Tips and Tricks for Selling Produce at the Farmers Market

Overloaded with vegetables, herbs and chickens, or just thinking about next year? Whatever your motivation, bringing produce and food to sell at the farmer's market is a cornerstone of many small farms' marketing plans. Before you pack up the van or truck, learn how to maximize profits and minimize undue effort when you sell at the farmers market.

Choose Your Products Wisely
Let's face it. Everyone has piles of zucchini, heads of romaine, and cucumbers. What are you going to offer that's different or unique? Is it a specialty lettuce, an heirloom tomato, or an uncommon herb? Check out this list of alternative crops as a jumping-off point for a brainstorm session.
Think outside the supermarket. What can you offer customers that the supermarket or even the local food co-op cannot? Some of the more unique things I've seen recently: sprouts and shoots, microgreens, rare lettuces, rare or uncommon herbs like marjoram, and value-added products like elderberry syrup, dried herbs, and bags of mixed roots with instructions/ideas for cooking them.

Information Overload
Potential customers go gaga over information. Clearly labeled prices are a good starting point. But go above and beyond. Make signs that answer your customers' common questions. Put information about your growing practices on cards for people to look at. Do your laying hens have names? Make a sign proclaiming, "Henrietta lays the yummiest eggs!" Get creative, think eye-catching.

Some things to think about when making your signs:
Is it organic, free-range, pastured, integrated pest management? Name the quality, then describe what it means to the customer.
Is it specialty, heirloom, or rare? Maybe a sign explaining that Roy's Calais Flint Corn is a rare, heirloom variety common in New England in the 19th century will spark someone's interest.
How do you use it? What is it good with? You might share that your kale is particularly tender, and that the baby leaves can be eaten raw in salad, for example. Selling a unique or uncommon herb? Suggest pairings with other herbs and with foods.

Bring photos of your farm, and print off your "About Us" page from your website and have it available for customers to read. While you're at it, it's a good idea to have business cards with your farm's name, location, hours, and website available. Brochures on CSA shares, copies of any newspaper or magazine articles featuring your farm -- think of anything and everything that showcases who you are and what you do and bring it for customers to look at.