The Newfarm Forums

[willing hands farm]

Am interested to hear what you have been doing at market, how the farms are doing. Guess everyone is inundated with field work.

[AndyF]

We're having our best year ever. After 4 years our name is getting around and we're getting good word of mouth business. We did PYO strawberrries by appointment this year and it worked well - everyone who came seemed to enjoy it whether they picked $5 worth or $90 worth. Both CSAs are also doing well - we set a target of 50 members for each and ended up with 54 and 36. The farmstand is starting to get busy now that we're into tomatoes. It's not big money but it is steady and its very easy to manage. The weather has been been pretty good for us. We've had enough rain so we haven't had to irrigate much. We've had a few hiccups in the greenhouse and are still having problems growing carrots, but many of the other items we have had problems with are growing well for us this year. We aren't selling at farmers markets this year and it is a nice change to have Saturdays free. I can catch up on a few things on the farm or take the day off.

Andy
www.fellenzfamilyfarm.com

[ebenezer]

It was spitting rain drops today so I didn't water because I don't like to step on wet ground. This was the first moisture from the sky in a long time. We have been watering alot, if I hadn't been watering the produce would not be in right condition to take to market. We market in two places, one roadside 3 times a week and sales there are almost double last year, it is our second year there and we starting to get repeat and some new customers. There has always been sweet corn sellers there and they are begining to notice that we sell produce but not sweet corn. (too much and low price) The second location is a farmers market where we are brand new. It has been interesting and a learning experience. We need more product and more traffic by our stand, we are making some profit but I see room for lots of improvement. We had fantastic brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage and lettuce. We currently have great green beans and carrots (best ever). Last week I came home with half of the beans I brought to market because we had so many and other vendors had beans too. I fed them to the steers, they love them. I am eager for our tomatoes to ripen. The egg plant, peppers and zucc (sp) are coming on now. We have been having fun.