End of Season One as Market Gardeners
Fall seems to finally be here and we’re happy to have it! Tomorrow will be our last farmer’s market of the year, which is just in time since the cool evening temps and dwindling day light have our garden winding down for the year. Stop by and see us at Rockford City Market tomorrow evening.
It really is hard to believe the season is over already, and what a great season it’s been! The relaxed pace of the Rockford market allowed us to work out display, setup and marketing kinks that we wouldn’t have had time to learn in a Chicago market. And we met some great local farmers who had booths near us who shared some great growing and selling advice. All in all, the Rockford City Market was the perfect 1st time market for us.
Great Lessons for the Road Ahead
We both agree that our first year of farmer’s market participation has been a great success. We learned so much from the farmers/vendors we met, and the customers taught us through their purchases what we should be growing more of. Plus, the garden itself taught us endless lessons about farming. We figured out what produce to focus most of our attention on in the future (people LOVE beets!). Some plants didn’t make the cut for next year, like broccoli and cauliflower; they take up too much space and extremely hot weather sends them to seed if you don’t happen to be standing next to them to cut them at that exact moment. Designer heirloom tomatoes – 25% are all color and no taste, so we’ve kicked out the ones that are strictly pretty. We want color AND taste! And people love snap peas and colorful carrots! I’ve heard that every farmer says this but, we mean it, we can’t wait to plant our garden next year! It’s going to be awesome!!!
Other highlights from this past summer is that we’ve mastered the art of packing up our car in less than 5 minutes at the end of the market. We have figured out a market display that gets a lot of attention from customers. (Mainly because we have pictures of the chickens, goats, Tilly and Archie all over the place.) And most importantly, we had fun! We make the Rockford City Market a “date night” where we just have fun and enjoy the live music while hanging in our booth.
Thank you to all our customers, friends and family who came to visit our booth this summer! We’ll see you again next year!
