farmer's market

[blue90292]

so my friend rachel who lives down several streets from me and i have been talking about raising broilers together for a while. she's a judge for agility and flies around the country judging. she also teaches agility at her farm and therefore, is quite the busy lady.

and me and my work, plus being a single mom, plus chickens plus everything seems to be a work in progress, i tend to stay busy also. thank goodness i don't date. LOL

i had pretty good luck with the FRs and really enjoyed raising them. we figured out how to sell dressed birds but the cost of renting a space at a market downtown, plus the gas price to just drive there, had us discouraged.

we had thought about maybe starting a small market in arcola which is the local feed store we buy are feed from and asking the owner if we could use his parking lot on sunday's when his store is closed. last year i convinced the owner to start a trade days at his place twice a year and this last trade day we had, brought in 20 vendors and alot of customers. but arcola is off the beaten path with no real stores around and the clientelle, not very affluent which would meand alot of advertising to get it up and going.

rachel, my neighbor, also thought about asking pearland, one of the fastest growing cities in texas, and seeing if we could get one started there. pearland is only 10 minutes from our properties and this seemed like a great idea. lo and behold, the park's department called her back and told her they would be very interested in helping us start one in pearland.

pearland, with its rise in commercialism and many people from the texas medical center living there, has become quite greedy and i'm sure they will be inundating us with fees and regulations. we're hoping it won't be too bad and are crossing our fingers we can get something started.

we might be jumping the gun, but we're very excited with the possibilities of getting a local market where the hobbyists can sell their home made or home grown items in our back yard, sort of.

please wish us luck and if you know of any insite to give us, please do so!

thank you.

michele

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Wow sounds like lots of fun. Do check the laws and local regulations and such to be sure you can sell meat and eggs. Also check out insurance if your the 'host' of this, or have the city cover you if it's on their land. Be sure on your table rental paper or however your doing it that you make it clear each person is responsible to ensure that what they are selling is legal to sell. Her there is a restriction on home canning, eggs and meat, but other places it's wide open.

 

[greyfields]

Sounds like fun, too! Be super careful about your regulations. Even if you follow all the rules for processing/packaging meat birds for sale, each individual county may have different requirements on how you store the meat birds at home and how they are stored/sold/displayed at the farmer's market. You may or may not be allowed to freeze them, either.

Also, GET INSURANCE before you accept a single dollar.

 

[blue90292]

i googled and googled yesterday to try and get more information and now i think my head is about to explode with all that's out there! LOL

thank you for your advice and yes, we're definitely going to get insurance.

 

[HFC]

Any updates? If it's anywhere close to 288 or the Beltway I could justify stopping by on my way home from work on Saturday mornings.

 

[freeholdfarms]

Michele,

Check out Urban Harvest
http://www.urbanharvest.org/
They even teach a class on what is required to sell at their Market in Houston.
Maybe they would help you set this one up.
This could be good if you can get it going.

 

[HFC]

Urban Harvest is great. I haven't been to any of their classes yet, but they've got a ton of information on their website.

I originally planned on selling my eggs there (Richmond/Kirby farmer's market) right now, but I'm not as long as I can sell out at home without driving across Houston. Diesel's approaching $5/gallon.

 

[blue90292]

Quote:
i think we're looking at doing something the first weekend of every month, when everyone's gotten paid. lol

my friend spoke with the parks people of pearland who suggested she call this lady, turns out she's with the new mall that's being built out here. they're planning on having an open market type thing at the mall. the lady wanted to have vendors everyday. there's just no way we can do that since we're just hobbyists and looking for a place to sell our excess stuff. and of course, they would charge us quite a bit to sell.

my friend sells at the down town one. t'afia or something like that. that's where my friend also sells his whole chicken. it's just quite the drive and by the time you pay for gas and the fee to set up a table, it's not worth the effort or the time you've put into it if it's not a business but a hobby and you have excess to sell. i know a guy drives all the way from lake jackson to sell at the downtown one. that's like an hour or so drive. i just can't see doing that. that's why i'd like to try to open something up on the south side of houston.

i spoke to my feed store guy since his place is closed on sundays. he's offered to let me use his parking space every first sunday of the month to have an open air market. i'm saying open air since i'd like to have a mix of vendors other than farm. there would have to be rules on exactly what can be sold, and things sold are items that you grew or created with a limit on how many vendors can sell a specific item.

i started a trade day at his feed store and we just had our second one last month. the first one was in the fall. we really tried and put the word out for the second one and we had a great turnout of 22 vendors who sold animals, poultry, jewelry, crafts, food, etc. had a great turnout and so i'm hoping we can start small on this monthly open air market geared more towards farmers instead of live animals. i know this last trade day i profited $300 and my friend was able to sell several of his horses and donkeys. i'm definitely looking forward to the one we put together in the fall. we just need to figure out how to get more customers out there.

i just wish there was a place that could be better seen. where the feed store is, is a poor part of town. until several years ago when the city mandated everyone connect to the city water/sewer system, there were houses there that didn't have indoor toilets. it's amazing since the next couple of miles down the hwy is a subdivision where our major football and major baseball team players live.

anyway, i'm rambling here....

along 288 by hwy 6 is a new church that got built and beside it is an open grassy area. also along that street is lost lake which is now up for sale with an open area. i'm thinking about asking these two organizations to see if they would be interested in letting us open a market there once a month. if i could get either of these two places to bite, it would probably be on saturdays with a $5 fee just so we can rent a port-a-potty. i'd just like to find a way where our local people can sell their excess items without having to pay so much into it. i think that would be a win win situation for everyone.