# anyone bake for farmers market sales?



## cathleenc

I'd like to explore baking gluten/dairy free bakery for sales at our farmers market. Anyone doing any baking for a farmers market? If so, could I please ask you a few questions?

thanks so much!
Cathy


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## hmsteader71

I bake and set up a stand here in my town but I'm the only one. I've tried at a farmer's market 8 miles from here but never had any luck.


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## Alice In TX/MO

You must find out what the laws in your location are in reference to "cottage" industries. Check with the health department and/or the Extension office to research whether it's legal to bake at home and sell to the public.


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## baconexplosion

We didn't sell any prepared foods at the farmers market here, but I did see several other booths selling cookies, coffee cakes, and other baked goods.

The requirement through the farmers market here is that if you are selling foods that you must have a liability waiver of a half million I think... As far as I know it is a pretty common deal, but we just didn't want to mess with it. 

We were selling mostly day lilies but we did have a ton of garlic to get rid of so we sold it as "planting garlic" and skirted the issue. :grin:


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## Kato2010

I sell veggies at a farmer's market, but also bring along cookies, zucchini loaves, (unlimited zucchini supply. LOL) and carrot loaves to sell as well. I get asked about gluten free things all the time, but don't make them.

I don't consider baking my main product, but I also very seldom bring any home with me. There is another vendor at our market who just sells baking, and she seems to do very well. 

I'm in Canada, so don't know what your local regulations are. We have guidelines about what we can and can't sell, as well as labels, and they aren't likely the same as yours. I'd suggest checking out some local farmer's markets and just observing what's going on. Talk to the vendors there and see what they're opinions are. Every market is different.


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## clovis

How are you doing with this, cathleenc? Updates?


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## lathermaker

The ladies that sells baked goods at our market does very well. She usually doesn't take much back home. I do know that she has an Inspected Kitchen. This would be VERY important, especially if you are making Gluten-Free products. Having to use separate utensils for everything to follow the GF guidelines might be a deal breaker for you. I would advise buying Product Liability Insurance to cover your butt in case someone sues you. 

My niece has Celiac Disease and she can't come in contact with anything that contains gluten. I even use a separate colander to drain her GF pasta.

I hate to be a downer, but when you're working with potential allergy products, it's really better to be safe and cover your bases.

I've often thought of just selling big honkin cookies for about a buck & a half apiece. At our market there are a bunch of kids coming with their folks. Kids are ALWAYS hungry! LOL


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## chickenista

Illinois law allows sale of home baked goods, jams, jellies at farmers markets

You are in luck!! Your state just made it easy peasy!
In my state it can be done and I did it, but have not done it this year.
I do have a certified kitchen in my name and I did sell at market.

It is a hit and miss thing, but there are ways to make it work.
First you have to be a good baker. You have to be good every time and you have to be able to produce consistent products. It is not fun when you have an off week in the kitchen..like baking on the new moon. Sigh.. stuff just won't rise like it should. You have to be able to counter the new moon, changes in humidity etc..
Packaging helps.. a nice label with weights and ingredients etc..
A nice set up that is clean, crisp and attractive.
I went for a white linen table cloth (thrift store..stunning) and bright white flour sack cloths in my baskets and black and white labels. The only color on the table was the breads and pastries themselves. It looked sharp.
I asked repeatedly what the customers would like to see offered and wrote it down in front of them and made it available.
I had the loaves, but I also had small 'eat as you go' items available. Mini loaves, bars, muffins, filled pastry puffs etc.. "oooh.. where did you get THAT??" "At the white table up there."
"Fried' (baked) fruit pies flew off the table. I mean flew off! I made a cream cheese pie dough, rolled it out, cut it into rounds, filled with baked apples or peaches, covered with a light egg wash and baked them. Labor intensive, but people would buy them 20 at a time.
What sold well for me consistently was lemon rosemary batards, challah bread braids, cinnamon raisin (I used a challah bread for that as it holds together well for slicing and putting in the toaster) my oatmeal bread based sandwich buns, whole wheat sandwich bread (24 hour prep time for a super soft 100% whole wheat bread) and my danish pastries. I have the best danish recipe! And pound cakes! I didn't do them often, but when I did.. wow. Warn everyone the week before if you are going to make something special so they know it is coming.

And you are not nailed down to just the farmer's market.
Spread the love. 
Take a menu to the fire department, the police station, city hall etc..orders in by Wednesday night.. bread delivery Fri afternoon etc..
Take special orders at the market.
I would do carrot cakes for a lady, speciality breads for another, I would bake oodles if someone was having a dinner party, Word got out and I did small functions.. mini rolls for a sandwich platter, danish puffs for a breakfast meeting.
It doesn't take long to get really busy in the kitchen!

And if you are doing specialty jams in season, make a bread to go with. I did voilet jelly and scones and stacked them together and they flew off the table together. I did the teeny little canning jars of the jelly. Just enough for 4 scones. Labor intensive picking all those dang violets. My back was screaming!

You have to love to bake. You have to be ok with making 70 stupid loaves in a day. You have to get such a rush from an oven full of beautiful full loaves that you don't mind the pots and pans that need to be washed when you are dead on your feet.
You have to have counter space like you would not believe.

But that was just for the first part of the season. The produce vendors would start to drop off in July and the customers would then drop off too.. If you have a steady and strong market with good folks, just should do fine.


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## arnie

Here to sell backed goods at the farmers market .you have to be on the public water system or have a clorinater on your system .the kitchen has to be a separate room from the rest of the home , they like for all the ingregients to be kept in a seprate cabnit .the dept of agg. Guy will have to come to your home and inspect every thing .go to the extension office and check out your rules and get pointers.you will also have to print or wright lables with all the ingredidents . I'm in virginia and sell eggs and veggies my kitchen would not pass not being a seprate room and i'v got spring water .I could have used the county cannery to bake in but that was to inconvient.


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## idigbeets

Every state has somewhat different laws and regulations regarding home kitchen certification. Check with your state dept of agriculture.


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## MJDC

I have been going to a lot of fairs, markets and such lately and asking around,I learn that the best selling items are cookies(this includes craft fairs and markets). Fairly low cost, portable cookies. It makes sense. I notice that fresh flowers are in EVERYONES arms on the way out. Mine too.

I really love the poster above who had so many ideas to build her market. I am taking all the lessons you so generously share to heart!!


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