This Sat was our last farmers market of the year, and so Ian and I are looking back on how the markets went this year. The things that worked (cut flowers) and the things that didn’t. Join us for a chat all about farmers markets.
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Ian and Serina of YOU CANT EAT THE GRASS feel that every small change can make a big difference to the world we live in. Every garden planted leads to a better future. We hope to inspire and motivate others to make positive changes in their lives by sharing our journey towards greater sustainability as we build our family farm. It’s hard work to build a life worth living, and completely worth it!
Contact us at: iancolbeck@gmail.com
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Ahhh missed it again!
You cannot possibly mistake Ontario for the hippie, anything goes province…. Lots and plenty of Pick Your Own farms around the GTA… No liability suits whatsoever… "Enter at your own risk" signs are everywhere, and very visibly displayed… Normally augmented by explanatory text such as "stay off dirigible plums" and whatnot 🙂 Or "walkway will not be snow shovelled in winter" and somesuch…
You could provide minimal instructions in exchange for free labour… An amazing number of urban dwellers are keen to "connect with the earth", however temporary…
I know I've been with my 4 y.o strawberry picking…. I was internally cursing the July sun and praying to not get a sun stroke, while also marveling at my 4 y.o. picking each and every strawberry and declaiming, dramatically, "just look at this red, juicy, delicious strawberry" before putting it in the basket.
When he was 6, we went apple picking… all these trees shorter than me, me being on the petite side… got home with more than my weight in apples and a few jack o'lanterns…
My point here being: DISCLAIMER IS VERY IMPORTANT, AND GET PEOPLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE… and have a stress free engagement with free labour force…
Just in case you did not know, kale is the tastiest AFTER the first freeze.. JUST SAYIN'… 🙂
With the amount of time & money you're spending on the veggies, I can understand why you would want to just go with the flowers next year.
This is completely irrelevant to the video and please don’t take this as offensive but you both look younger than your current age. Serina with the bangs and Ian with the freshly shaved face where he lost all the greys. If I didn’t know any better I would have a hard time believing you guys have children.
In the uk many of the islands are not the same climate +greenhouse, polytunnel. That means it can grow crops thought the year or early to mainland..
In the silly Isle, which growers an sell flowers mostly seasonal. Which you buy on the Internet and is sent by post my mum lovers their flowers.
Hope it is useful to you.
flowers
And team flowers takes it!!
"The way we grow is super tight" – actually – the way you grow is super public 🙂 and no, I've noticed absolutely no staff in my pick my own experiences here, in ON… You could super-simply have people acknowledge they know what they're doing (supervise for a bit, just for your peace of mind…) – or have them acknowledge they are following your channel and are informed about your setup… so, you should definitely take advantage of that… I mean, why not?????? How hard is it to post sign such as "Free entry to our channel followers" and "You enter at your own risk" – and have everybody sign at the gate..??? What damage can they possibly do? Ontario says… nothing to make it into a law court….
Trip hazards…. please don't make me laugh, I'm trying to have my tea here…
We love LOVE the flowers. The veggies should be 1/4 of your video content. We love it when you harvest flowers and make bouquets!!!
Would it be feasible to have a small, enclosed, tow behind trailer that is equipped as a cooler? You could run it on batteries at the market to refresh your stock and refresh the batteries when you get home. Easier for hauling and fresher flowers, maybe?
Mobility issues could very well be humanitarian issues, accessibility notwithstanding… Broaden your horizon and all that… Stuff happen/end/s in the World which is…. well… bad.. kindly extend your time for those exceptional cases… while at the SAME time underline that you are NURTURING YOUNGLINGS of your own, which will (I hope) take precedence above anything else…
I would never buy a $40 at the Farmer’s Market, but might buy several $20 bouquets for gifts. You could offer $30 and $40 bouquets, but carrying them around might be an issue. I have to use a cart at the market myself. Perhaps offering them for pickup at the farm?
Here is my opinion about flowers only. If I visited your stand I would buy a bouquet. But if u had veggies, then there is more to tempt me to buy and its likely that I would buy something else. If there are only flowers available I wouldn't buy more than one. I think your $20 bouquets look great! And that's a great price point. I live in Cali, but I have visited the Kelowna farmers market (it IS huge). As a tourist I did not spend a little here and there (though I could understand why the locals would) I bought fruit by the box. I would totally buy an assortment of vegetables by the box/brown bag as a tourist with a kitchen to cook in. BLESSINGS -Kate
We use a plastic tube filled with concrete tied to keep wind not knocking things down.
are you equal partners
it is the spca here, too. you could have a cat sanctuary.
Have you considered moving a feral cat colony to your farm? That would make great content. You could highlight TNR and spearhead a trap/neuter/release + relocate with acclimation process to your farm and show people how to do it right/safely. Even if you only relocate one or two cats, it would make great content.
What about adding some homemade dog treats to sell? Who can resist that? You already have a good supply of eggs from your chickens, and there are recipes using pureed carrots and sweet potatoes too. Not sure if dogs are allowed in your market, but lots of folks like to also bring treats home for their dogs. Make some doggy treats on Monday or Tuesday before your Markets. What about putting out a 2 gallon jar of cold water with an assortment of your cucumbers sliced, and maybe some sliced oranges or lemons and sell this by the cup? This would certainly draw people to your table where Ian can charm them into looking at the veggies or flowers while getting a refreshing drink. Another thing I thought of is getting some vinyl shopping bags with your logo and information for buying during the week at your stand, how to place large orders or whatever, and hang them in your stand with a sign of free vinyl shopping bag with any $25 purchase (or whatever level). Every time we cruise to Alaska, the shops always offer a large free vinyl shoping bag with any $10 purchase. Tons of people are walking around the ports with those bags. Maybe offer to sell the bags for $5, but free with a $25 purchase. If a lot of people in your area do any sort of canning, maybe you can offer a limited # of pre-paid boxes of tomatos each week to be picked up and pre-paid. You could also put a coupon for 10% off their next bulk order to drive larger sales to your farm.
Maybe you guys are just trying to put all your eggs in the one basket, to increase sales maybe you need to be looking at multiple sale avenues for extra revenue. Can you sell veggies to local small restaurants etc naybe you are at sales capacity for that particular farmers market
Could you scale back on veggies, but just keep the ones that are most profitable and desired by customers. You wouldn't need as much space devoted to veggies on your tables, but it would still attract more people than if you just have flowers.
I think I would like veggies as well as flowers. 40$ is a lot if budgeting where’s 20$ is ok. I would like veggies , they look goo & we eat lot of veggies. But it’s hard work to get everything together for market
You both work so hard. You deserve any extra money u make.
How about becoming a flower farmer? You could sell at the market, in your stand, to the florist and “you pick” at your farm. We need more flower farmers. 80 % of flowers sold in the country aren't grown here. You can do weddings as well. Dried flowers and wreaths sell well, and pumpkins in fall are always a winner.
You must leave your husband speak
It doesn’t look good cutting him off
No offence intended. Since lockdown I watch a lot of ur type video.& it looks better to do 50/50
I love the veggie content and I think the dual growing contents create an interesting tension in the videos.
When I'm at a farmers market the stalls with both draw me the most. Even if I only buy flowers the veggies draw my attention if nicely displayed (like you do). Maybe if you bring less veggies (picking less, growing less) will free up some workingtime, just bringing what you actually sell.
I sold veggies and fruit for many years and a perfect display can give the impression that no one is buying (humans are herd animals, if it looks like others want your food, some people are more likely to buy too).
Loved the flowerface!
Well we know who is the boss and wears the pants in this family..
Team flowers
Please take this as constructive. It's very uncomfortable to watch Serena cut off Ian or redirect him during the whole video. It's not cute. Plus this has been commented on for a long time. Serena, when you are alone on these videos you don't stay on topic either. The videos Ian has done solo have been engaging too. I really like you guys so this isn't a dig, but I am not going to watch these chats anymore. I'll stick with the farm and growing videos.