Just pence or plenty, what will happen when we sell our wares this spring? Finally, after years of begging to try, Jim has agreed to allow me to plant for the spring Farmers’ Market. Since we retired last year, I wanted to supplement our income by selling produce at local Farmers’ Market.
Anytime you start something new, if you are wise, you come up with a plan. When Jim and I use to take teams of teenagers onto a foreign mission field for the months of summer, one thing that we were taught was the following saying: “Have a plan, tell your team the plan, work the plan.” It may seem simple but it works.
So what is my plan? I am starting with flowers, early tulips and jonquils. As I have shared in previous blogs on spring bulbs, there are several major enemies of the planted bulbs. If the moles and voles don’t find them, the skunks, raccoons and opossums may. With all the variables, I decided to do a massive planting and over plant with the hopes of at least half of the bulbs making it to the flower stage. I planted more daffodils and jonquils than tulips. Tulips in this area should really be seen as annuals as it is so much work to get them to bloom for more than 2 to 3 years before the bulbs are exhausted.
My plan to try to minimize the damage done by underground feeders was to intersperse the tulip bulbs, which voles see as delicious candy in with the daffodils and jonquils since they are members of the onion family and not tempting to moles and voles at all.
I didn’t do a lot of research on if flowers would sell or if the markets would even be open that early in spring, so we will see how that goes.
I contacted Buchheit and since I was buying a large quality, they gave me a break on the price per bulb. I hand-picked 600 bulbs to make sure they were all firm, healthy bulbs with no visual mold. I bagged them according to type and purchased some blood meal, bone meal and slow release flower fertilizer to add as we planted.
One thing I have not done that I may deeply regret is not doing any research on what kind of market there exists, if any, for early spring bulbs. Will the Farmers’ Markets even be running when the bulbs are up and in flower? Will there be interest in the same flowers that many homes have already in their landscapes? What should I charge for a bunch of tulips and how do I find out how to line up a booth at a market? What markets will allow me to sell my wares? Do I want to only patronize markets that insist that you can only sell what you have personally grown or do I attend larger markets that allow produce brought in from Timbuctoo?
One thing that my husband has finally taught me is the need to track ALL of your expenses to be able to evaluate the real cost per unit and if it is worth the effort to sell products at a local market. To that end I am keeping detailed records that even include the mileage used to go to my local Buchheit to pick up the bulbs. Well, I need to go and tamp down the soil as there are signs that moles have already found their new winter soup-kitchen. I am tamping the loose soil down so that I can monitor the vole action. Please set your heart to have a great day! Be blessed! Anne May
