Hello everyone! I didnt see anything like this posted, so I hope I am not repeating something.
Anyway, I have an 80 acre hay farm, and a small home garden. My husband and I were thinking of converting some of the land to produce veggies instead of hay. Also, instead of doing the usual road side stand of fruits and veggies, we were thinking of doing the canned goods. Like specialty stuff you get at the gourmet shops.
Do you think this would be a good idea? We are in a farming community, there is alot of competition in Hay. So, its hardly worth the trouble.

Sounds like a really good idea. Now you mentioned that there is competition for hay, but what about this? I for one would love it because i dont do canning and things like that...any ideas on what you would plant?

We dont have any gourmet shops here that would offer this kind of stuff. Walmart seems to be the HIT here!
I was thinking about green pepper jelly, several types of pickles, zucchini bread or other zucchini recipes, and anything else i can find recipes for on the web.

That is a great idea and i know that the ones we have up here are very successful too.
Good luck with it

Thank you
are they actual shops? or any road side sellers?
I might have to start road side until i can afford an actual store. our farm is way past the north 40! lol

When it comes to home canned food...I believe you have to be inspected like restaurants are..Anywhere where food is prepared whether it be canned or just baked goods that you are selling for a profit, plus of course a business license is probable needed?????

thank you, i will look into that today!

These are road side stands but are loctaed right in front of thier farms, so no doubt they have all the liscences and papers that are needed.

If you do the Roadside thing,
Do varied things and see how each works...
Do the usual veggies... and your special
canning or jams or whichever...
but do some fresh cut flowers...
and put some bails of hay for sale....
*for decorations in the fall time/Halloween time.
*for planting in *cutting a hole in it and growing a tomato plant... do a FORUM SEARCH on that one here**
Do some homemade breads, etc.

And then see which goes better or faster..
And word of mouth is your best advertiser..
*give somethings away as "lost~leaders",
give'em a taste of some stuff, and they'll be back*

Just some ideas!!!
Please keep us posted on how you do, we'd love to hear updates.

Great suggestions Weezie....and just how sucessful is your stand .

Good luck with it!

Darn kids and my mother keep gettin' in the way!! :rolleyes:

I say...do it! I have been helping a pal,do so..and I do flowers in tourist spots..why not?you have a lot of land...I would love that!

Good morning!
Sorry I missed you all yesterday, took the baby to the pool and had FUN in the SUN! Gotta take every advantage of it, since its almost over, I cant believe it!
Anyway, these are great ideas, I will do the search this afternoon when i have more computer time. I can get creative sometimes, i just need the initial start up to get me going.
thank you for all your input and keep em coming!

I hope it works out for you and if you decide to do it...pics please ok

thank you!!!!

If you don't have a local stand right away....
Do you have a local flea market or farm market/
*we have one local, that has gotten huge, you can sell any type of goods you have, set up a booth, and people come there every Wednesday...*
But something along those lines, if you have one of those around your area..
*ours does cost a bit to rent a spot, but if you have good sales, it should be absorbed into what you sell ratio...*

Just some more ideas...

yes, we have a local farmers market, i think its open on saturdays only. i will have to check it out.
i have to call our extension office to see if i have to have a business license or any kind of permit to sell prepared foods. i will do that today.
i need to make more goodies to be ready for a sale. right now i only have
green pepper jelly 4oz = 10, 8oz = 8
pineapple mint jelly 4oz = 10
Bread n Butter Pickles Qt = 3, Pt = 7
enough zucchini to make 20 loaves, probably
I am too stingy to sell my strawberry jam, tomato sause or salsa, LOL

Youuuuuuuuuuu knowwwwwwww,
if that jam, tom sauce and salsa go over goood
*cause it's a good recipe*
youuuuuu might be able to make some $$$ off of it. Youuuuuu never know!!!
*and when you make your jars up, make them cute lookin' if you can... eye catchers, don't make'em too expensive, but just a wee something to catch the buyers eye*

The ones with the pieces of gigham cut and tied with rafia are really cute and look so cute and homey.
Also th efancy stickers to say where and when the product was made are cute and they look better then a plain piece of paper...if you have to keep the sticker plain then the rafia tied around the top would spruce it up

yeah, i bought some remnants of material from walmart last week, i didnt think of rafia, but I bought some beaded elastic and ribbon for a bow. I think i like the rafia better, it would be so much easier and look more homemade. I also bought some sticker project paper. Now i just need a name and really cool graphics!
i called the ext office and they love the idea. they said there are only a couple people in our county that do it from the home.He gave me a # for the Dept of Ag to get details on how to run it, but its lunchtime, so gotta wait.....
i just finished making some Peach Tea Jelly. My kitchen smells so nice right now! yyyyuuuummmm! I cant wait to try it. I was able to get an extra 4oz jar for meeeeeee.

people up here use the metallic markers when writting on the stickers and it looks really nice.
The small ribbons would look nice too but with rafia..i dont know what it is about that stuff..it just looks so nice!
Making somthing for you is a good thing .
Keep me posted!

Would making and selling botanical jewelry count as making money?

well after playing phone tag w/dept of Ag, I finally got some info..
The lady is coming next week to check out my canning house and make some suggestions, then after that, I can have the Health Dept officially inspect in order to get a permit. She said fruit jellies are exempt from FDA guidelines, but since I am doing veggies and acidic foods, she has some pamphlets for me to look at. She also said that once they look at my process and recipes, they will help w/labeling and marketing. She said its a pretty good deal to get into and it just depends on how deep I want to go. Perfect for the stay at home mom, she said! COOL!!!!

Well, I am verrry excited for you..
I sincerely hope you keep us updated on
how you do, and what you do...
It's fun hearing all about it,
*for some of us, who'd like to do it,
but can't at this moment in time*

well i tell ya, i am soooo excited about it. I know it will be alot of work, but i think it will be fun too. and something my husband can chip in on. He HATES baling HAY! He even said last night, that if things look like we can do this, he would buy me a commercial stove/oven to cook on to make things easier, 2 if the need arises! LOL! And this man HATES to spend $$!
So, I hope I didnt jinz this idea by talking about it before anything has happened. I guess we will just keep this between us. The family can wait!

shari...was it you who was looking for the sweet pepper jelly recipe??? I found one if you are the one that was looking for one.

You could expand this and do things like Chile in a jar, or those cake mixes where all you do is add water stir and bake.

Or maybe Sauerkraut.

no, it wasnt me, but i would love to see it! thankyou!
these are great ideas! keep em coming!

Well, gosh, if we're going all out,
don't forget some cutely wrapped HOMEMADE COOKIES!!!
Big ones's, soft one's, old fashioned kinds like your Gramma used to make...
Only put out a few in the beginnin' and tell them, "Yeah, those are the only one's left, they're sellin' like hot cakes... can't keep 'em in stock.."

Awesome ideas floating around here.

I cannot wait to hear what the inspectors have to say. Do not forget to get the winter crops in for things to sell later in the year with your christmas goodies.

And get garlic planted. Garlic wreaths and strings are good sellers as are hot pepper ristras.

you all are toooo awesome! i have to write all these things down, QUICK!
i was wondering though, about the tomato plant in the bale of hay.... how does that work and when do you do it?

Shari,
Check out this post...
Click Here!!
There's another link there to click too for additional info...

Thank you weezie
I just did a post to Longy about it! I have about 150 bales not sold from our 1st cut this year, and we are getting ready for our 2nd soon. so, we will have plenty of hay to use. We are thinking of converting 3 acres of our Alfalfa into a garden and using the Alfalfa as mulch in our other beds.
I need to research to see what kind of things I can grow in the winter for this area.