price things before the market opens. Now there's incentive to sell, sell, sell...I have to sell at least that van full or I have to call him to come back and close up shop at the greenhouse because he watches it while I'm gone.
After the market, I load everything left into the truck.
I agree it's tiring. And in the Spring, when I get home, we usually have a driveway full of customers too when I get home so there's no break time. One day this spring, I couldn't even park in the driveway after the market-it was so full and had to pull up in the yard under a tree and park there while I waited on customers, and couldn't unload the truck for two hours!
Crazy times!

"YOP! We are here, we are here, we are here!" ~ Horton Hears a Who

We are indeed here... weeding, marketing, planting, etc., etc. :-)

I attend two markets, one on Friday evening and another on Saturday morning. Fridays are a bit of a challenge. I have a Suburban and 5 children. By the time I get all the stuff in there, we barely have room to breathe. There are plants under their feet and some in their laps. I have a luggage compartment up on top where I keep the canopy and chairs (and a few more plants), and I have a couple of collapsible tables. You just have to think it through before loading/unloading. It's very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together! Where there's a will, there is a way!

Lisa

Did you say EASY? I had the seats taken out of my van, and this year put in a rubber mat to better protect the carpeting. I have a long rectangular table a church was getting rid of and I keep in the van except when setting up. My hubby rigged up a couple shelves from closet organizers and an L that attaches to a hole he drilled in the front of the table. He cut a notch in one shelf that goes on the bottom and the other shelf goes above it to give me not only more display area on the table top but angled as well. I can set small baskets, or washtubs on the shelves to display my produce. Our market meets south of the courthouse which has a low cement wall around the "yard" which gives us another place to set things. I take several trays of plants to market as well and set these up on the wall.
Sat. I had trouble with wind and my market umbrella wanted to knock the plastic patio table over, so I took it out and just kept it in its cast iron stand and tied a line to the van - it seemed to work a little better that way. I don't think I'll try putting it in the table anymore.
I don't think I do anything "easy" and am usually exhausted by the time I get home from market and unloaded. But it is a system that is lightweight enough for me to do by myself [54 year old female]
I have a tablecloth with vegetables all over it that hides the mechanics on the table and I have had people comment they like my display. We are just a small grower in a small town with a small market but I have been researching whatever I can find that will help give me an advantage and make my space one that draws in the customers, be affordable and do-able by 1 person.

And yes, I am not online as much now either - with weeding, harvesting and all. It rained today.

We weigh our canopy down with 5 gallon buckets full of water at each corner to keep it from blowing in the wind. I am usually exausted too at the end of the day, but have been learning alot and making a little more than gas money. I changed my display this week and am not sure if it was better or worse.

miss mudcat how do you manage to do back to back markets? Are the kids a help? I am mostly on my own and the set up is hard. You must really be organized.

A market day is worse than a day in the field! I have a five gallon bucket of concrete that holds down my umbrella. I have resisted getting a "pop-up" because they are such a pain to put up and take down. I use rubbermaid totes to haul my veggies, plus a couple of cooler for leafy stuff. I flip over a couple empty totes, put a board across them, and have an extra table for my cut flowers. You will figure out the best system over time.