TURN YOUR GARDEN SURPLUS INTO CASH . . . AT THE FARMERS' MARKET

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As we were going into the business, we figured we'd need to clear $100 every Saturday to even make the idea worthwhile. We soon learned to be satisfied with a net of anything over $50, however, when we realized how much extra our truck patch was also "earning": We fed our family of five totally out of the garden all summer long, canned and dried and froze enough of the produce to last us the rest of the year, and still had jams, relishes, and pickles left over to use as Christmas presents.

All in all, we probably came closer to that $100-a-week net than we realized.

ONWARD AND UPWARD IN '78!

Now that we have a year's experience under our belts, we plan to be back at our farmers' market stand during the 1978 season . . . with everything the same, only better.

Naturally, we're going to concentrate more heavily on the "unusual" and "variety" crops that sold so well last year. As already noted, for instance, we'll certainly grow broccoli instead of cabbage. (Both take the same amount of work and, at least in our experience, the first will outsell the second any day. Besides that, broccoli—after its central head is harvested—will, unlike cabbage, go right on producing side shoots almost indefinitely . . . and all of those shoots are easy to sell too.)

Likewise, when we do grow tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and other "standard" produce, we're going to specialize in the varieties—low-acid tomatoes, spaghetti squash, "burpless" cucumbers and pickling gherkins—that haven't already flooded the market.

We're going to go very big on melons. Everyone, it seems, loves a melon! We never failed to sell all we took into town last year.

We're also going to raise a lot of green beans. None of the vendors at our market ever had enough last season. Yes, beans are so prolific and easy to grow that such a shortage is ridiculous. We suspect that the situation has been created by the labor involved (after all, it takes an hour to pick a dollar's worth of beans and only a few seconds to harvest a dollar melon). But we don't mind working and we intend to cash in on the demand this summer.

We will not, however, bother with corn. Everyone has it, the competition to sell roasting ears is too stiff, and perfect ears—especially when they're organically grown (which is expensive, time-consuming, and hard on the soil)—are worth more than the 60¢ a dozen they bring at the market.

FURTHER WORDS TO THE WISE

Before you take the big plunge (buy a season-long vendor's license) into the farmers' market business, do study the maturity dates of all vegetables you plan to grow for sale. In short, make sure you'll have a full truckload of something to sell every weekend.

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FARM FRESH: DIRECT MARKETING MEATS & MILK '

Allan Nation

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