Homestead Update: Farmers Market
Something that’s both inspired and intimidated me in equal measure since moving to this small town in 2017, and a huge component in taking my homesteading to the next level:
Signing up to be a vendor at our local farmers market.
I’ve come up with dozens of excuses over the years to avoid taking this exploratory step, one I know will push me even further along my path of homesteading and community building. Here’s some of the more persistent ones:
I don’t have anything to sell
It would be too expensive to get all the permits and paperwork done
I would never find the time
No one would want to buy * enter idea here *
But this year I sat down and reassessed, trying to find any truth to these thoughts or else dismantling them with actionable solutions.
I have thousands of seeds, and a giant garden plot to grow them in as well as a greenhouse to start them in
I have a change jar that’s been sitting on my counter for years
I spend more time daydreaming about it than it would actually take me to do it over the course of a year
There is a 100% chance no one will buy what isn’t for sale
After looking at my actionable solutions list, I felt momentarily bolstered enough to figure out what hoops I would have to jump through to get the proper licenses and permits. After about two weeks of phone calling and internet searches, I narrowed the immense bureaucracy of paperwork and permitting down to the following:
Cottage Food License $230
Business License with Nursery and Egg Handler/Dealer Endorsements - $228.58
Set Up an Egg Cleaning and Handling Station - $100
Well Water Test - $50
Estimated Grand Total: $608.58
The amount of rolled coins and crumpled bills in my change jar: $149 plus a handful of change
Aaaand momentary bolstering gone. So how am I going to stretch $150 bucks to cover $608 worth of expenses? Well I’m not a magician but I do have a credit card and the ability to use Google Sheets, which in my opinion gets me about 86% of the way to being able to work actual magic.
Since the farmers market starts up in May, I’ll have about three months to sell some untapped assets and track my profits from the following:
Plat starts - around $2 each
Duck eggs - around $4 for 6, $7 for 12
Loaves of sourdough bread - around $5 each
Tubs and tubs of clothing left over from a previous business idea - around $2-$5 per item
Website revenue (thank you Patreons, you’re the real MVP’s)
In May, post-partum willing, I’ll be able to sell:
Plat starts - around $2 each
Duck eggs - around $4 for 6, $7 for 12
Loaves of sourdough bread - around $5 each
Saved seeds - around $1 per pack
Fresh seasonal produce from the garden
The overall goal? To break even by January 2022.
Since this is a a pretty big project that costs a lot of money and takes up a lot of time, what’s in it for me? How does it help me achieve the kind of lifestyle I want to live?
How does it help me find peace?
Well, I’ll be honest. This experimental year will be a test to see how much I can get out of my own way. I have the resources and the products to make this enterprise successful on paper, but more than that I know cooking and gardening are an important form of self-care that I often let fall by the wayside. Working outdoors is also a key component in my physical health in addition to my mental health - shoveling and wheelbarrowing raw materials really does wonder’s for the rear end.
And as I take up the #HardestJobOnEarth - becoming a first time Stay At Home Mom - I realize I need to protect and cultivate aspects of my life that are purely for the sake of my own joy. Parents who work inside the home serve others around the clock for years on end, and rarely if ever get a “break”. As society crawls towards recognizing the unseen labor of these parents I need to celebrate “unproductive” endeavors within my own life as much as I do within the lives of my friends.
The greatest obstacle to this project is my own tendency to manufacture unnecessary and unrelated expectations surrounding my actions. The idea that my joy must have an associated cost, which in turn must be offset, is so deeply ingrained that disregarding this notion is going to be massively uncomfortable. But I know that this is a lesson I have to not just preach, but practice in my own life if I want to cultivate peace within my home, my head, and my heart - no matter how busy my season of life is.
More updates to come as I check these items off my list! Until then, I’ll be panic-eating this quart of strawberry ice cream.
