Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Goodness, you posters are discouraging! I will probably sell plants, bread, jams, flower arrangements, soaps and lotions all from the same table at a farmers market when I retire. I think it is a good idea to have a flexible plan and plenty of small farmers live partially from the cash they got at the market-selling their excess. Grow your own veggies and barter for eggs and meat...just sayin
I want to have the choice to cobble together my interests and make them my livelyhood
Goodness, you posters are discouraging! I will probably sell plants, bread, jams, flower arrangements, soaps and lotions all from the same table at a farmers market when I retire. I think it is a good idea to have a flexible plan and plenty of small farmers live partially from the cash they got at the market-selling their excess. Grow your own veggies and barter for eggs and meat...just sayin
I want to have the choice to cobble together my interests and make them my livelyhood
Not so much discouraging, as realistic.
You want to sell plants--from where, how grown, where, how shipped, how marketed?
Bread....what type, how made, how preserved, do you have capacity to bake 50 loaves on Friday to sell on Saturday? How preserved? Wrapped. labeled, where do the ingredients come from?
Jam.....not quite so perishable, but takes a LOT of effort to make, bottle, label, and package for retail.
Flower arrangements....cultivate, grow, pick, arrange, pack to travel to markets.
Soaps...make your own? Energy costs, raw materials, packaging?
Lotions....tricky....like soaps, only not easy to prepare, bottle, label and package.
You are going to be one VERY busy person--especially on Friday with a hundred arrangements to make, 100 loaves of bread to bake ( can you even fit 20 loaves in you oven?), plants to pot and prep for market including labeling and packaging so they don't crumble during transport.
I think you are making my point. You have to think smart and business like about these endeavors if they are going to make money. It all sounds romantic until you have to plop down $50,000 for a van and tables and tents and racks and credit card equipment and lighting and insurance...and you haven't spent a nickel on any product or ingredients or farmland or ovens or mixers or pans or seeds/cuttijngs or vases or tractors or growing medium or.........
I think the question needs to be asked of the Original Poster, just how BIG she/he plans this business to be. I read the original post to indicate a farm market type entity, not a business where an exorbitant amount of capital is needed, a business plan, store front, hard and soft costs, etc.
Goodness, you posters are discouraging! I will probably sell plants, bread, jams, flower arrangements, soaps and lotions all from the same table at a farmers market when I retire. I think it is a good idea to have a flexible plan and plenty of small farmers live partially from the cash they got at the market-selling their excess. Grow your own veggies and barter for eggs and meat...just sayin
I want to have the choice to cobble together my interests and make them my livelyhood
If producing anything that is consumed or applied to the body, you will have to eventually deal with the government departments, (regulations), that control those things. If you don't, and someone gets ill or has a bad reaction to what you've made, the end result will not be worth it.
Butterfly4U your original post left a lot of what ifs. The idea of raising some extra plants and selling them is always a romantic one. Most of us would love to make some extra money, and to do it with something we already enjoy. Unfortunately reality is the need for certificates, licenses and tax IDs.
Even in states with very little regulations there are more and more laws regarding the sale of foods and agricultural products. This is mostly because people have been harmed by or perceived harm from what they have purchased, many times by the fly by night sorts. In some states there are requirements to be met even for a Farmer's Market table. Since every state has its own regulations most of us would not be experienced in what would be allowed to be sold and how in your state.
There are also regulations for Farmers Markets, roadside stands and similar operations in many states (see in the list below) and many farmer's markets in the various towns in cities in your state have additional requirements as well as fees. I included one in the list below for Charleston but other cities and town are very similar.
If that isn't enough there is also the matter of what some in the industry are calling the "patent police". If you sell the seedlings of or plants that are cuttings of a plant that is patented without paying the patent owner a license fee you can and will be discovered sooner or later and wind up in court. Research the origin of your iris and any other plant you want to sell and make sure it is not a patented variety. Selling plants is a very big step up from giving them away. I've seen what my friends and acquaintances have been going through to sell plants and have decided not to go into the business, even in a small way. To me the hoop jumping takes out the joy, but I considered it for a while, too.
If you really, really want to do it start with sites like those below and pay for all the licenses and certificates and make sure you are up on all the safety requirements and tax ID requirements, too.
Thank you all for your responses.
I have 2 acres, mostly wooded, a lot of time since I can't get a job for
some reason, and I live in rural community, out in the county, where I live
a business license is not required.
I don't want people coming to my home, so I would sell at a Farmers market
or flea market, or where ever I can.
The street that I live on is fairly busy, a lot of traffic at rush hour, if I want
to throw something out, I just stick it out at the street, and it's gone within 30 minutes.
Mabey the internet, I don't know, I love growing plants, I wouldn't grow a patented
item except from seed.
I don't have a greenhouse yet, but that isn't out of the question either, it really doesnt
get too cold for too long where I live, so I could do a small greenhouse with a heater at
night. Our Spring starts in Feb.
There is no STATE tax on anything that you grow yourself, which is good.
I found this out visiting a smaller retail nursery nearby, they grow a lot themselves.
It would be just me, so I couldn't get big. It wouldn't be big enough to have to hire
anyone to help me.
All you all have given me some great ideas, I read an article that said don't grow what
you like, grow what sells. So you all helped a lot.
The water isn't a bad price here, we are on public water tho, with septic.
Goodness, you posters are discouraging! I will probably sell plants, bread, jams, flower arrangements, soaps and lotions all from the same table at a farmers market when I retire.
Those would be regulated here.
And in many communities, you could not 'bake/make to sell' in your house. Either zoning laws or commercial food requirements eliminates working out of your kitchen.
Butterfly bushes are extremely easy to root from cuttings. You literally clip off a branch, stick it in the ground and away it goes.
Also, vegetable starts from seed, especially heirloom tomatoes, seem to sell well around here. And any clumping/spreading perennial - for years I've considered my lamb's ears a cash crop, lol! Since they spread by runners, every spring I dig and divide into leftover nursery pots and make a tidy little sum selling the babies to coworkers. You could do the same with daylilies once established, as digging and dividing periodically will give you healthier, more prolific plants in the long run.
I came across this site that has helpful videos of propagating, pruning, and selling plants. ( I have no interest in promoting, just found it useful Mike's Backyard Nursery ) I have never subscribed to his system but the postings might be helpful.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
