How To Start A Produce Stand

If you are looking to start selling garden produce, learn how to start a produce stand to share any overproduction in the height of the growing season.

By Ann Larkin Hansen
Updated on February 1, 2024
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by AdobeStock/Tamela

If you are looking to start selling garden produce, learn how to start a produce stand to share any overproduction in the height of the growing season.

Well-cared-for gardens, orchards and livestock can be amazingly — sometimes exhaustingly — productive. After all, there’s only so much fruit and produce you have time to can and space to store. And only so many eggs you can eat, milk you can drink and meat you can make room for in the freezer. When you find you’ve temporarily produced more than you can consume, why not do what small farmers have always done? Sell your extra products at a farmstand or farmers market, or barter, trade or donate what you can’t use.

Setting Up a Farmstand

Getting started selling vegetables and extra goods is simple. “Tap the network you already have,” says Mary Shepherd, editor of the bimonthly magazine Farmers’ Markets Today. “Put up a sign at work, send an email or put a post on Facebook.” You can also consider posting an ad on the ‘Farm + Garden’ category at Craigslist.org.

If your road gets enough traffic and you have a handy parking spot, try to sell products right from your home. You can make your own farmstand for selling eggs, vegetables and more by putting your offerings on a table next to an “honor box” for payment. Just be sure to bolt the box to something secure. Promote your farmstand with a sign in your yard, an ad in the local paper or flyers at local cafés.

Another option would be to park a produce-loaded truck near a busy corner to sell sweet corn, melons or other goods. In many small towns, you may be able to get permission to park your “portable produce stand” in the parking lot of the post office, courthouse or another central building.

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