So, You Want to Start a Farmer’s Market?

One of our readers left us a comment, with this question, “I live in a small town and I would love to start a community Farmer’s Market that would be on the line of a ‘Flea Market’. Where do I start?”

Great question! Here are some ideas to get you going.

First you need to decide whether you want a Farmer’s Market or a Flea Market. They are not necessarily the same thing. Although, they may each have features of the other.

Try your County Extension Agent for ideas on the Farmer’s Market. The Agent may be willing to work with you and can run interference with local authorities. Then try to learn who in your area is actually growing more produce than needed or who is willing to. Maybe there is a garden club devoted to vegetable growers. On second thought, fresh flowers would be a very nice addition to a Farmer’s Market.

For a Flea Market, once again, you will need to find who is already doing this sort of thing. Maybe a geographic search for your town or county on one of the auction sites might tell you who has “stuff” they are wanting to sell in your area. They might be interested in a “show.”

For either type, you will need to ORGANIZE.

• Find a location; map out each site; 
• decide how much rent to charge for each site; 
• determine the local laws regarding your location; 
• check your liability for accidents or incidents; get insurance if necessary; 
• pick a date;  
• advertise; advertise; advertise; 
• if your location is outside, find a “rain” location (do everything again for the optional site); 
• advertise; advertise; advertise; 
• keep good records of which seller will be where and double check their understanding of the agreement between you and the seller; 
• advertise; advertise; advertise.  

This is just a start.
Good luck.

[Farmer’s Market in Frankfurt, Germany, photo by Becky McCray.]

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About Maesz

Glenna Mae Hendricks. She is an entrepreneur and income tax consultant, so we get lots of good tax tips from her. She is an oenophile (“look that up in your Funk and Wagnall’s,” she says), and a wine enjoyment teacher/guide who also writes wine notes at the Allen’s Retail Liquors site. Her political thoughts (and occasional outbursts of domesticity) appear at Old Feminist and Wild-eyed Liberal.

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