Just in case anyone is waiting with baited breath wondering what type of emergency I had last night. Well my lovely yet totally scatter brained wife decided to lose yet another set of keys. The last remaining set for her car as a matter of fact which means, well I don't know what it means yet except plenty of dollar signs I am sure come Monday.
I blame myself really I should have gotten an extra set made up when she lost the first set but at the time she screamed that it costs like 300 bucks. My bet is $300.00 is going to look good once we get this latest problem fixed.
Ok since that is out of the way I will give the Farmer's Market report for this week. My guess is that this will be the last one this year since I am trying to build up the hives for Winter and have very few that were actually producing anyway. I may get another harvest around the end of September or so but I am also planning on distributing out as much honey to the new hives as possible and I have a list of top priority allergy customers that come first.
This year was a very successful test run but if things continue on a long slow slide I hope to come out of the gate with three times the producing hives next year. From what I have seen this year I could increase my production of not only honey but other things by six or seven times and still not reach market saturation. As it is now I am seeing repeat customers week after week that just keep increasing what they buy.
I had a repeat customer today that was almost in tears talking about how her daughter could breath and go outside again. She lives maybe half a mile from me and said she has literally spent thousands of dollars on allergy meds for her daughter and nothing worked until I started selling her the exact honey for the periods she was most reactive too. Why, some of the pollen she is consuming more than likely came from her own yard they live so close.
Anyway on to the rest of the market which can be summed up in two words....
SOLD OUT!!!
My little booth was cleaned out in a matter of a few hours. Everything was being grabbed up as fast as I could resupply it from the back of my truck. About the only thing that didn't move today were Jalapeno peppers which is odd because they were among the first to go in prior weeks.
In fact today was the first day that it would have been actually profitable to have taken vegetables to market without the added honey sales.
By the end of the morning I was just giving what little stuff remained away. I had made enough profit I just didn't even care anymore. I was adding in an extra tomato or something for people to try different varieties. I must have moved twenty or more pumpkins and then I had a fire sale giving pumpkins away free to all customers under the age of seven :)
I had to amend the rules on that when one lady showed up with three adorable little girls but the oldest was seven, so I declared it was actually a sale for Seven and under :)
It was so cute watching all those little children walking around with pumpkins bigger than their upper torsos. As I was packing up I actually delivered the pumpkins for the three girls who lived a few blocks away. There was no way they were going to make that trip carrying those pumpkins on their own.
For such a tiny little market we get a number of out of town visitors and it has a good reputation but as I said I as yet cannot even produce enough to satisfy this little market. If I had the numbers and could hit a few others out and about the sky's the limit I think.
I would say it was overall a very successful test run and I see no reason to change my plans for next year as long as things stay the way they are going. I may have to seriously look for a seasonal or part time job over the Winter months since so much work went into simple recovery this year. Yet I can see plenty of room for expansion and growth with more than enough income generated to sustain my simple lifestyle. Why I even managed to put some money into the all important saving fund the wife insists on even though I try to explain that it actually looses value at today's interest rates.
The most important aspect is that I am proving you can indeed make it work and as I said that is what may matter the most very soon.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
Chipped keys even sidewinder cut ones aren't as expensive to get made as they once were if you don't need the remote unlock.
ReplyDeleteI understand there is a big market for local organic seasonal vegetables and fruits by chefs...perhaps this is another area you could explore. You've got to love the underground economy. Like me, you're a sucker for the young...well done.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the key. I was going to have a set made for a spare, and the dealership wanted $300.00. So I had a regular key made for three dollars at Home Depot and put it on the car in a magnetic box. It won't start the car but it will open the door. Our big issues revolve around locking the keys in the car, rather than losing the keys all together.
ReplyDeleteAnother asinine thing the car makers are doing is putting these sensors on the tires. When I had my oil changed, the Walmart people broke the stem on one of the tires on my wife's car. It cost me a fortune to replace the stem. With a regular tire stem, it would have been three bucks.
Great job at the market.
ReplyDeletePP,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a very productive day for you at the market.
You're such a nice man to drive the pumpkins home for those little girls.
Oh boy, having to replace keys from a vehicle dealership is going to cost you a fortune. Can the wife back track where she's been to see if they can be found?
$300? Wow. I checked at the dealership the other day and they said it was $85 + programming. Ouch.
ReplyDeleteTake the title with you to the dealership for proof of ownership. Last one I had cut off the VIN, about a year ago, was about $30. Still got hosed, but not quite as bad as you are imagining.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Dan
P.s. If the paperwork you need is locked in the car call your insurance agent. They usually can fax over what you need.