Your Farmer’s Market Stand

When you’re first starting out, it can be overwhelming and even intimidating to try and compete against well established market vendors. Whether you’re new or seasoned and striving to sell more, these many simple farmers market ideas will help you stand out in the crowd and develop a loyal following.

With so many vendors selling similar produce, just a few simple tricks of the trade can help you and your offerings stand out from the crowd. But really, it’s far more than “tricks of the trade”.

It’s about helping and serving your customers, while building your farm name brand as a personable business that cares. Grow that, and customers will make a beeline for you first, even over price shopping.

Next are some quick tips and strategies you can scroll through to get you off to a great start selling at market.

It’s really all about helping and serving, caring and connecting, with a touch of creativity.
~PlantingForRetirement.com

How to Sell at a Farmer’s Market

Search

If you’re looking for how to get started at selling at your local markets, you need only search online for Farmer’s Market my-city. For example, we’re near Winston-Salem, North Carolina, so we’d search Farmer’s Market Winston-Salem to come up with the best options. You can also search Farmer’s Market [my city] Application OR Guidelines, to go directly to the information you’ll need.

Research

It’s highly advisable before selling at any market, to first visit the market(s) as a customer. Take your time; canvas all the vendors there in your category of products and produce. Observe what they’re selling, how they’re selling it and the prices on things you’ll be selling. A simple way to do this research is via a voice recorder app on your phone.

Most smart phones have free apps you can download that allow you to turn your phone into a recorder. Just talk the prices into the phone, preferably inconspicuously, but if the vendor wants to know what you’re doing, don’t hesitate to let them know that you’re hoping to become a vendor and you’re doing research on how much things are selling for. Look at prospective fellow vendors as allies, like neighbors helping neighbors. Most people are glad to help future and fellow vendors. We’re all in this together and losing or gaining a sale or two is not worth enmity or subterfuge.

Observe

Observe the vendor booths that appeal to you the most and make note of why. Scouting around will give you more of your own ideas as well as good ones to borrow. There’s a book titled “Steal Like an Artist”, where the message is that most things in existence are derivatives of other things and ideas. So make note of good ideas and add your own unique angle to it.

Farmer’s Market Prices

You can search online for weekly market retail prices in your area. These vary too widely for a national report to be of much help for local market sellers. But you can also just Google the search phrase: weekly produce retail prices [your state].

For example, a Google search of Farmer’s Market Prices brought up these top results in market prices for my area:
Farmer’s Market – Raleigh, NC
Farmer’s Market – Piedmont Triad, NC
NCAg.Gov’s List on Market Regional Market Prices

Other search tips. Search your keyword and also include the term ‘pdf’. That way if there’s a downloadable PDF available, it will show you those results first.

Farmer’s Market Ideas

If all booths are basically equal, and the next booth’s vegetables, fruit, plants and jars of jams look about like yours, here are some tips of things you can do to stand out. Some of these require some skill and artistry, so pick and choose the ones that work for you.

Note: Links below take you to product ideas on Amazon. However, many gardeners are also handy at crafts and making things, so creating things like this could be winter projects that will have you very ready for spring and the market season.

• Use a colorful table cloth
• Make and sell simple wooden signs
• Decorate and display goods in baskets, crates and bushels
• Have flowering plants for sale in cool pots near the front of your table or booth
• Have cut flowers for sale from your display table, in a bright “vase” to attract attention.
• Offer free food samples with utensils, such as food sample cups
• Keep hand cleaner wipes near the food samples
• Keep a clean and attractive trash can nearby for people to dispose their sample containers
• Sell added value products made from your produce
• Decorate canning jars with attractive covers, label, ribbons, etc
• Sell homemade goods in nicer jars, such as the kind with hinged lids
• Got melons? Sell watermelon juice with a spigot like this
• Sell healthy herbal teas, iced, then sell the tea herbs/leaves with a recipe (place these in the hinged spice jars)
• Sell chilled bottles of green juice blended from fresh garden greens, with a recipe
• Create pressed flower greeting cards using pressed flowers from your garden
• Have an urn of water and small paper cups available for thirsty customers. They will be grateful
• Have an urn of herbal tea to sell by the cup.
• Create popular value items such as herb gardens and salad bowls. You can sell these for more than individual plants and customers see these as having added value.

Creative Booth Ideas

We know that many of you are also crafty and artistic. Add your creativity to your shop and offerings and hat will attract to your booth. Imagine the icebreaker conversation starter of something like these super creative squash birds below.

Farmers Market Ideas – Marketing Tips for Market Gardeners

1. Attract customers to your booth with creative displays. Imagine folks walking over to your booth, already smiling because of a simple creative display.
2. Try to have extras of your art accessories, as some will want to buy those from your too so they can make their own at home.
3. You will soon discover plenty of ideas of things to grow, make and sell that will attract and delight more customers.

Every creative thing you try will provide valuable market data about your customers and prospective customers, their likes, dislikes and interests. For example, you may not have intended to be in the business of selling crafts, but if you’re growing pumpkin sticks and create a display for your table, it make just be that people will want to buy that.

Here’s a YouTube video on how to make a salad garden bowl:

NOTE: You may need to get approved for selling added value products at market, and the Farmer’s Market policies do not allow the selling of items not grown or made by you. These rules may vary for other markets, so check into it before adding other items to sell, such as an insulated market basket

Further below is a , Robert Hays.

For more tips on building your brand to be a favorite go-to farmer’s market stand, here’s a video interview of market garden ideas with long time market seller, Bob Hays of Hays Berry Farms.

We also enjoyed the conversation with Bob about his blackberry farm, which you can find on GardensAll.com.

Market Garden Ideas Right in Front of You

As Bob Hays says in our interview, talk to your customers. Help them find what they’re looking for, even if you have to send them to another booth.

Your farmer’s market booth is your personal market research laboratory. Listen to what people are asking for and wanting. Make a list of everything someone asks you for that you don’t have.

Imagine at the end of the week… and by the end of the year, the list you’ll have. In the evenings during the week, go over your notes. Make a list of each thing and put a hash line next to each one, crossing it off your note pad as you write it down.

Start noticing which items people ask for the most that you don’t sell. Is it something you could grow and sell? This is your market research data culled directly from your customers. When they see that you try to serve their needs, that’s just one more reason they’ll keep coming back to your market booth.

Farmer’s Market Supplies

If you need some market supplies, we’ve done some research for you on best sellers and best prices here.

If you haven’t already joined our community of growers, you can check us out at Planting for Retirement Facebook group.

For additional articles on how to sell at garden markets, you may enjoy this article on Stretcher.com.^[1]

Tips for Attracting Customers and Growing Your Following:

• FREE MEDIA COVERAGE: Contact your TV, newspaper and radio stations and invite them to your booth at the market to cover local growers.
  Local growers is a growing hot topic, so might be the thing for if they’re having a slow news day.
• SOCIAL MEDIA: Post at least once daily on your Facebook page. It can just be a picture with a caption… help tips, recipes, asking them what they’re growing, what they want to buy at market, etc.
  • COMMUNICATE – Day before and day of market days, post what you’ll have at market. (Post a different photo and intro text on the second post and remember that most people do not see your posts, thus the reason for reposting things for a better chance to reach more people.
  • BOOST YOUR POSTS – Test spending just $1/day on Facebook ads to your exact area demographic, and for just $7/week you will gain market data, fans and likely customers to your page.
    • PROMOTIONS: Run a promotion to your Facebook and/or email audience with a special discount on “XYZ” if they show up at market and tell you the special code. (Make it easy to remember and change it week to week. That may keep them heading to your page to look for it).
• GROW YOUR FOLLOWING: At market, invite people to join:
  • Your Facebook Page. (If you have a pad or laptop with you, go ahead and let the add themselves right there at your booth, or else they might forget to or forget your business name.
  • Create/Grow an Email List: If you like to write and communicate with people, you could also start an email list. If you do, then take a notebook with lined paper and make a simple sign-up form where people can write in their email address if they want to be kept apprised of what you’re bringing to market each week, and where they can also communicate with you if they wish to.
  • Do not underestimate the power of growing your audience of repeat customers. People like to connect with people and do business with someone they know.

How to Market Your Business on Facebook

If you want more information on how to create a business fan page on Facebook—and why you should build your tribe—you may be interested in these linked articles. Also if you need to know how to create memes — those images with quotes that are so popular on Facebook (and why you should), you can read how to create memes here.

And be sure to have a great sign! There are some cool ones available on Amazon.

Market Garden Ideas – Promotions to Grow

In a recent conversation on the Planting for Retirement Facebook Page, the topic of promotional ideas for selling non-perishables came up. Sharing that here for you as well.

Freebies and Giveaways Don’t Work so Well

Regarding trying to grow your audience via freebies, contests and giveaways, our experience is that they don’g work so well. There are many frugal people who “shop” for freebie things and make it a hobby or even full time venture, some of whom earn a living through the arbitrage of buying and reselling.

We understand thrifty and frugal folks but the majority of those rarely become paying customers.

Freebies and giveaways may grow your audience, but it may not grow an audience of folks who want to buy from you.
~PlantingForRetirement.com

Deliveries Are Costly – Pick-up Locations Are Better

The traveling to deliver single orders would quickly eat any profit, given fuel and time. Better if you could grow an audience of regulars who could drop by XYZ location on their way home from work each Thursday between 3 & 6pm to pick up the goods. That would also give you a way to interact in person and offer additional items. E.g., have a table or tailgate setup of specials.

Gift Boxes, Baskets and Flowers

• From your social and website, you can offer gift basket or gift box creations that you ship to the recipient.
• At market, place flower arrangements to add beauty and color to your table.
• Herbal teas and sachets, e.g.,

We really like the efficacy of making things as decorations that attract attention and traffic to your table, which can then also be sold. E.g., make it available for purchase by placing a price tag on whatever extra things you make to sell.

Remember Labor And Time

All of these are labor intensive individually, but can add up to greater profitability with more scale. And each interaction with customers helps grow a loyal fan base as you get to know folks, and they, you.

Rural Sales Challenges

If you’re in a rural area, a common problem for market gardeners is that many folks garden and preserve their own goodies. That means less demand to buy from others, plus more competition of those selling it.

Ideas for Competitive Markets

• Assess what’s popular but harder to grow or process. Chances are, if it’s harder or less common, fewer people will do it. E.g.:
  • Pumpkin on a Stick ornamental eggplant –
    • popular for fall decorations
    • can sell wholesale to florists
    • sell a seasonal tabletop arrangement
  • Longevity spinach (Gynura procumbens) – less common – sell rooted seedlings and dried leaves for teas and powders to:
    • local health food stores
  • Exotic honeys, e.g.:
    • echinacea honey
    • lavender honey
  • Sell unusual tea blends such as blueberry and blackberry teas
• Added Value, such as products sold with:
  • info cards on the nutritional/medicinal benefits
  • recipes

Ask Your Audience!!

Ask your Facebook fans a series of questions. E.g., once/week, something like a “Wednesday Wondering” post that rotates questions that help you get to know your audience and what they’re interested in and in need of.

Some Sample Questions

• What kinds of canned garden goodies and products are you most interested in?
• Do you make your own lip balms?
• We have blackberry jam available… do you ever buy homemade jams or do you make your own?
• Do you buy most of your canned goods and jams or do you make your own?

Etc, etc. Just come up with a bunch of questions that will help you learn more about what folks want and what you might have and be able to do that would be a good fit.

Your interest in your customers will make them more interested in—and loyal to—you. You know… the way it used to be.
~Planting for Retirement

Common Mistakes Sellers Make

Most small business owners struggling to earn from their market gardening, crafts, art, etc., share a common malady.

The need to earn causes us to fixate on how to sell what we have. Instead, we need to turn it around and find out more about our customers, who they are… what they want, and figure out how to make it for them.

To grow a business isn’t about selling stuff, it’s about serving your customers wants and needs. Serve those and the selling will take care of itself.
~PlantingForRetirement.com

Planting for Retirement, Health, Happiness and Prosperity

Growing Elderberries for Profit

We have an informative 4-part video interview with Rodger Lendhardt of Norm’s Farms, but first, sharing insight from a member of our Planting for Retirement Facebook group. Cindy Moine is fortunate to have loads of wild elderberries growing in on and around her property. Here’s what she had to say about how she’s selling them.

Community contributor, Cindy Moine:

Elderberries, Sambucus Nigra, are almost impossible to find fresh or frozen. I have found two farms online that sell them and the prices are high. I sell locally and they sell out fast. The picking is easy but getting them off the stem was a pain. But this year I have mastered that. 20 pounds in about 20 minutes. That used to take an entire day.

Every health food store around here has a huge end cap with cold and flu meds made with elderberry.

I sell them locally for $10 a pound. Evidently that is low but I’m happy, they are happy and it all works out. Many people buy them from me to make the cold and flu meds and can turn around and sell that for more. Elderberry syrup mixed with local honey and herbs goes for about $15 for 4 ounces.

Editor’s Note:
Fresh frozen elderberries currently sell for $39.99 / 3lbs from NorthwestWildFoods.com.(https://nwwildfoods.com/product/fresh-frozen-wild-elderberries/)

Awesome information, right? If you’re selling elderberries and/or making elderberry product, please send us an email or comment below. We’d love to know more and share it with folks.

Meanwhile, we’ve asked Cindy to show us her super efficient process for removing the berries from the stem, so check back here in fall when it’s picking time.

Growing Elderberries with Rodger Lendhardt of Norm’s Farms—4 Part Video Interview Series

One of the most popular articles on GardensAll.com is on Elderberries. We’re in the second year of growing some and now we’re also considering growing elderberries as a small farm crop.

So we were delighted to discover Norm’s Farms, a family farm growing and selling elderberry plants and elderberry products. In fact they’re virtually right down the road from us, and their “parent farm” is in Hartsburg, Missouri.

Here are the first three parts of the GardensAll.com interview with Rodger Lendhardt, carrying on the legacy of Norm’s Farms legacy from his father, Norm Lendhardt.

In video interview part 1, Rodger talks about how and why they decided on Elderberry farming, how it fit into their permaculture and land restoration plan as well as help to revive the elderberry industry in the US.

Rodger said that all that his family is doing is thanks to his father’s foresight to establish a family trust, and he shares which kind of trust they chose and why. It was surprising to learn that in the US our Gross National Product, GDP, is still be supported largely by farms, run by just 1-2% of us.

In North Carolina, where the southern division of Norm’s Farms is based and also the home base for the GardensAll crew, farming is an $83 billion dollar contributor to the state’ economy. That means that in NC, farming is bigger than pharma and bigger than health care, two of the other largest industries in the state… and it’s being done by less than 2% of our population!

Rodger also mentions timber as an agricultural crop, and one of the largest crops in North Carolina, along with sweet potatoes, peanuts and cotton. On the family farm in Missouri, there are neighboring farms that are raising turkey and quail, so these are other kinds of crops for farmers and prospective farmers to research and consider.

Part 1 of Growing Elderberries – the Origins and Legacy of Norm’s Farms and Establishing a Family Trust

Part 2 of Growing Elderberries – Facts, Fiction and How to

Join us for this second part of the interview with Rodger Lendhardt. Here we go more in depth on why Norm’s Farms chose to grow and farm elderberries, their mistakes, lessons and successes. Rodger touches on how the elderberry variety, sambucus nigra, also called blue elderberry or blue elder, grows best in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Sambucus canadensis works best for the rest of the country.

Rodger said that you don’t have to have differing varieties of elderberry for cross-pollination… that there’s wild elderberries in nature and nature will take care of that. However, it can certainly expedite the process.

If you’re a beekeeper, honey bees are not pollinators for elderberries because the flower is too small and the bees mouth too big. So unfortunately you won’t be able to enjoy elderflower honey, lovely as that sounds. Lightning bugs are amongst the pollinators for , but not honey bees, so you won’t be able to have elderberry flower honey from bees.

Growing Elderberries Part 3 – Elderberry Syrup, Jams and Marketability of Elderberry

In Part 3 of this interview series with Rodger Lendhardt of Norm’s Farms, we learn more about where in the US elderberries can grow, and what kind of products can be made and which are available from Norm’s Farms.

Part 4 – Growing Elderberries – Elderberry Farming for Profit and How to Get Started

Our favorite of all segments on growing elderberries with Rodger Lendhardt of Norm’s Farms, we get into the nitty gritty of elderberry farming. In this video interview we dive into talking about growing elderberries for profit as a business for primary or supplemental income. Rodger lays it all out and lets us know what to expect and hoe to get started slowly and build up and elderberry growing business.

In this video Rodger goes into regions and types of elderberries and what grows where and what doesn’t grow where. We learn how hardy and resilient elderberries are and specifics on profitability and possibilities should you want to consider growing elderberries for profit and farming elderberries.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this interview series with Rodger as much as we have. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and questions over on the GardensAll Facebook page.

Here’s GardensAll’s Coleman and LeAura Alderson with Rodger Lendhardt of Norm’s Farms.

Now… after that we were really ready to eat some elderberries in something. Betting you will be too, so here are some recipes to get your warmed up.

Elderberry Recipes – YUM!

For tons of amazing information, yummy recipes like this Roasted Winter Squash and with Elderberry Glaze and Spiced Walnuts, and Elderberry and Mint Jamtini.^[1]http://normsfarms.com/elderberry-and-mint-jamtini/ You’ll also find healing and delicious products so you can make your own delicious elderberry goodies. Visit NormsFarms.com.

Elderberry Strawberry Champagne Recipe

For when you’re wanting something like elderberry wine without having to wait months or a year for it to age, here’s a quick and easy Elderberry Strawberry Champagne recipe from Norm’s Farms:
^[2]http://normsfarms.com/strawberry-elderflower-champagne/

Ingredients:

1 bottle of champagne (or sparkling white grape juice for a non-alcoholic drink)
Fresh strawberries, 2 per serving
Elderflower Syrup (recipe at Norm’s Farms and you’ll need elderflowers)

Strawberry Preparation:

Rinse strawberries in cold water, slice off the stem, cut in half and place in bowl. Cover strawberries with elderflower syrup and allow to macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Drink Assemblage:

Place 4 strawberry halves in the bottom of each champagne glass.  Pour some of the elderflower syrup over the strawberries. Top with chilled champagne and serve immediately.

Loving this elderberry topic? For more on Elderberries from GardensAll, here’s that most popular article on elderberries we mentioned at the start.

Resources on Growing Elderberries

NormsFarms.com^[3]http://normsfarms.com/

Elderberry Market, Production & Cost Considerations Report by University of Kentucky: ^[4]https://www.uky.edu/Ag/CCD/introsheets/elderberry.pdf

Here’s a brief guide in downloadable PDF format of elderberry growing resources from KerrCenter.com, or you can click through to most of them from our footnote references.^[5]PDF

• Study on a comparison of fruit characteristics among diverse elderberry genotypes grown in Missouri and Oregon.^[6]http://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-berry-research/jbr054
• Common Elderberry – Sambucus Nigra – Plant Guide PDF. This guide summarizes most everything you need to know about elderberry, from planting, growing and propagating to edible and medicinal uses of elderberry.^[7]http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_sanic4.pdf
• American Elderberry Cultivar Development for the Midwest.^[8]http://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-berry-research/jbr054^[9]http://extension.missouri.edu/greene/documents/Horticulture/Elderberry/ElderberryCultivars.pdf
• Elderberry Financial Decision Support Tool from The Center for AgroForestry.org.^[10]http://www.centerforagroforestry.org/profit/elderberryfinance.php
• Elderberry Market Directory. ^[11]http://www.centerforagroforestry.org/profit/elderberrymarketdirectory.pdf
• Elderberry Market Research Report.^[12]http://www.centerforagroforestry.org/profit/elderberrymarketreport.pdf
• Elderberry Possibilities.^[13]http://extension.missouri.edu/greene/documents/Shared_Documents/SWregion/Byers/ElderberryPresentationMN.pdf
• Elderberry Propagation.^[14]http://extension.missouri.edu/greene/documents/Horticulture/Elderberry/ElderberryPropagation.pdf
• Pruning Elderberry, Raspberries, Blackberries, Gooseberries and Currants. ^[15]http://extension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/hort/g06000.pdf

How to Decide What Vegetables to Grow

Whether you’re growing just to feed your family, or growing to sell at market, there are some factors worth considering to help you decide on the best crops to grow.

In urban gardening and where space is limited, space and crop yield are critical for getting the most produce yield possible, while also growing in order to save  on your foo bill. So what to grow that will produce the greatest yield in the least amount of space is important to know.

Do you know which veggies provide the best yield per square foot of growing space? Start there.

Whether you’re urban gardening for yourself and family, or as an urban, suburban or rural farming business, it’s important to have an idea of what’s reasonable to expect in produce from your gardening and farming efforts.

There’s an old 1978 chart circulating—in fact most stats we’ve found online are using this old data. However those numbers have since been updated and tweaked between 2009 and 2012. An update was really needed since seeds and gardening methods are able to produce more today than when that research was conducted, and there are more urban gardeners today as well.

So here’s some more updated information. If you have even newer data, please let us know and we can adjust and tweak this to be as current as possible.

Yield Expectations for Mixed Stand, Small-Scale Agriculture

Excerpted from Rutgers Urban Fringe Report^[1]https://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/urbanfringe/pdfs/urbanfringe-v07n01.pdf

Whether you’re growing for yourself or for the market, growing space, growing time and crop yield are important to consider. Whatever is selling for more at the market for the smallest amount of space is the best crop to grow for food that you eat as well as for selling.

So for anyone considering small scale farming for a living, whether supplemental at first or full time, it’s important to set realistic expectations based on averages available.

We eat a lot of organic broccoli, yet broccoli takes a lot of space and time to grow, and so far our yield has been puny. So even as expensive as it is to buy organic broccoli at the store, it may not be the best crop for us to grow in our limited space.

As a general guideline, 1/2 lb. per square foot is an average yield for mixed crop, small-scale agriculture.

To decipher profitability you need to calculate estimated costs against the wholesale or Farmer’s Market price you could get per pound on the crops you’d like to grow to sell, wherever you’d be selling.

Let’s go a little deeper into crop yields and price comparisons next.

Small Scale Farming for Profit

For example, a short foray into calculations reveals a yield of .4 lb per square foot for broccoli and 1.8 lbs per square foot for tomatoes.

As of this writing, the retail price from our local markets for organic vine ripened tomatoes is $2.99/lb. Organic broccoli is $3.99/lb.

Retail Price Per Square Foot

• Organic Vine Ripe Tomatoes @ 1.8 lbs per SF x $2.99 = $5.38
• Broccoli @ .4 lbs per SF x $3.99 = $1.60

So… tomatoes have the potential to earn approximately more than the broccoli at retail. This also means that:

What earns more at market, also saves you more to grow for yourself.

Without even knowing the wholesale and costs for growing, it’s easy to see that tomatoes are more profitable than broccoli. So, if you have limited space or can only produce one crop to start, it would more likely be tomatoes than broccoli.

In the book The Market Gardener, there’s a very handy chart that outlines the typical annual sales profitability and rank by crop the author produced on his farm. Indeed there as well, tomatoes were ranked as number one in sales and high in profitability.

We thoroughly enjoyed interviewing Jean-Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener, and you can see and read about that illuminating interview here.

Conversely, broccoli was ranked as nine in sales and low in profitability. Mesculin mix greens were ranked number 2 in sales and high in profitability.

So this should give you an idea to get your mental juices flowing in calculating what’s possible for you.

If you’ll be selling at the Farmer’s Market, you’ll want to frequent your local one(s) and observe everything while keeping notes on prices.

Let’s get growing!

He was a quarter of a century old when he replaced 1/2 acre of grass for a garden. Now 26, Jared Guildford says:

“Proud to be farming the land I grew up on. What was lawn one year ago is now a productive food system.”

It all started with some watermelon seeds in a sandbox. Then 8 year old Jared and his little brother found a packet of watermelon seeds. They planted them in their sandbox. As the melons grew, Jared was hooked.

“[Growing things]… it was pure alchemy to me.”

>>Fast forward 17 years.

A Millennial Farmer Defies Expert Advice

The experts told Jared that it wouldn’t work for him; that his soil pH was too low to have a productive garden. At the time of this interview, Jared is in his second year of selling at farmer’s market, and has a flourishing garden.

An Organic Market Gardener’s Journey

Tune into this interview with Jared to learn:

• How he got started, and his recommendation on how someone can work their way into farming
• How much money needed to start a small farm
• What’s working and what isn’t (wins and losses)
• How Jared transformed the soil from “not suitable” to a successful market garden
• Who he’s selling to
• What he’s growing and not growing, and why
• His top-earning crops
• How he’s harvesting, processing and storing his garden produce
• One of his best investments
• Unexpected expenses
• How many hours a week farming takes
• Good practices for Farmer’s Markets^[1]

After the interview, Jared went on to share more about how he transformed his soil. Jared shared that:

“I moved back January 2016, and immediately started to work the land slated for the 1/2 acre garden by rotating a flock of 25 chickens along with two pigs. I moved them nearly every day with the help of electric netting.”

“I couldn’t decide whether to invest in the pigs or not but then the words of Sepp Holzer (who popularized permaculture and hugelkultur)^[1] rang into my ears:”

“… then you will do the pigs work.” Sepp Holzer

Jared said that:

“The pigs were the hardest workers of the year, breaking up 30 years of sod in preparation for the garden.”

Test Your Soil

If you haven’t already, it’s important to test your soil. In most areas your country extension can provide soil tests for you. Or you can do your own via reliable soil pH testers which you can get from your local home stores or from Amazon.

But remember, if you have bad soil, you can change it! Jean-Martin Fortier, author of the popular book, The Market Gardener, speaks to this in our interview with him. Jean-Martin says it’s far better to invest in bringing in good soil from the beginning if you can, because everything else that happens in the garden depends on it.

Soil is the foundation of the garden.

Mentors Jared mentioned:

Jean-Martin Fortier – author, The Market Gardener
You can see our article and interview with Jean Martin here^[1]

Michael Kilpatrick – Farmer, leader, speaker and change agent

Curtis Stone – Author of The Urban Farmer: Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land

Sepp Holzer – Author of Desert or Paradise: Restoring Endangered Landscapes Using Water Management, Including Lake and Pond Construction, also on DVD

Jared shared that he’s really into crop covers for building up the soil, and you can read more about that in this article on GardensAll.

Visit Jared Guilford’s sites:

Earth First Facebook Page

Earth First website

Erin Southwood shows us how to build caterpillar tunnels for your own garden greenhouse or hoop house.

Erin grew up around gardening. Her family had an urban garden when she was growing up, so it was a natural fit for Erin to have a garden in her small urban yard as well.

From there, Jamie asked her grandparents for a patch of dirt on their farm. Grandpa tilled a 10’x50′ plot for Erin, plus invited her to use some of theirs as well.

In 2016, Jamie, along with her parents, left their urban gardens to take on a much bigger gardening adventure: they bought grandma and grandpa’s 20 acre farm in central Indiana.

A lifelong love of gardening, the outdoors and growing things, is now a passion blended turned into a family farm business.

This (2017) is our third season growing for market.

This year Erin and company set up caterpillar tunnels for the first time to expand their growing season and space. Here they share what kind and size of grow tunnels they built, how much it cost and what materials they used, plus what they’re planning for future.

DIY Caterpillar Tunnels

Mom and daughter were able to build two caterpillar tunnels for under $450 or 30¢ per square foot, with enough plastic leftover to throw over an existing cattle panel trellis for a little extra seedling space. We’ve recently installed cattle panel tunnels, but seeing Erin’s success with these much larger better versions of a variation on the high tunnel caterpillar greenhouse, has boosted our confidence.

We’re now ready to just dive in and do this too as soon as we can find (or create) a level enough space to do it. (Our challenge is that most of our land is in the woods and/or on a hill). Like Erin, we have poor soil, so another advantage of the caterpillar tunnel will be to help us cultivate raised beds as we begin to replenish our soil with bagged soil gardening and mulch over time.

It’s awesome of Erin to lay out all her specs on building her caterpillar tunnel. That’s one of the many things we love about gardening and farming: they tend to be a sharing bunch, where each ones lessons are freely shared to help others start out ahead of the learning curve.

Editor’s Note: To save you time, many larger home centers like Lowe’s and Home Depot can shop your order for you. Imagine faxing this list to your local home center, then driving up to pay and load it without having to take the time out to pull it all. Another thanks to Erin’s awesome list to make it easier for all of us!

So your best, cheapest solution is your local home store. However, if you don’t have one close by, or end up missing some odd pieces here and there, Amazon is a great “back pocket” solution. If you have Amazon Prime, many things you order can be shipped to your doorstep for free. So for your convenience and the pocket change to help keep our site up, we’ve provided our affiliate links for that.

Okay! Now let’s get on with the specifics!

How to Build a Caterpillar Tunnel Greenhouse

By Erin Southwood of LibertyHeritageGardens.com

Caterpillar Tunnels Size

• 1 – 12’x75′ caterpillar tunnel
• 1 – 12’x50′ caterpillar tunnel

Yes, it’s PVC. No, it’s not greenhouse plastic. But it’s what we could afford and hoping to make it last through at least one season and make enough money to build better structures next year. This is our third season growing for market, and my mom and I built these on our own from scratch. Thought I’d share for those just starting out and who—like us—are trying to do a whole lot with very little. It can be done!

We built our own grow tunnels for 30¢ per square foot!

Materials

• 1″ Schedule SDR* 21 PVC**, 10′ lengths secured with…
• Couplers and…
• PVC cement
• 5/8 rebar (bought 20′ lengths and used angle grinder to cut down to 30″ lengths; each PVC end inserted over 5/8 rebar)
  • 5′ spacing between ribs
• 3/8 rebar cut to 24″ lengths next to each PVC to secure twine over top of plastic…each cross over is it’s own section of…
• Baler twine so if one snaps the whole thing doesn’t come down
• 6 mil clear plastic
• Purlin

Erin’s tunnels are running north/south and the wind usually comes from west/southwest. They haven’t needed any bags or anything to weight down the tunnel. Erin say it withstood some hefty winds following a storm. She thinks that the rolled up plastic at the base filled with water, which likely helped to weight it down.

*SDR means Standard Definition Ratio
**PVC means polyvinyl chloride

RIBS

• Spaced 5’ apart
• 1” schedule 40 PVC 20’ length
• Insert rib ends over 5/8 rebar, 30” lengths driven at least 18” into ground
• Can use (1) 20’ PVC or (2) 10’ PVC connected with couplers and PVC cement
• 12’ tunnel width

PURLIN

• 3/8” hollow braid polypropylene, any strong rope that will not easily stretch will do
• Drive a T-post stake into the ground about 8’ out from each end rib. Stake should be at an angle away from the tunnel.
• Tie rope to one T-post stake and wrap around each rib in tunnel, tie off at T-post on opposite end of tunnel.
• It helps if your purlin is adjustable, some way to tighten the purlin as needed would be ideal. See picture on this post showing how we made ours adjustable.

CROSS OVER TIES

• 3/8 rebar, 24” lengths, driven 18” into ground at the base of each rib end. Drive them into the ground at an angle away from the tunnel.

Baler twine for crossover ties. Each crossover is a single section of twine so if one snaps the whole structure doesn’t come undone.

Criss-cross the ties over the plastic, from an overhead view it will be an “X” shape between each set of ribs.

When needed, you can tighten the cross over ties by winding them around the rebar at the base of each rib.

Note: See Erin’s video below on how to tighten crossover ties.

PLASTIC

• 6mil clear plastic, 24’ width gives 2’ to work with on each side using 20’ ribs, having that extra 2’ on each side helps if weights are needed along sides
• Use a roll of plastic approx. 24’-25’ longer than the length of your tunnel (we used a 100’ roll to cover a 75’ tunnel).

TUNNEL ENDS

• End ribs are angled away from tunnel, about 45 degrees or so.
• These angled ribs are (2) 10’ sections of PVC connected with a Tee and PVC cement. (the tee is used to connect a brace).
• Add a smaller hoop after angled rib to help hold plastic taught (helpful for high winds). We used ½ “ PVC for this.
• Use ½ PVC to brace the angled rib against the ground (this is where that tee comes in). So you’ll have a ½” PVC connected to the tee on angled rib and running to the ground, this give extra support if wind gusts hit the tunnel head on.

VENTING

If cross over ties are taut you can just lift sides and they stay up. However, high winds can shake the tunnel enough that the sides fall back down. We use scrap wood to hold up sides…2×4 lumber at 3’-4’ lengths propped up under the bunched up plastic will keep sides up. Could also use hardware clamps… just lift plastic up and clamp.

TIPS & NOTES

• We used SDR 21 PVC, I would strongly recommend schedule 40 PVC instead. We had a rib crack on a windy day (before we improved our tunnel end design). That probably could have been avoided with a few extra dollars spent toward schedule 40 PVC.
• Every single connection with couplers, tees…whatever must be secured using PVC cement, don’t skip that.
• Save money by buying long lengths of rebar and cutting to size. We bought 20’ lengths and cut down using angle grinder.
• We found it easiest to cut all cross over ties and tie them to the rebar before putting plastic on…that way it’s quick to throw the ties over as soon as plastic is in place.
• If you can afford a metal structure with actual greenhouse plastic, do it! However, if you have very little money or are trying to farm debt free (like us) and doing what you can with what you have then this may be the design for you. I’m not going to sugar coat it…we’ve had issues with the wind…build at your own risk. But those issues were correctable and the structures are still standing. Thus far they’ve survived 50mph wind gusts but we still have to “babysit” them on windy days and cringe when the really strong gusts come through. The only goal with these structures is to make them last long enough so that we can make the money to invest in better structures next season. They’re a just a stepping stone, if you will.

How to Tighten Caterpillar Tunnel Cross Over Ties:

Erin says: We redid the ends inspired by a design Curtis Stone recently showed in one of his videos, (shared at the bottom of this article).

The tapered ends was needed due to some issues with wind and has worked very well, and you can see in the first photo that the ends were not yet tilted. We also added a smaller rib after the tilted rib to help keep the plastic taut and prevent it from flapping in the wind so much. A strong purlin with adjustable tension and crossover ties helped too.

(Erin says, “Don’t mind the weeds, lol!” )

We don’t mind the weeds. In fact, we often eat the weeds!

This video was taken a few days ago during a wind advisory, we had sustained 30mph and up to 50mph wind gusts the entire day…and we made it through in one piece with both tunnels!

“So far so good but I’ll say that I’m very much looking forward to “real” metal caterpillar tunnels next season.“

Erin used the 6 mil plastic. She said,  It will only last a season but long enough to make money to buy real greenhouse plastic next time.

You do what you gotta do to get where you want to be. Step by step, little by little.

Erin’s Caterpillar Tunnel Tips and Pics

A member of the Planting for Retirement Facebook group asked how Erin accesses her tunnels if both ends are tapered, and here’s her response.

Both ends of the caterpillar tunnels are tapered. Venting and entering the tunnels happens along the sides…pick a spot, lift up with your hand and place a clamp on the PVC to hold plastic up.

It’s Hard Work, But Good Work!

We decided not to crop this image from Erin, because it’s an example of the reality of farm life: hard work and long hours! But… uber rewarding. So if you’re just getting into it, be aware and prepared for a lot of hard work, but likely, the most rewarding work you’ve ever enjoyed doing for a living.

Farming is hard work, long hours but incredibly rewarding work.

Here’s the caterpillar tunnel greenhouse construction video Erin mentions, by Curtis Stone, author of the popular bestselling book, The Urban Farmer.

Cattle Panel Tunnel Greenhouse

This is a really nice looking cattle panel tunnel! We just got our cattle panel trellis constructed with plans to cover it to extend the growing season in fall. What a great idea to utilize any extra materials for turning the trellis into a tunnel greenhouse!

Read more on Erin’s story and the concept and many benefits of the family farm here.

Thanks to Contributor, Erin Southwood of Liberty Heritage Gardens for sharing her DIY Caterpillar Tunnels journey! Great work and congrats of digging in, planting and growing your dream, Erin!

For more on farmers market gardener ideas here.

UPDATE: Erin’s website: LibertyHeritageGardens.com is no longer published.

This was awesome info, and THANKS for Erin for sharing with us!

BUT… if you don’t have the time or build your own, or have less space, here are other options available on Amazon. We’ve included best sellers as well as those that include free shipping with Amazon Prime as much as possible.

Having good graphics for any business is important but for gardeners or farmers, any visual representation of your plants, foods, and products help people want to buy what you’re selling.

One advantage you have over many other types of business owners is you can take your own photos. You don’t always have to rely on stock images.  In this day and age, you don’t even need a DSLR camera. Your smartphone can take amazing images for you to use on your website or social media.

Of course, if you have the fancy camera, it’s always a bonus but don’t let that deter you!

It’s easy to take a quick photo of your flowers, fruits, herbs, or veggies… but you don’t want to share it immediately.  On social media, it’s so easy for people to share your content, and then not be able to trace it back to the original person, and part of the purpose in posting images, is so you can create brand awareness.

In this video from Vital Media Marketing, you will learn how to add a watermark to your image, and how to create a nice graphic with text that will create shares, likes, and comments!

You can access the video training and article here.

How to Create Social Media Images

Grow Your Offline Business by Sowing Seeds Online

Many local businesses tend to ignore the online aspect of their business. It’s understandable.For gardeners, growers, farmers and nature lovers, being tethered to technology is like dealing with bad bugs or invasive weeds. It’s a chore.

But here’s the thing:

If you tend your virtual garden, your offline business will grow.

And no, we don’t mean “Farmville”!  We’re talking real live farming and building a business around that.

Building your website and Facebook page for business is like cultivating relationships in town and at the Farmer’s Markets and other markets where you sell. If you’re the one who creates a following of fans and followers online, your offline business will reap the benefits.

Many small business owners today, still don’t bother with building their online presence. They don’t know how, or don’t have time.

Positive Impact of Social Media

Farmers and growers might be familiar with resources like AgTalk forum. These are super helpful and streamlined for fast problem solving and Q&A.^[1]http://talk.newagtalk.com/category-view.asp

For today’s market growers, there’s much to be gained by setting out a shingle where your customers hang out online.

If you’re at the Farmer’s Market each week, you can connect with prospective and regular customers in between.  Let them know what you’re growing and about your weekly specials. Sharing beautiful garden photos and scrumptious recipes on your Facebook page is bound to get some folks to head to the market that day, even if they hadn’t already planned to. Those who were already planning a trip to the market will have you in mind and likely make a bee-line for your stand.

But that’s not all. Once they get used to looking for your posts online, they’ll also be much more inclined to put your market stand as one they’ll be sure to visit. And… the more they connect with you and your brand… farm… produce… products, the more they’ll share it with their friends and family, and your tribe will grow.

There’s a saying in the marketing world that we all like to do business with people we know, like and trust. Well, same thing for your customers, and the more familiar they become with you and your farm’s story, the more connected and loyal they’ll feel with you and your brand.

Facebook is the virtual marketplace for growers.

You can build your Facebook presence even if you just have a vegetable stand in your front yard. Once again, hundreds and even thousands of people—depending on the population density of your neighborhood—pass your way. Many of those people are on Facebook most every day. They may not see your sign or know what you’re going to sell, but if they see it posted on Facebook first, they’re much more likely to put your stand on their route home.

Not only does building your business’s Facebook page let you communicate with your customers, it lets them communicate with you! Let’s say you’re thinking about whether to try growing and selling herbs. You can poll your audience on Facebook and ask who’s interested in that.

You might have been thinking they’d buy the fresh cut herbs from you, but they tell you they want to buy herb plants. That’s free and valuable market data.

You can ask them to tell you the things they’d really like to see you grow as well, and if it’s a fit, you can grow that too. Just imagine the loyalty you will develop in your customer base when they realize that you’re not only connecting with them on Facebook and at the market, but that you’re even willing to grow their favorites if you can.

Facebook is the one we most often recommend for growers, so that’s the one we’re focusing on in this article. However, similar benefits and strategies could be used for some of the other social media resources as well, such as Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. LinkedIn could be a resource for connecting with larger farm businesses, but we generally favor the Facebook platform for small businesses and growers.

Business Benefits of Facebook

Facebook is an amazing global gathering place and marketplace where businesses can set up shop for free.

Many people complain about how Facebook constricts business exposure. One of the reasons is because a Facebook business page’s organic posts only reach an average 2.5% of your Facebook audience.

That means that if you have 1,000 fans (likes) on your Facebook page and you publish a post about your market special for the day, only approximately 25 of your fans might see it.

But that’s free. It didn’t cost you anything to reach those 25 people. It doesn’t cost anything other than your time, to create and populate a Facebook page with information and photos to please your audience.

So it’s very fair that Facebook requires us to pay to play bigger. It’s fair that our timelines and scrolls are sometimes interrupted by ads and sponsored posts. Facebook is a business, not a non-profit. They have to pay bills just like we do.

Ads in exchange for free is the familiar model.  TV, radio, internet websites with all those annoying popups and worse, those spammy clickbait ads that gross you out or shock you. All of those are the price the reader pays to access that information for free. It’s not punishment, though certainly sometimes is can seem that way. It’s survival. Those sites may not survive if they don’t have advertisers paying the bills for writers to bring you that information for free.

The alternate to that is also familiar: the paid subscription model. Like for free TV and movie channels, the price is commercials.  To have the peace of uninterrupted focus on the purpose of your visit to the site, the price is a subscription of membership.

The Good News About Facebook Advertising and Why You Should Consider it

The fastest way to grow your Facebook page and—subsequently—your business, is to advertise on Facebook. If you’re like many small business owners, spending money on advertising is not in your budget, excepting perhaps, the occasional sponsoring of little league, church or civic events.  To many small business owners, advertising feels like throwing money away because it’s hard to measure the results.

With social media, especially Facebook advertising, that’s no longer true. You can often see the exact results of your ads, how much it cost you, how many impressions, click, likes, etc., and you can correlate that with the revenue gained.

Facebook advertising is measurable.

You can grow your Facebook page starting at just  a dollar a day. You can also run a market special or feature for as little as $1 a day. If just one person visited your booth and bought from you because of that, that ad would easily be paid for with just that one purchase.

For growers and small businesses, Facebook provides an amazing opportunity to be in regular contact with your customers for free or a tiny pay-to-play fee.

So grow your Facebook page to grow your tribe.  Grow your tribe to grow your business.

For more on how to create and grow your own Facebook page for business, here’s an article with free video training.

For more on the importance of growing your own tribe, you may enjoy this article.

For business ideas for growing for profit, you may also enjoy this article.

Why You Need a Facebook Page for Your Business

Many people just starting on their online business journey don’t know the difference between having a Page vs your regular Facebook Profile.  So, if you’re confused as to why you would need a Facebook Page for your small farm, gardening, or crop selling business don’t worry!  You’re in the same boat with many other business owners and we’ll get you up to speed quickly.

A Facebook Profile is good for connecting with family and friends or joining interest groups like Planting for Retirement.  And many people do connect with business connections on their personal profile, but it’s still limiting in terms of how many people you can reach on a broader scope.

A Facebook Page is better for your business and brand you can reach more people, target specific interests, and it helps spread your brand name and attract potential customers to your website.

An overview of what you’ll learn in this article is:

1. How to create a Page
2. How to grow your Page
3. The basics of Facebook (FB) ads to grow your Page quicker

If you have any questions about any of the videos or would like us to give you specific advice for your Page, please head over to the Planting for Retirement Facebook Group and don’t hesitate to ask for help!

How to Create Your Facebook Page

Key Take Aways:

• If you’re a local business make sure to pick the “Local” option when creating your Page
• If you would like to sell nationally select the “Brand” when setting up your Page
• You can use your Facebook Page to sell products from if you don’t have a website running yet
• We recommend taking good images of your own garden or products to use for your page, but you can also use Pexels.com or Pixabay.com if you need placeholder images for anything.

How to Grow Your Facebook Page

Key Take Aways:

• Video & Live Video on Facebook gets the most traction because Facebook pushes that out to the Newsfeed (Timeline) for people the most
• When thinking about what content to post ask: “Will this educate or interest potential customers?” and “Would I share this if I saw it while scrolling through Facebook?”
• Also consider always leading people to your website when you post content
• If you don’t have a website built yet, then don’t worry about that

How to Advertise Your Facebook Page

Key Take Aways:

• If you don’t have your website up yet, you might run a few Like Ads to build your Page, but don’t spend too much money till you have products to sell or a site to send people.
• You can sell your products directly through Facebook if you are ready to sell but not ready to create a site.

You may also enjoy these in depth articles on growing your Facebook community and on growing your “tribe” as it’s been called, thanks to the popular book by Seth Godin: Tribes – We Need You to Lead Us –

If you have any other questions, again feel free to ask in the Planting for Retirement Facebook Group – and request to join if you’re not already there!