How do you get through it. I find it really hard, especially for a school teacher/market gardener, to pick everything knowing that I will only sell half of it. I even quit going to one of my markets because of the price of gas, minus a meal eating out, gave me very little profit. It is funny, at another one of my markets, It has slowed down alot, but I am still making exactly the same amount every week, I guess I have lots of regular customers!

I have probably over did it with fall broccoli and cauliflower. At least we can freeze that stuff and eat it all winter long.

have you thought of doing a csa or 'pick to order' model with your regular customers? we don't do it but I know some of the farms do and it works for them, so that they know roughly how much they are certain to sell and can pick & haul less to market

We keep our prices up and hope for the best, but really, August is when we do our best sales.

Lowwering prices is a losing proposition, I would compost it first.

Veggierosalie: Thanks for the ideas. I am a little afraid to do that. I am a full time teacher and now that school has started, I don't always have time for picking everything. Sometimes I pick what I know I can sell and move on. This is one of the reasons I use high tunnels I can maximize my output before the sales start slumping and I have to go back to school.

I will be taking fall radishes this week and summer crisp lettuce. I don't have much, but it will be something different. I wish my spinach and lettuce would not have been ate off by the grasshoppers, or it probably would have been 2 weeks out from selling. I had to replant and put on row cover.

Some summer crisp lettuce is starting to bolt. Some is still good. Probably another picking or two. Fall lettuce is about ready. Not a great stand. The grasshopper have caused lots of trouble. Spinach is the same way. Probably not enough to sell, plenty to eat though. Chard, Beets are a disappointment. Some, but none to sell. Radishes are producing well I have soooooo many. I got carried away with the new earthway planter. Planting is so much easier with it! Zucchini still producing, not selling hardly any. Probably will stop picking it this week. Jams and Jellies are selling good along with eggs. Broccoli may make it, but I have 4.5 week until the market season is over! Cauliflower won't. Need to plant 3-5 weeks sooner.

I don't have any winter squash. Wish I did. All this said, the last two market days have been my best in over a month and a half. Hope it holds, we could use it to make it through the winter, easier.

Glad to hear things are picking up.

I will never grow cherry tomatoes outside. It is just much nicer to grow them inside. No splits, no standing outside in the rain picking.

We finally boxed up the spaghetti squash for this year, 20-21 bushel boxes of good squash. Still picking butternut, so I don't know how many bushel we'll have. The acorn squash barely made 3 bushel. Delicata, only 1 bushel, planted too late. My farm really likes growing spaghetti squash, lucky for me, I have several regular customers for it. We get 75 cents per pound or more for most of the season, and drop it to $? each the last week or so. By then, all we have are the smaller ones.

jrslick, do you hang your cherrys or just plant in the ground/house?

I have a picture, but I am on the wrong computer. I will share it when I get a chance.

Jay

This picture was taken around September 23rd.

Actually thinking, I think I need several of your hoops. I know, MORE work.

Jay

Jay

We also have a phone list of steady customers we call every week 3 hours before market, and that works as well. It's really time consuming, but some of those people are buying 30-50 dollars worth of produce, and they really appreciate the call.

Peterpotato, I like that idea about calling people, but 3 hrs before my market would be 2-4 am, so I doubt if I would try that. How about emailing? We had one vendor that started taking orders over the internet, for people to pick at the market. Now he's dropped a Saturday market and only does Weds market and he has high-tunnels and keeps growing for most of the year. I really have to think how to work the market for next year.

We have called our market quits for this year. Last Saturday, normally well over $1000, was less than $500. We were 1 of 3 vendors with tomatoes out of a possible 50+ vendors, and still did not sell out. Colder and moist weather. We even had a festival in the adjoining block that normally brought more people to the market, and sales still sucked.

It has been really hard to get everything picked and ready for market since school has started back up. So I see all these sales as just bonuses! All I really get done is picking and some watering. I pick every Monday and Tuesday night. Get everything ready Tuesday night (usually up until at least midnight if not 1:30 or 2:00. Pack up before school, teach all day, then head to the market. It is a crazy schedule, but we make it work.

Hanselman, Why are you not going to the market anymore? My thinking is if I have the product, why not go? Last week was a good example. I was reluctant to pick much, but I pushed on and did. I sold out of peppers, cucumbers, radishes, eggs, and squash. I probably could have sold more, but i ran out. I had more at home, but I will save those for this week. Fall markets can be so "Hit and Miss".

My market has been going since the first of May, and we are tired. We do 3 market days at this market per week from the first of May til end of Oct (if we can hold out). I wish I was closer to you, I'd send my stuff with you to sell. I guess I'm burned out for this year. time for vacation from marketing.

This year has been depressing on our sales. Our best sales day was $2300, we had to have 5 people working a 10x20 booth. We brought in a full-sized pickup plus a 12' cargo van packed FULL. No front seats, everyone needed to drive their vehicles. We barely had room for the tables and canopies.

I know one of the areas I get hurt on is selling. I usually have 24 feet of table space (3 8 foot tables) and only myself to take money and answer questions. I am really hopping most of the time. I always have lines. Good I guess, but I know I am probably missing some sales because of it.

My BIL helps with setting out produce when I run out and putting bags on bowls/baskets to be weighed. But he is limited in the abilities. Every little bit helps. Sometimes we even have our 4 kids with us!

That sounds Like it was a really good day. I will never be there, at least with my current situation.

This year's average Saturday sales were between $800 and $1200, with just that booth.

I have a stack of these plastic bowls. I zero the scale out for them and if some one wants to go shopping, they pick up a bowl and fill it up. I try to always have a bag on the bowl. This way, I just have to pull up the handles on the bag and they are off. It is really pretty quick. Then I put the bags on the bowls and set them out again.

Thank you for sharing this information.

The 7month would not be alot of help, but the others can do some things. We don't have any of the grandkids at the market, especially on Saturdays. There is no time to watch them and keep them out of trouble.

[IMG]http://i38.tinypic.com/iz9s29.jpg[/IMG]

i also belong to a farmers market that promotes fall winter food sales. This market is in a college town so our sales go way up in late summer/fall due to the local population increasing by 150%.

I do find having a Facebook page for the farm and sending out weekly emails to my email list has helped a lot. Weeks I do no online advertising as weeks when sales go down 25% to 40%

I checked your blog out, very nice. I haven't figured out how to get everything done, let alone add much of a blog. I did start one early this year, but between the end of June and last week, just not enough time to post anything.

Will you be changing much next year? Hubby and I have supplemented our garden with produce from an Amish community, but now we are wondering if we can scale back to be able to grow more with just the 2 of us.

I don't see us doing much different next year than this year, other than finding someone to grow sweet corn for us. I know a young guy who's family we have worked with for about 15 years (I believe this young man was about 5 when we met) who is now married and has a 120 acre farm of his own. if all goes right he will grow several acres of corn for us.

We have always grown about 99% of what we sell and will continue to do that.