Days 171-173: Market Days!!!

Yeah, so I know it's cheating (slightly) to combine three days into one post, but honestly, all I did for these three days is prepare for farmer's markets.  It may seem a simple thing to have a post for everyday, but when your blog is so subject specific, it can be really difficult since even for me, not all of life revolves around food (just most of it)!

I spent literally all day Wednesday and Thursday (and he first half of Friday) baking, packaging, and labeling   (with a lot of help from my Gary!).  This feat alone is newsworthy in my world considering, until the last several weeks, I would never had considered myself a baker.  But, since baking is where I need to start on this food-business journey, baking is what I will do.  I also made candies, fruit roll-ups, and preserves, all in preparation for my debut at the Vandalia Farmer's Market and the Downtown Troy Farmer's Market.

Friday night was hot, but the people were friendly and the business was decent.  I did pretty well, got to meet some other vendors, and also was able to spend some time with my lovely sister-in-law.  All in all, a pretty good night.

Once I finally got home thought, I had no time to rest.  I was informed (thankfully the night before) that I would need to list my product weights in grams as well as ounces.  So, we sat on the basement floor and hand-wrote metrics on every package.  Yeah we're done!  Oh wait...

I also realized that I had left some other required info off of our labels, so Gary ran some emergency ones that we tacked on.  Not the prettiest sight, but it worked.

Saturday morning was an early one for all of us.  Gary and Hannah were headed to Cedarville for a big track meet, and I was headed up to Troy to market with my brother.

I did a little less business on Saturday, but made up for it with new business prospects, meeting other vendors, and getting some great advice from people in the food business.  Everyone was so nice and helpful, which made me feel so much more at ease.

So, evaluation time.  All in all, a good weekend. I learned a lot and I have hope for the future.  Not too shabby.

My humble little set-up at Vandalia.

 Coffee roasted by my brother, pottery by my sister-in-law.

 My preserve labels.

 Great photos of area landmarks taken by our friend.

 Mugs by my sister-in-law