Latest / Two Tools, No Clue / M12 Farmer's Market Reddit Stories
Transcript
- Jeidan and Anna: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Two Tools No Clue Podcast. I'm Anna. And I'm Jaden. And on today's mini sewed mini but grade. We have no clue about Reddit Farmers Market stories. I love it. I love me Reddit. Back at it with the Reddit stories. It's been a while. So I guess we'll just jump right into it. Are you ready? I am so ready. So our first story, and I haven't read these in a while, so they're kind of new to me as well, which will be interesting. Yeah, that's even better. I feel like you're gonna be shocked just like me. Stevie's ready. So our first story is from user Lumpia Rules 101. What's up, Lumpia? So I've always been a sweets person. Over the past year I've been experimenting with different crinkle like cookie flavors as well as butter mochi. Mochi? Hm. I've brought it into work dozens of times for coworkers, as I'll end up just eating it all myself if I don't. Sounds familiar. Everyone has loved them so far. I have a friend who owns a restaurant and when I told her about the idea of me selling some baked goods at the farmer's market, she said I could use her kitchen for Commissary kitchen requirement, which luckily we don't have to deal with in New Hampshire. We're lucky that we can do homesteading baking. Yeah. I'm honestly pretty excited about getting to meet more local people, selling them my cookies, etc. But I'd be lying if I wasn't nervous. I'm pretty much starting from complete scratch, as in I don't have the supplies, don't know how I'm going to set up the booth, etc. I know I'll need to get insurance as well. I have until early June to prepare. I also signed up for every other week instead of every week, as I'm really not sure how this is going to work out. I'm nervous primarily because I worry that somehow I will get someone violently sick. I have anxiety, so I tend to catastrophize things. and I worry slash have these intrusive thoughts of me setting up my stand and absolutely no one stopping by the whole entire day I'm set up there. Any advice to calm myself down? Honestly, like I said, I'm more excited than nervous, but I'm certainly am nervous as well. I basically feel like I'm the equivalent of a little boy setting up a lemonade stand with all the other vendors who actually know what they're doing. Yo, been there, done that. So I thought that would be a great one to start off with because that's also how we felt when we first started the farmers market. We were so nervous and there were some times where, you know, we didn't sell as much and I would I would like get down on myself, you know. But people were obsessed with our stuff. Yeah. and we didn't really try hard. I mean we did, like, don't get me wrong. We Would work all day our regular jobs and then we would come home and by three PM we would be baking until one AM and then we would label everything. Yeah. And then we would wake up at six AM and we would load up the car and we would get everything ready to go. And we would be at the farmers market until like one one thirty by the time we were finished. Packing up. It could be a long day and sometimes defeating, you know, especially when the weather was shit. Mm-hmm. You know, and you just have to remind yourself like It's not your fault. The sun isn't out, you know. Right. Like good for you for being out here in this rain. Yeah. but yeah, I you know, I I felt I felt the nerves in in that one. Definitely been there. Yeah. So Mr. Random Number replied, Iteration is your friend. Give yourself permission to do poorly the first time or two. Each time you will learn what to do next time. Like r the first few times we forgot so much stuff. And luckily we only live like twelve minutes down the road, but I would have to drive back and then drive back to the market with all these things. One time it was like pretty crucial stuff. Like we didn't have the spikes to keep the stand down. And Anna was always nervous about that and I was like half ass about it until one day it tried to blow away. And then another time we literally forgot the money box and the sheets because we had washed them. That's right. I hauled ass down our street and thankfully the police were not there. Yeah. so he said, Each time you will learn what to do next time. Try your best, of course, but let go of any particular expectations beyond meeting people and learning what they want. Yeah. Puns and Roses 420 replied, and their reply is extremely long, but also extremely helpful. So I just took the whole thing and put it right in there. So thank you, Puns and Roses 420. They said, I worked in farmers markets for a while. It can be a really rewarding experience and a great way to make connections with the locals and other vendors. My two cents for whatever it's worth in your situation. A surprising number of people make the farmers market their weekly tradition all through springslash summer. You see some families come by a few times, but the real repeat business was the adults coming on their own or occasionally bringing their partner and the elderly, which is exactly who our regulars were. Free samples were huge for bringing in buyers, but having a new flavor to try was what kept things feeling fresh and interesting to my regular buyers, even if they ultimately chose to buy the usual. Most vendors are there week after week, and the non-produce slash plant products available for purchase stay the same. For the regular market goers, it can become predictable and routine to see, but they love the human connection of meeting with you and touching in. Having something new for them to check out during an otherwise routine exchange brings some sparkle and excitement back and can further cement customer loyalty and repeat business. That's so true. Yeah. Larry. Larry agrees. I don't I don't think you guys can hear him, but hopefully not. He's making a ruckus out there. Some customers are going to be weird, picky, or have a million questions. Some will be energy vampires, which we have also experienced. But roll with it and just be honest when you don't know the answer. If you tell them you can do some research or check and let them know the next time they stop by, then bonus points. They won't be less weird, picky, or overly questioning, but they will regularly stop by and buy something even if they don't seem happy about it. LOL. Begrudgingly loyal customers is how I might put it. We had a few of those, but I think they were just trying to pass the time. Maybe not past the time, but like past knowledge and time. Yeah. Which is what I really appreciate about and miss about the farmers market. Is Like she said at beginning, like you make connections. Connections that you did not think right you were gonna make. I now have friends in the elderly community in our community, strictly because either they're obsessed or their wife is obsessed with my blueberry bread. We run into each other in Walmart. We're like, Hey They're like, Where are you? Making blueberries They continue and say, when you set up for the day, come early. It's a bit of a fight for carslash van space so vendors can unload and for parking too. Coming early makes setup less of a hurry, less of a fight, and gives you a chance to say hi to other vendors or crack a joke about still waking up to break the ice and start making connections. It gives you time to set up your payment devices or call a friend to bring an emergency power cord before the market opens. Jaden. I keep bringing up making connections because it it's more rich and rewarding to your business than you'd think. Take a chance to check out other vendors' stalls and introduce yourself. Be excited to try their samples and don't be afraid to be a customer. They'll do the same. And if they like you and your products, they'll mention you to their customers. Partnerships between vendors is not uncommon. Coffee vendors might use another vendor's beans or offer lemonade with a farm vendor's berries. Ice cream vendors might be looking for fun or unique vendors cookies to get on the topping. Being open to product trades within reason and offering vendor discounts not only spreads word of your business, but can offer some creative ideas and flavors to further inspire your work. Always find out where the bathroom is before the market starts and where to fill up on water. Talking for hours and putting on a smile when you're physically and or socially tapped out is tough work. No shame in taking a step away for a few minutes to eat, drink, recharge. It makes a huge difference. But have a sign ready or a partner who can man the stand while you do so and if unmanned, keep your till on ya. Yeah. Sounds really good. That's the end of that one. That's just like a day in the life of the market and it is overwhelming. And you know, I can guarantee you if Anna and I step back into a farmer's market, we would be overwhelmed all over again because You can always have more things on your table. You can always have, you know, different things that people might want. But at the end of the day, I liked when we would get there early and we wouldn't forget things because then it was like that moment of like pride, you know? It's like, wow, look at all this shit we baked yesterday. Look what we did, you know. We were pushing out the amount of amount of scones, cookies. Like all this crazy stuff that small bakeries would do to open up their shop for the day. Like that's what we were doing. And it it's like really nice to not only make those connections, but also just to be able to stand back and be like, Wow, I did this. Yeah. I I took this chance. So good for you for going to the market. It can only get better. Yeah. And I will say, just be warned, there will be Customers who try to show up before the market opens, literally as you're setting up your booth, being like, what's this? Asking me questions. A million questions for you. We've dealt with a couple of those and I have to say I did not handle it well. I'd be like, I don't know. Yeah. You know. Like, I'm literally have a half an hour until I have to answer this for you. Can you just let me set up? And that's where having connections in your market, you know, like our market manager would like see. Anxiety in Anna's eyes and she would come over and be like, Hey, come check this out. You know, and and then that way so much for that. and so yeah, it's just like those little things, but I I will always be grateful for our time to the market. Learned a lot, met a lot of cool people, and gave us confidence that I think we very much needed in that moment. Yeah. Absolutely. For sure. So this next one is from username Wert. Perch and they had like the little thing I've I found two, but I'm assuming there's more. It's like Tales from the Farmer's Market. And it was like diary entries for them. And they wrote so beautifully, I included two of them in here. So the first one is called Tales from the Farmer's Market: When Humor Backfires, My Work Here Is Done. God. Sounds like an episode out of Jaden's book. Here we go. For many years I have been helping out a farmer friend at a couple of farmers markets. He grows and sells a wide range of organic vegetables which are freshly picked and beautifully presented at the stall. We both have a quirky and occasionally dark sense of humor and believe that shopping for food should be fun. We've always had quirky signs. Some have images that are data esque, bearing no relation to the product advertised. Some have odd descriptions, some are simply funny marketing. An example of the latter is baby summer squash labeled as squash kittens. I've been known to put up signs indicating we're out of a product or that a much demanded product is not in season. So you'll see parsnip free zone or early bird swiped the baby spinach. one fine morning at market we ran out of something. I forget what this was years ago. And the empty basket was still sitting out. I took this as a comic opportunity and elected to write a quick sign indicating our lack of product. I settled on Zen lettuce, scrawled it on the back of an old sign and clipped it to the basket. A few people noticed it and smiled, some passed comment on it and continued the joke. It was successful enough that we did it again. One customer's young son decided this was a vegetable he could deal with. And he would come to get Zen vegetables every week. Some didn't get the joke, and we'd have to explain and dissect the frog. The sign and its variants continued to be a feature at our stand to the point where we'd sometimes even set up an empty basket at the start of the day so we could put it out. That's too funny. I mean, listen, if it works, it works. Right? It became a feature along with the banter between the farmer and me. Many winters passed. Helpers came and went. But the joke sign would still feature on our display Hugh the bureaucrat. Every so often someone from the county agricultural department would come to inspect everyone at the market, which is something we also do not have to deal with thankfully. That sounds scary. They were supposed to check that our scales were tested and sealed, that our permits and papers were up to date, and that everything we sold was on the list the farmer had approval to grow. You can see where this is going. I just hired some new help, let's call her Ruth. She was on duty when the inspector came. I was off buying my groceries. I returned to find her in a bit of a tizzy. I'd love for her to tell the story here in her own words, but for now I'll have to paraphrase. The humorless bureaucrat makes his appearance. HB, aka humorless bureaucrat. I need your paperwork. Ruth, there's paperwork. HB. Permits, insurance, planting plans, organic certification is all supposed to be on display. Ruth, a little flustered. I told her about the clipboard, though it was clipped to one of the tent struts. HB, you're supposed to present it on demand. Ruth finally twigging what the clipboard was for. Here it is. HB Harumph. Roth rustles through everything, checks the display, ticks things on his clipboard. The dialogue paused as he went through everything we had we had out and checked it against our planting plan. There's always a question or two here as sometimes the signs don't exactly reflect what's on the papers. Squash kittens are not listed, for example, and what we grow as curly and dive is on the sign as Frizzi. HB, after much frantic rustling through ten pages of planting list, there's something missing. This Zen vegetable is not accounted for. Ruth, dot dot dot. Poor Ruth. HB, this is not right. You can't sell something you don't have in the plan. Ruth, well, we aren't actually selling Zen vegetables. HB, you have a basket with a sign for it. Ruth, well, it's sort of a joke, you see. HB dot dot dot. Ruth explains the joke, dissects the frog, nobody benefits and the frog dies. HB leaves in angry bewilderment. After I returned, this had taken some ten minutes, Ruth told me what had happened to everyone's great delight. The end. Like So people take things way too seriously. Seriously. Sorry, if you're that man and that's your life, like, God bless. He reminds me of no problems in your world. Seriously, he reminds me of the health inspector from Bob's burgers. my gosh, he totally does. So this next one is from username Reggie Milligan. How to tell if you're at a terrible farmer's market. God. I was recently eviscerated in a Reddit post where I mentioned a farmer's market. I've realized farmers markets trigger people and there are two distinct versions of a farmer's market. Here, in my humble opinion, is how to tell if you are at a terrible farmer's market, ripe with gouging greed and shady practitioners. Preface before someone comments, this post posts reeks of privilege. I want to express that I also shop at mass supermarkets and everything in between. If you have good stuff, fair prices, and nice staff, I'm all in. Not all farmers market are for wealthy elites. It can be an amazing way to support local families, find delicious, often cheap, healthy food, and meet your neighbors if you're at a good one. If you're at a bad one, it's just hell on earth with designer overalls. One. A dozen eggs is over ten dollars. I don't care if you have one chicken per acre and feed them gold leaf. No eggs should be near one dollar each. Yeah, that's crazy. Half a loaf of bread is sold at an egregious price. three, the farmers look more like people who bought a hobby farm outside of Austin and run a hobby farming Instagram account. Four Bunches actually have like three carrots or two beets. They aren't actually what most humans would consider a bunch. Yeah, that's a few, buddy. Five. There isn't much parking. Bonus indication you're at a great farmer's market. One, lots of dirt on vegetables. There we go. Two, people having big farm looking trucks backed into their stalls where they have clearly driven from outside the city. Three. In summer, the tomatoes are the best tomatoes you'll see all week, but are sold in bulk, not per a hundred grams. I don't know what that means, but this guy apparently knows what he's talking about. Yeah, I feel like people buy like one tomato at a time or something. Yeah. Four local people shop there, not just weekend tourists. And then They said, Okay, I want to know, how do you decipher whether you're at a good farmer's market or at a bad farmer's market? Or for that matter, a good grocery store or bad one. charcuterymander replied, store-sponsored farmers markets are almost always universally overpriced trash. AKA the tractor supply farmers market. Sorry, tractor supply. I lived in Oregon, situated between two major cities. There's a farmer's market about five miles from me that takes place next to a new seasons. Is basically 90% of what they'd sell in the store itself. Dismal experience. Then there's a farmer's market about ten miles from me and situated about a mile from four different farms. All the vendors look like they woke up at four AM just to show you their favorite squash. Heck yeah. That's the shit you want to look for. Yeah it is. You're paying like a fourth the cost of the market at twice the freshness, and you know you're supporting a local business. Heck yeah. Loquacious replied. I'm late to this thread, so I want to reply here near the top about two things. The first is about a farmer's market being elitist or expensive, which leads it to a possible indication of a good farmer's market. If they take SNAP food stamps and do price matching, like I said in last week's Amazon, most of the legit organized markets, large and small, that I've met have some way to accept and support Snapslash EBT purchases. Often buying tokens and they often have programs that will double whatever you buy. If the market has a snapslash EBT program and does price price matching. Match those prices. Price matching of some kind. It's probably mostly legit farm to market producers. I've never seen the price slash spend matching thing at Commercial or store-sponsored farmers markets. It's generally only at the markets where there's at least a majority of farmer-to-market sellers. Yeah, that's awesome. This is one of the whole reasons why Snapslash EBT even exists in the US, because it was legislated as a way to directly support agriculture and farming as a a subsid subsid subsidy. it's never been just about public assistance and a social safety net all by itself. While it certainly helps a lot of people make ends meet, it also puts money right back into farming and food in a productive way. That's a double win when compared with direct agriculture subsidies. And then one last reply. Health, wealth, foodie replied, When there are more salts for finished products, street food and crafts, and fresh fruits and vegetables, I consider it to be a bad farmer's market. This always gives me street fare vibes, which is fine, but not really what I'm looking for when I go to a farmer's market, which I personally have to agree with. Yeah, I agree with that. Also, I've noticed that stalls where the whole family is helping out, such as kids helping on the register or giving tips on how to prepare the produce, or everyone you talk to is excitedly telling you about a particular vegetable that they finally have in season, you get more reasonable pricing and better quality. I guess it's more likely that they are the ones that actually grew the crops and not a reseller. Yeah. So that is how you can tell between a good and a bad farmer's market. I don't disagree with those comments. So we're back to Wort Perch. This time, tales from the farmer's market. Today a customer made me cry. no. This does not happen often. And this was also posted in twenty twenty, just to give you some what am I trying Perspective. Yeah. Into when this was written. Horrible time to be alive. I work with a great friend, a local farmer, at a number of farmers markets. I've been doing this for almost 16 years. I love my job and have made some great friends with regular customers. With the current pandemic situation, two things have happened. Firstly, we've had to change how we set the stand up and sell to customers. It's a lot more work and we have to select and bag the goodies that people would normally pick themselves. Wearing masks and gloves makes things a little tougher, but our regulars appreciate the extra effort and let us know. Secondly, the situation has polarized people. Most people are patient and understanding, and a a very few either don't get it or don't care. We've had to sack a couple of people and chastise a few. Actually, there's a third thing. We're much, much busier than usual for whatever reason. People either appreciate being out in the open or are reluctant to shop in grocery stores. In any case, we are rushed off our feet today with two people serving customers and one taking cash, both teams working hand over fist to help keep people moving. A steady line of people needing change is hard because we like to shoot the breeze with the customers, and right now that's not possible for the most part. In any case, having gently shooed off one chatty regular so I could serve the next gentleman, the following conversation took place. Me. You have a large bag of salad mix, ten dollars if you would. Gent, handing me a hundred dollar bill. Do some kindness with this. Me. no, that's a hundred. I must give you change. Jen, no, I want you to give some food to those who need it. Me, but it's a hundred. Jen, I'm sure you'll find a way to use it. Me, well we do have that anyway. We donate a lot of food to good causes, which we do. We often have a surplus at the end of market and if we think it would spoil before we sell it or there's a lot of product, we donate it to food banks. Jen, well I want you to use this. I'm sure you'll find a way. Me is speechless for a moment, which is quite rare. This is a ninety dollar donation. Finally, I thank him profusely, wishing I could give him a huge hug. He walked off without saying another word. I had tears in my eyes as I explained to the farmer what had just happened. He and I discussed how to manage it and we decided that it will cover some debt forgiveness and some discounts to people we know are financially embarrassed at the moment. I'm misty eyed as I type this, so please forgive any errors of typing typing is the only error or formatting. I've had a few people pay for others' products if they only have credit cards. We only take cash. And we've been generous with a few who are in need, but this is a stand up example of how to truly care for others during this crisis. And I know that there are other stories of generosity out there. to all of you out there in retail service land, I say a big thank you and keep holding it together. may your knit wit's customers be few and your kind ones many. I just thought that one was really yell. It was like who are they all going to be? Yeah, right. It was written as like an am I the asshole like clickbaity. Yeah. That was a good one. You know the pandemic was very, very difficult time. Obviously that's I think an understatement. Mm-hmm. But it's moments like that where people who have the ability to have extra ninety dollars, especially when you don't know if you're gonna be able to go back to work. Those are the type of people that we need to be putting in office. Yep. Thanking profusely because, you know, fuck all these other greedy assholes. You know, I don't I don't care how much money you have in a bank account. I wanna know how you treat others. Exactly. Yes, that's just what poor people say, but whatever. And then I have one more for us. Okay. It's very short. Username Gregario said I went to the horny farmers market yesterday. Okay. I spent twenty dollars on two stems of ramps because some twenty year old told me they'd be bapping and pesto, which I think is a French dish. He then ripped a sick cotton candy cloud in my face. Afterwards I ate the world's shittiest donut for five dollars while a thruple argued nearby about bringing in a fourth. I love Logan Square and I'll never leave. Where is this? I have no idea. Logan Square. I have no idea. Our farmers market is not the same. Could you imagine that happening at ours? I'd be like, whoa. Spend twenty dollars on two stems of ramps because some twelve year old told me they'd be bapping. Hot pepper jam. What do you put on it? Whatever you want. Cheese, crackers. I don't fucking know. Put it on your ice cream. I'm here. Whatever you want. Just buy it. god. So today is August 6th. Happy August, everybody. We've made it. Chicks, you owe me a soda. Today is the feast of transfiguration. Sounds terrifying. That does sound really scary. And then asteroids renamed to honor Space Shuttle Columbia crew killed in February disaster two thousand three. Rest in peace. So they named an asteroid after them? Seems a little distasteful, but sure. Okay. I didn't even think of that. Today's seems weird. Today's the best day to cut hair to discourage growth. Color hair. Ask for a loan and harvest below ground crops. I feel like ask for alone is always on there. And cutting hair. It must just be a Thursday thing. I feel like it's gotta be. Just Thursdays are the best day to do those things. Do not grow your hair, just cut it. Yep. Ask for alone after you cut your hair. Yep. And color it. yeah, color it if you want. Slum shady, then Asparella. Remember when you dyed your hair blonde? That was a pandemic problem. We don't talk about that very often. It was like cheetah blotches. And then I came home from work and I was like, I think we need to do this again. And she was like, Yes, you. You didn't even tell me he was doing it. I just came home and you're showed up and it was like What the fuck did you do? I'm the real slim shady. Anyways, you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok at TutoolsNoClue. You can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com slash two tools no clue. And you can email us. Your stories, so we can maybe stop getting them from what Reddit and from you guys. You can email us just to say hi. Tell us what's going on around your homestead. maybe we covered something in an episode and you have questions. Other people probably have the same questions. Maybe we could do like a follow up episode where with everyone's questions that we didn't answer in previous episodes. Yeah, like what's something like that. Just email. Email. Jeez. Anyway, we love you guys. I hope you guys have a good week. We can't wait to see you soon. Well, you'll see us soon. Be safe out there. Be seen. Be kind to each other. Be heard. Bye-bye. Bye.