Outcome of Our First Market

        Oops I missed a week, well there was Mother's day and I did a lot of non homesteading things like surprising my mom with a day trip to the beach and then celebrating the next day with my little family which did include gardening so blog went to backseat last week.  Oh right and then there was this tiny little thing that happened, our FIRST MARKET DAY.  I'm sure glad that first day is over, now we know what to expect and how things shall go from now on.  Plus I was so anxious and had so many butterflies I was almost making myself sick.  I don't do well with new experiences, I had the feeling like it was a first day of a new job or first day of school and had my nerves all wound up.

     Papa had to work the day before so I was in charge of making sure the last little things were done, for instance pricing signs, list of everything going, and everything organized ready to be loaded up.  I think because he wasn't home it was worse for me because I just sat here biting my nails ready for the day to come.  Not knowing what to expect and having to talk to people made me the most stressed, I'm the quiet type who sits in the corner and observes at gatherings not the social butterfly.

     The day came and we ate breakfast and began the loading process, checking things off my list.  Some of the plants had to stay behind because we ran out of room, but most of them went, and we were all buckled in and headed to the market.  Papa was the muscle and unloaded while I had the job of making everything look pretty.  I couldn't look at my watch while setting up but when we got done with set up I checked and we had just under an hour left.  We were impressed we got it all together so fast next time we won't need to rush as much.

Car loaded, took it after market because I forgot to do it before.

     In the end our first market was successful, not sure how you really measure that.  We sold some items, met new people and survived the cold windy weather, so it went great in my eyes.  There wasn't a lot of traffic but I think that had to do with the fact that there were so many other events going on in town, plus we were just happy people liked are stuff and bought it.

Everyone getting ready.

     We learned a few things after this first market, organization is key without it you'll get behind and possibly leave things behind.  We made sure everything we were taking was in one spot in the garage and I separated the plants I wanted to keep from those we were selling, plus I made a few lists to make sure we didn't forget anything.  Even with all that I did forget to separate the different varieties of tomato plants and ended up doing it while setting up, next time I'll separate before loading.

Sorting tomatoes.

     Doing a mock set up also helped tremendously, so we weren't scrambling on the day of trying to see the best arrangement.  We measured out our 10x10 space on the garage floor and set up our tables and other displays to find the right look and flow.  The day of the market we did do some adjustments but nothing major, making it super easy to get everything in it's place.

Final arrangement, ready for market.

     I also recommend taking a note pad and pen to make notes: of things forgotten, what you want to change, and any improvements you want to make.  I knew I wanted to write it down when I was thinking about it so I wouldn't forget.  I still can't believe we did it, I'm so proud of us and all our hard work.  I know our next market day which is this next weekend will go so much smoother and talking to strangers wasn't so scary.  Alright now back to the homestead.