The Whole Five Acres: Field to Feast, a work in progress

This week was our fifth time at the local markets, and apart from being rained out early in the day it was still a success. It takes a lot of effort for us to get organised each week, so the rain was not entirely welcome. I suppose though, we have to expect that at an open air market we'll lose some days to the weather.

The day started out very slow probably again due to the weather, and people wishing to stay home and dry. It then took off at a rapid pace until the heavens finally broke. Looking at our figures though, we didn't do too bad. We also had to cart home quite a bit of produce we had bought from other farmers which was a bit of a nuisance. Hard to deal with 36 bunches of bok choy when there are only two of you at home.

The big excitement for us though were our new table skirts. The stall is almost where we want it to be visually. We've applied all our combined business skills to define our new biz, and to ensure we don't swerve from our core mission - farm fresh local produce. The response from our customers has been amazing. Each week more and more people come back and compliment us on our produce, the presentation and the price. We've only had one complaint and that was when we sold some chillis we confused with some others and they weren't hot enough for the customer. He didn't take us up on a free packet of some other chillis though, and yet still bought more produce. I'm not sure what to think of that - did he only want to complain?

Above is one side of our stall - below is the other side. We're in a prime position opposite an established fruit stall that has been on the site for 15 years no less!

Each week we learn a little more about merchandising too and how that affects sales. It's a great opportunity for us to use skills we've learned from others, and also be in the face of our customers for vital feedback. We have a few other plans in the works, it's all just a matter of time before we test the out.