My first farmer’s market in awhile
Last Sunday, I made it out to Norton Common’s Farmers Market in the East end of Louisville, Kentucky to start selling my products in person. The last time I did a farmer’s market was in 2022 when my ex-husband used to help me with sales. He was a personable guy and did really well at it. Admittedly, I’m not much on direct sales, it can be a bit much for me, talking for hours to people and explaining everything each time and when you are right on the line of an introvert/extrovert like I am, in other words, an ambivert, even though you love being around people too, after awhile, you want to sink back into your alone comfort space. But I did great! I was nervous on my drive out there, thinking about talking to all the people, but I kept telling myself “you are not nervous, you are excited! Excited, Lara, yes excited! You get to talk about bees and honey, something you are very passionate about and know so much”. By the time I pulled up my little Mini Cooper, I was mentally prepared. Thank goodness there wasn’t any rain, because I would not have been able to put the convertible top back up with everything I had in her. I used to own a truck, and I have every intention on getting another one or a van, but haven’t made that leap yet. Beekeeping this year, 2024, in a convertible, has definitely been an experience. She will need a really good detailing after this season is over.
The crowd was light at the market, I believe because of the holiday weekend, and, from what I was told, a lot of vendors were missing, but I sold a fair amount there, so it wasn’t an effort in vain. I hope as time goes by, my name gets out and people start telling their friends and returning for more. The best part, though, was talking to the people about my products. Telling about the type of honey I have, the flavors, how to use them in cooking, giving them ideas and samples to taste and watching their faces light up when they tried one they really loved. I told them about my website too, and how I recently started a blog, and plan on adding recipes and more to the website, connected to each product. It really is motivating me to do just that, so that’s why I am on here typing this new blog out, to tell you about what is upcoming, because, in the end, I truly AM passionate about my honey business and being creative with cooking and can’t wait to share my knowledge with you.
One thing I did realize from the experience is that I need some banners and informational signs. It got me thinking about putting up one that shows pictures and has verbiage of the many uses of cuisine honey. Another display banner could be about beekeeping. Since it is just me now, I have to be careful on how much I’m packing each time, because it is a lot of effort to pack it all up, basically four times for a three hour market, and honey weighs 1.5 times that of water, so is very heavy! Here is a breakdown of the effort, which any beekeepers or vendors who are thinking about participating in farmer’s markets can understand the time it will take:
90 minutes prep - making sure everything was up to date with my online inventory, the square app, the signs with prices, the types of honey I was going to bring with it all labeled and ready to go and organized. This time will decrease with subsequent markets as I will have the process refined and more efficient.
45 minutes loading - all in all, it took about 45 minutes to load my car at home.
30 minute drive there - I’m in the Highlands, so the market is not so close to me, it was the one available with a spot, I do have another application out there for one near my home for a Saturday market.
45 minutes setup - set up the tent, the tables, the signs, all of the honey and other decorations.
3 hours sales - talking to people and selling while the market was open.
30 minute drive home - it is a round trip, after all.
60 minutes unloading and unpacking - have to empty out the little car and get it all put away.
All in all, it was a total of about 8 hours to do this market. I will be able to decrease this time in the future, but it will still be a lot of hours and a lot of manual labor. Knowing this, is another reason that motivates me to get my online sales going stronger, but I will always have to do some markets so that people can try the honey. Trying it is what sells it, really. Establishing a good customer base, who have tried different varieties of the cuisine honey, and become repeat business who do online sales for pickup would be the ideal business in the long-run, but everything takes time to get there!
I really met some cool people while I was there too, and loved talking to them about the honey so that anxiety I was feeling was for naught. I look forward to meeting more people in the future! I also got some great new ideas for flavors, next week I want to bring a lemon cuisine honey and a pumpkin spice one, the latter would be great for the Fall. Hopefully, I will get those finished in time for the next market and hopefully I will see you there!