Market gardeners: wins and lessons learned this season?

This was our first year selling anything from the farm. I did it mostly for the practice for when our fruit starts coming in next year. Our farmers market is very small (only lasts 1 hour per week!) and informal.

Wins: I charge more for my eggs, and I get it. DH made a leather conditioning salve that we sold when we ran out of eggs. I also sold some of the last of my books (from my previous life).
Lessons: we need more hens and we need them not to all molt at the same time. Show up early to get the best spot. We need a pop up canopy. Talk to everyone. Smile!

How'd it go for you?

We've just started ours here in northern Catskills. Were focussing on a limited csa first, with selling remainder at farmstands.

Ann Torrence wrote:We need a pop up canopy.

This year, I learned that I needed a good pop up canopy. On my first day, I was using a flimsy $25 canopy that required me to hold on to it every time the wind was anything more than a gentle breeze.

I also learned that peaches outsell apples by about a 5 to 1 margin in my area, so guess what I'll be planting more of?

I learned that a huge amount of people don't have any idea of how to cook whole chickens.
And that they think a four pound bird is too big for a family of four.
Left overs? What's that?
So I have to make cards with cooking instructions and recipes.

Also learned that despite signs, and I am talking fluresant green and pink digns. 80%of people will not open a cooler to look at the produce I was trying to keep from looking like limp blob.

Lots of stuff to learn and build for this year's markets.

Those are great lessons! This thread should be a running list for everyone to add insight too!!!

Any luck this year with the lessons learned from last year?

This is prime Farmers Market season. Unfortunately I moved to Louisiana, prepped my beds late, skipped a soil test, didn't amend much, and am having terrible results in the clay muck I have under my 1/2 in of topsoil...lesson learned: do a soil test, add more compost, and prep the way I knew I should!!

Good Luck,
Jeremy
www.elwellsupplies.com
A Farmers' Market Supply Store

Something we learned about popup canopies from camping at the beach, replace the fabric with shade cloth and it lasts a lot longer in windy conditions. We had a huge, cobbled together structure of shade cloth and electrical conduit held together with spring clamps. It lasted undamaged for our whole trip while many people around us had their pop up canopies turned inside out and torn up by the wind. This isn't technically market experience, but I thought it might be relevant.