Today was Plum Forest Farm’s first market day in two years. It was a great experience!
No, I didn’t take any pictures … I did take my camera, but I was busy from the time I got there until after the market closed. Next Saturday I will get pictures …
I pretty much manned the stall the entire time. Greeting, smiling, weighing, changing money … and reminded a lot that my math SUCKS. But it’s one of the first times that I’ve felt even slightly stressed about it. And, the solution is to just have a small calculator on the stand. I’m so dependent on a calculator now. I don’t know what I would do if my mobile phone didn’t have one on it. Pretty sad. I’m talking addition here too, folks. It’s not that I can’t add, I just can’t do it quickly. Silly things like 6.00 + 3.25 + 2.75 + 2.50 = ? I mean, I did it on paper in less than a minute, but it seemed like an eternity and I still second-guessed myself. Or maybe I’m just being hard on myself again.
Apparently overall the market wasn’t that good. It was slow for everyone (I know this because Joanne is the farmer’s market manager). I can’t say that Plum Forest sold a lot, but Rob and Joanne seemed to think what we brought in wasn’t bad for a first market day and knowing that the whole market was slow today.
It was interesting watching people at the market, though. So many browsers. Many people would walk by the stand, look and keep walking. Our produce was gorgeous and our prices were great for organic produce. Really. I’m not just being biased. We easily had the best salad mix, the most beautiful and only bok choi and romaine lettuce. So many people just looked at it and moved on. We had broccoli and cauliflower and kale at the beginning, but they were all gone in the first hour. I guess now we know what people want at this time of year. That, and all the other farmers had salad mix and salad greens. Our mix was the best, though.
I just don’t know what people think, or how they make decisions on what to or what not to buy. I mean, yeah, I can understand a busy, overworked commuter may only be able to buy groceries late on the way home from work at thriftway. But the people at the market, I would hope, since they are smart enough to actually go to the market for the local produce, would be able to know a good price on excellent produce when they see one. For instance- we were selling heads of romaine lettuce, which isn’t very common at this time of year. We had BIG heads, these things were like a pound each. And we were selling them for $3.00 each. Thriftway had romaine heads, small, wilted, sitting on the shelf for days romaine for the same price. I can’t believe we didn’t sell out of them in ten minutes!
So why didn’t we? It might have had something to do with the particular variety. We aren’t growing the run-of-the-mill plain green romaine that every store in the country has. We have Forellenschluss Romaine - it’s Heirloom. It’s rare. It’s gourmet. Quoting from a seed catalog: “In Europe, this Austrian heirloom is called Forellenschluss romaine and is one of the most prized of all varieties.” But people don’t know it and it’s dappled leaves must leave people who don’t ask what it is thinking there’s something wrong with it. People don’t know it here and seemingly aren’t willing to try it. This can be resolved a bit by the farmer being at the market regularly. Six people bought these lettuce heads from us today and we think they’ll be satisfied. Our hope is they share it with friends and remember where they got it and send more people back. Or we’ll take more heads with us next week, and people who saw us the week before will remember and start to realize the lettuce heads are supposed to look like that and to ask about them.
There were also people who looked very confused and were mumbling to themselves. Sometimes I overheard them or they told me what they were thinking. Some didn’t remember what they had in their fridge and didn’t want to buy more salad when they might have some at home. I think people just need to pay better attention to what they’re eating! Since when is what we eat so unimportant? I’ve always known was in my fridge! Have more intention about it! If you’re going to the market, make a list! Geez! I might not remember I need salt or more sugar, but I know what’s fresh!
Anyway, it was a great experience at the market. Mildly frustrating, but great anyway. I’m looking forward to other market days and hope sales skyrocket as we do have some excellent stuff to sell!
I would suggest putting an article describing exactly what you said about that lettuce near it (along w/ a pic) and point people to it if they seem to not be familiar w/ the lettuce style. That, or punch them in the face if they don’t buy it.
Well, in our minds the sign with description is a perfect sub-solution.
In reality, people don’t seem to read …
i.e. yesterday at the market we were selling “Dried Stinging Nettles.” There was a sign sitting in the basket with the bags of nettles that described in brief but sufficient detail what one would do with dried stinging nettles. I’d say at least 90% of the people who looked at the nettles, instead of reading the sign, asked me instead. That 90% of people is maybe 15% of people who looked at the nettles.
I think this is the same thing that would happen with the Forellenschluss romaine. Albeit the romaine was different because the people are used to seeing a plain green head of lettuce, where Forellenschluss is speckled. People see the alien-looking lettuce from afar and their automatic romaine lettuce profile says to them “that’s odd” and they don’t come in closer for a better look, or to ask a question and therefore the majority of people wouldn’t get close enough to read a sign.
I don’t think a sign would really help that much. It would need to say in big letters, readable from 5-10 ft away: “THIS IS ROMAINE LETTUCE JUST LIKE YOU SEE IN THRIFTWAY. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT EXCEPT IT IS SPECKLED AND NOT BORING PLAIN GREEN. IT IS A BETTER DEAL THAN THE WEEK-OLD, SMALL HEAD SOLD IN THRIFTWAY! AND ALSO SUPPORTS YOUR LOCAL ECONOMY TO BOOT!”
NOW BUY IT GODDAMMIT!