Success!

After an exhausting week on jury duty (I'll get to that later - it's a long story.), 9-5, Monday through Friday, sitting upright with no where to rest my feet, and visiting with relatives afterwards, I went to bed at midnight on Friday night and woke up at 5 am on Saturday in order to get myself and my first 70 plants down to the Farmer's Market.

All of the work I'd planned on getting done during the week was shot to hell by jury service. However, I squeezed in as much last minute work as I could Friday night. Eric helped tremendously, running last minute errands for me and washing off plants we unearthed from the raised bed via light from a rapidly dimming flashlight.

We tried to look as professional as we could, but were somewhat unprepared. Fortunately, there's plenty of room for improvement as the summer wears on and we get the hang of slinging all of our gear into one vehicle in a more organized manner. We showed up just past 7 am at the market and started setting up.

The fabulous (and somewhat expensive) professional sign I'd designed and ordered was done, but not available to me since I was trapped in deliberations all day on Friday until 5:30 pm. They called Eric at home at 3:30 to tell him the sign was ready and could he be there by 4? Well, that didn't work out, since Eric was off playing with Caitlin and never got the call. Also? Half an hour to whip into the local city and pick it up before they closed? Crazy. Oh well. We'll have it for next time we go to market. It's gonna look great! It's purple. Really REALLY purple, with white lettering and is two sided to take advantage of the fact that we'll have our backs to a local street. Eye catching!

So there we were, setting up, a little cold and I was scared. Scared of The Public. Would they want our plants? Would we look like a reputable outfit? Would they scoff at our prices? Would they be disappointed in our measly offering of 70 plants? It is early spring, after all. I'll have hundreds of different plants in June. Right now, I just have the bunches that I'd heeled in last fall.

Watching the market get set up is rather like being behind the scenes at the circus - food vendors wheeling up their carts, tents being assembled, tables wiped down, signs erected. It was cool! Then the waiting, until the first customer approached.

Speaking of which, Heather had the gall to walk off and leave me to go get coffee and hot chocolate when that very first customer showed up. I had to make the very first $2 sale all on my own! (I'm just teasing, in case you're wondering - although I was nervous.) Strangely enough, it wasn't all that hard to take a $5 and make $3 change.

Our first sale!

The rest of our time was spent chatting up everyone that stopped to peek at our offerings. Some bought, some didn't. Some clearly just wanted to talk to two young women for ages. Old men. Surprise! It wasn't so bad. It was very like training and project management, though - you have to be on all the time. Chatty, perky, cheerful. Knowledgeable. And man! I owned that plant information! I surprised myself from time to time with how I sounded. I sounded like someone that knew what she was doing and that you could trust. Awesome!

I even directed one couple away from purchasing my plants when they mentioned recently buying a home at 8500'. I suggested they talk to their local nursery and discuss plants acclimated for their elevation and purchase them there. I was up front about the fact that while I didn't want to give their money away to someone else, it would be the most prudent thing to do - find out which plants thrived that high up and were already hardened off. I'd like to think they appreciated my candor and I certainly established my credentials at the same time.

Oh and Heather? Heather rocks. She knows everyone at the market and they all seem to love her. She chatted up customer after customer and helped me get into the groove. Yay Heather!

So, for our very first day, we made $98 and a hamburger.

What? The hamburger was in trade for two small $2 plants that a young boy (food vendor) was getting for his mom. It all works out in the end!

Now it's just a matter of growing my potential 872+ plants on, pricking out plants outside and growing them on for sale.

I'm officially a farmer!