| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BamaSuzy |
Posted - May 31 2005 : 9:33:10 PM
What do you sell directly from your farm or homestead????
We live on a state highway, but it is not a major highway. I have a simple sign by the driveway that says "Farm Fresh eggs from happy chickens" and folks just stop by when they see the sign! One of my neighbors on the farm in the next valley, gave me his old refrigerator and it sits on my carport with a sign instructing folks, that if I'm not home, to get the eggs they need out of that refridge and leave their money in the canning jar there....
I am also making a little display to sit beside the fridge of some of my goat milk soap for sale....
And soon will have bags of composted "bunny manure" to sell from my carport as well...
Any excess vegetables will be set closer to the road for sell as well but most of them will be eaten by us!
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt! |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| knittingmomma |
Posted - Apr 05 2006 : 10:14:35 AM
We plan to convert the front end of our barn to a "storefront" this spring/summer/fall for Saturday shoppers. Our village homestead is only seconds from the center of town and a well travelled road. We are going to place a nice wooden sign in town with an arrow towards our farm.
We are setting it all up (or plan to) a la Mary Jane style - classy, down home, quality, etc...
For us to start (this is all new to us - my husband is leaving his full time job on the 14th!) - we will be offering our natural fiber handcrafted goods, going to check into selling prepared food such as organic bread and organic chocolate chip cookies, an produce we produce from our 1/3 acre we are working on as well. We are very excited!!
Warm wishes,
Tonya
Natural Earth Farm - A Village Homestead making handcrafted goods of natural fibers - http://www.naturalearthfarm.com |
| frannie |
Posted - Apr 04 2006 : 5:03:16 PM
my hsuband, country sells aracuaan eggs for 2.00 a dozen they are blue and green and quite tasty, but alot of times he trades them or gives them to friends. he calls them "tender eggs from gigglin chickens", they are not the only ones giglin aroung here.
other things i have sold are handmade items, i make domestic goddess aprons, cedar filled pin cushions, baby quilts and and cedar filled pincushions. imostly do scrap crafts.
i am also on a 2 lane state highway the only road out of texas for about 30 miles in both directions. so we have a great location for sales that i have had a couple of times a year.
there are pros and cons of these sales though cause it can cause problems with your work schedule during the week.
i am considering getting a site on the internet to do an online busiess, then i think i can manage the interruptions and manage my time better.
frannie |
| Christine in Clark Fork |
Posted - Mar 17 2006 : 09:15:44 AM
We have tried selling from our homestead with mixed success. Butcher lambs--lost money. Eggs--made money, but was difficult for people to understand that production varies seasonally. We solved the problem by raising our price (supply-demand). We now get $4 a dozen. Excess garden produce (pea pods, chard, etc.)--made money, too much for us to eat anyway. Berries--made money, my daughter started her business 3 years ago when she was 5. People love buying from farm kids. I have planted 100 asperagus plants for my son's business, should start producing next year. He's only 4 right now.
I was very impressed by Mary Jane's set up. It taught me that we are not only selling a quality product which deserves a quality price, we are selling a way of life. After visiting her farm, I now understand that I need to market my items better. All of us are selling something that you can't buy at the local Wal Mart. People are hungry for REAL things and a REAL way of life. I need to learn to quit selling myself short and understand the true value of what I am selling.
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| Annab |
Posted - Mar 04 2006 : 09:47:06 AM
For egg cartons.....ask friends and family to start saving them for you. I started requesting cartons at work. So bwtween these and my family, that's one less expense. |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Feb 24 2006 : 9:45:38 PM
I am so thrilled that my little hens kept right on laying at least a few eggs a day all winter..with no break. I think they took turns taking a break from laying...so I didn't have to buy eggs all winter this year..what a treat. usually I have at least a month of no eggs..as i don't put a light in the hen house.....When I sold eggs in Calif I got $2 a dozen.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| Libbie |
Posted - Feb 24 2006 : 9:13:42 PM
We sell our eggs for $2.00/dozen. I think "correct" pricing is whatever you think that your product is worth, workwise and quality-wise, balanced by the price the market would bear. We just had a Wal-Mart come in a year ago, and so many of our "eggers" have switched over to the very much cheaper eggs there .
We have some very loyal customers, however, and I think that if can sell your eggs at that price, then, having chickens myself, and knowing that it is work to provide for them and take care of the eggs, you will have loyal customers at whatever price you pick.
Aren't farm eggs beautiful?!? When I first had chickens, I was so amazed at the color and form of the yolks and whites - they really make "store" eggs look kind of, well, yucky (to me, at least).
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
| n/a |
Posted - Feb 24 2006 : 4:00:49 PM
So I am curious, how much are you able to sell your eggs for? We are not feeding our chickens certified organic, but we also do not use chemicals on our property. Our chickens are free range and the eggs are small-xlarge. The local grocery store sells organic eggs for $3.89 a dozen and I cracked one open and it was just as pale as could be.
All last year I gave my eggs away to family, neighbors and friends. I really just liked keeping the chickens. But this year after a lot of convincing from friends and family I decided to sell my eggs at the nursery. I sell x-large for $4.50 & mixed dozens (s-l) for $4.00. The yokes are a beautiful natural orange color and the flavor can't be beat by the grocery store. After reading some of the posts, I want to make sure I am being fair. Just because I can get this much doesn’t mean it's the right price. I still enjoy giving them away to friends and neighbors and prospective customers.
When I feel spring coming I have to plant or I’ll go crazy! |
| Mari-dahlia |
Posted - Feb 02 2006 : 05:17:00 AM
Yes, I have had a small problem with the honor system. Sometimes people just give you what they think the item is worth even when it is clearly marked. I sell my eggs for $2 and I receive anywhere from $1 - 1.75. I have figured out how much each egg cost by dividing the cost of feed etc. by the number of eggs I get a week during good weather and it costs me $1.25 a dozen. The most expensive thing being feed followed by the 20cent cost of the carton. Sometimes I am not even recooping costs but it is better than not selling at all. This area would not support a more expensive dozen even if it was organic. I would have to sell eggs at $3 a dozen if I bought organic feed. |
| asnedecor |
Posted - Feb 01 2006 : 7:24:37 PM
I don't have a farm, but I am very familar with the selling from the farm business. When my parents had the blueberry farm, we not only sold to a produce broker & cannery, we sold fresh off of the farm. It first started with just a sign out front with us kids there sitting in the shade with buckets of berries to sell. We lived on a major state hwy so there was enough traffic to attract customers. As my parents got the hang of it, the beginning of the season - usually just before the second picking (second, third and sometimes fourth pickings produce the best berries) they would put an ad in the local classifieds with our number and cost. We sold by the gallon (5 lbs) because it was a measurement that most people could picture. We always had questions about how much would I need to make a pie or jelly. Anyway - my parent's farm was called "Blue Crop Farm" and had a really nice sign made for out front with a great color,lazer carved graphic of a bunch of blue berries on it. We then started hanging open or berries for sale sign below the main farm sign. We would take orders over the phone from the classified and arrange pickups and we would also reserve so many pounds for drive bys. They had a pretty booming business. We had regulars every year and we would always have great sales during the 4th of July weekend because we were on the main hwy that led to St. Paul and the rodeo. We never left a jar out, just too risky in my parent's mind. We did belong to the Oregon Blue Berry Growers Association and they provided brochures with recipes and storage ideas for our customers. My point is, if you want to increase your business, the classified worked very well and the by the gallon thing worked even better. Also my parents made a point of educating customers on how to freeze, can, etc the berries for the best results. Making use of the local association resources helped also. Even after my parents sold the farm, moved into town, they still got calls for 4 years after from regulars inquiring about the berries.
Anne - former blueberry picker and pruner 
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning" Peter Pan
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| CabinCreek-Kentucky |
Posted - Feb 01 2006 : 6:51:50 PM
well .. the only 'produce' that i sell from cabin creek are the dollies that "i" PRODUCE .. and antiques. have sales from time to time .. but mostly do my sales right here from my computer via cyberspace to my Treasure Seekers. but it is, indeed, a product and a business. when visitors come and i have dollies and things 'sitting about' .. they buy from our home .. but since i run the back roads so much .. i am not always here to greet visitors .. so i don't put a sign out on the road (which is 1/2 mile via a 'goat trail' or 'pig path' as i've often heard our road called!)
True Friends, Frannie |
| NicoleG |
Posted - Feb 01 2006 : 11:47:45 AM
For those of you who use the jar on the porch or basically sell by the honor system, do you ever have any problems with that? |
| JerseyCowFan |
Posted - Dec 22 2005 : 9:37:17 PM
I am starting a raw milk business with Jerseys. I hope to also sell soaps, eggs, and milk products (cream cheese, butter, etc)
Michelle
Spirited Rose Jerseys
Colville, WA |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Nov 16 2005 : 10:06:52 AM
You'd be more than welcome Debbie. Please keep in touch! |
| blueroses |
Posted - Nov 16 2005 : 09:51:41 AM
Diane,
I would love to come visit your farm (if that's okay) when we take our trip to Victoria next year. It sounds great. I love how you want to sell and make some money, but try to keep fair prices.
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
| DaisyFarm |
Posted - Nov 11 2005 : 09:21:57 AM
As far as I know there are no laws to protect us...thus I have added hobby farm and extra liability insurance to our home owner's policy. It costs me about $1600/year, but worth it should someone ever fall on our property or sue us for whatever reason. It's expensive, but I can also write it off on our taxes against the income we generate.
I have an 8000 sq ft garden that produces a wide variety of veggies. Lots of folks advised finding a "niche" market and offering something different. I find the opposite to be true...folks that come here want good old standards, ie. broccoli, beets, carrots (all I could sell by the truckload), lettuces, chard, peas, etc. I can sell far more than I produce. I can make about $600/month average between June and September in produce sales alone...smaller income with spring greens and later fall squashes, leeks and stuff that will hold until frost. The HUGE draw to our farm is organic. We are not certified and I never EVER tell folks we are, but assure them we practice safe, sane and sustainable farming practices. There are absolutely no chemicals of any kind allowed on our farm.
We also have a large strawberry patch and wild blackberries and sell fresh and frozen. Frozen will sell for a premium price in winter, but I strive to keep our prices more than fair. I also make a wide assortment of jams that I sell from here in various sizes. The big expense with jams are the jars and I offer .50 each for returned ones (also keeps people coming back).
We also sell eggs from chickens "raised on certified organic feed and sunshine". I've found that by offering as big a variety as I can, folks that come to buy one thing will often buy another on impulse. I will ocassionally sell farm raised chicken, but legally we are not allowed to so have to be careful there. I have raised pork, but found that for all the work involved, it cost us more than we made! Feed is very expensive here on the island.
Our farm is open to the public from 10am (allows me to get chores and housework done first) until dusk. We have met some wonderful people. There are days when we are so busy we struggle to get things done, but such is the nature of what we do.
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| Annab |
Posted - Nov 11 2005 : 04:00:49 AM
My husband and I sell our produce. The big money makers are watermelon in the summer and collards in winter. Our biggest problem is living in an area where the market is already saturated. The key will be taking our stuff to a farmer's market or setting up on a roadside somewhere. I sell our chicken eggs and the list for buyers is already pretty big. We only have 3 big egg layers and three bantam layers On a whim, I recently ordered 11 chicks that will hopefully start laying this spring. They have already grown 4 times their size! My specialty is canning jams and jellies. We have wild blackberries growing all over the place and I am able to buy U-pick strawbwrries from a local farmer. I charge only 4.00/pint. It's heartbreaking to see similar products going for much more, but the zoo people I mostly see to are a poor lot and much more than 4 dollars might scare them away. Saw in a store the other day, the EXACT recipe I use (same one in the Ball canning book-so it's no secret) and this jar of preserves was 8.99!! Guess mass production has it's drawbacks.
Is anyone aware of any laws that protect the hobby farmer and the edibles we sell to the general public?? I'd love to get all stainless steel appliances and go big time, but this is still a hobby (and still fun at this point). |
| Mari-dahlia |
Posted - Nov 08 2005 : 05:30:02 AM
Hey thanks for the advice!
I found an old table, made a sign, stuck out a canning jar with a thankyou note and sold out of my eggs in two days. People were just thrilled and I'm on a little traveled road. I wanted to sell my eggs organic but don't want to spend that for feed so I put them out as farm fresh and they all went.
People can see my chickens running around and they like that too. I now put out pie pumpkins, herbs and gourds. |
| jenny louise |
Posted - Nov 06 2005 : 4:43:28 PM
Hi, I have sold vegies, herbs, raw fleece, processed fleece, art work, lambs and sheep, chickens, ducks, and rocks of all things!
I mostly have sold at farmer's markets, since we are pretty remote, and now i hold a full time job until i get through school. Then I can't wait to get back to raising some produce and chicks, and getting dirty again. I think though, that after having sold all types of produce, I am at that point where i will just do the heirloom varieties of squash and pumpkins. They will hold from week to week, and folks are decorating so much more for fall than ever before! Spring time, I am going to delve into sweet peas and other flowers, especially the perennials that i won't have to replant every year. Folks have gone mad for fragrant sweet peas in the past and although picking and bundling are time consumptive, I adore them, and it is such a nostalgic thing for folks, it does my heart good. Noone else grows them in our markets, and I love them so. Good luck with whatever you decide to do, and most of all...enjoy the journey! |
| goatingal1 |
Posted - Oct 28 2005 : 08:15:36 AM
would any of you that make goat soap please send your tried and true receipes this is an area I want to explore with my goats milk.
thanks
Terri |
| citygoatlady |
Posted - Jul 04 2005 : 11:37:06 PM
About customers:
I sell goat milk, cheese, and sometimes eggs. I am very firm with people that they MUST phone me ahead to set up the time and day they will "visit". I do have a self-service little refridgerator on the porch, but I always know exactly who will be coming over.
As far as the chickens melting, how about having them pay you up front with their "order"? You are committing a lot of time to butchering chickens, and it's better to have customers who are equally committed to paying you and picking up the birds. I think they ought to think of buying local, quality farm products from you as a privilege. Having them pay ahead of time screens out the freeloaders. In addition, let them know that if they don't pick up a bird (prepaid or not) by a certain time, you will sell it to someone else (no refund, in my opinion). They need to understand that these things are perishable and you need dependable customers!
I find the more firm I am about policies, the more I like the types of customers I attract. I also INSIST that they return the same type glass canning jars I provide, clean, and with lids, when they pick up fresh milk in a jar. If they forget to bring back jars, they must pay $1 deposit on any jar from my house. $2 would be better, if someone keeps on not returning the jars.
I used to be so fed up with my customers that I actually gave them all to a friend who was new in goats, and even got rid of my goats altogether. For only a few months, as it turned out. Now that I have been very strict about my terms the first time anyone calls, I am getting customers who are responsible, and thrilled to get the milk and cheese locally. I am enjoying my customers a lot now!
Find local raw milk on www.localharvest.com. "If you complain about farmers, don't do it with your mouth full." |
| shepherdess |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 11:28:41 PM
When the weather is nice I have a canopy in my front yard . I set it up so it looks real nice. I also have signs on my fence by the end of the driveway
Farm Girl from Western Washington
" From sheep to handspun " |
| BamaSuzy |
Posted - Jun 22 2005 : 09:43:02 AM
Sheperdess, to you have a little stand out front, or a display on your carport, or how do you sell your items from home??????
You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt! |
| shepherdess |
Posted - Jun 21 2005 : 10:37:52 PM
Hello
I am a little behind in my posts. I sell Eggs, chickens (live ), geese, ducks, lambs, vege, herb and flower plants when in season. Also my wool and knitting.I love selling from my farm. I have met so amny nice people. opps I almost forgot I also sell my handmade soap and jams and jellies
Farm Girl from Western Washington
" From sheep to handspun "
Robin |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Jun 20 2005 : 12:36:22 PM
Welcome Polly!!! You sound like you are one of us already!!
Jenny in Utah
The best things in life arn't things! |
| psouper |
Posted - Jun 20 2005 : 04:42:29 AM
We sell eggs, whole dressed chickens and turkeys, and pork.
Sometimes I think it is such a hassle to deal with customers - they come to my door at 7 am when I"m in my bathrobe, and sometimes they don't show up to pick up their chickens which are sitting in rapidly melting ice on a hot August day -- - we often think of just producing for ourselves, but the idea of allowing people to Buy Local wins out.
I love to sew and knit and have thought about doing something with that. . but I'm not sure what. : ) Another season of life perhaps.
Polly |
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