Our local Farmer’s Market opens tonight!!!
Every Thursday night now for the rest of the summer…that’s where we’ll be! I’m SO excited!
I NEED a fresh strawberry. Really badly.
And…along with purchasing lots of fresh, local, very good for us fruits and veggies…we’ll be setting up shop downtown right along with the other venders!
When we purchased our Shaved Ice Machine, one of our intentions was to take it to the Farmer’s Market each week.
(Side note: Our original plan to open up our “Shaved Ice Shack” on June 1 has been post-poned to June 13…due to all kinds of fun licensing and technicality issues. I’ll share more about that adventure soon!)
Soooooo…we’ve got our ice ready and our juices ready and our cups and spoons ready…and we’re very excited to sell shaved ice tonight!
AND…we decided that since we’re going to be set up with a booth at the Farmer’s Market anyway…we might as well bake some things to sell there too. (I had sold baked goods there a few years ago…and it went very well.)
So, today…I’m baking like crazy (which is one of my very favorite things in the world to do)!
I’m making my pretzels (although I’m using white flour and sugar, because it’s not always easy to get my wheat or honey these days…and I’m hoarding it to feed to my own family), applesauce bread, giant chocolate chip cookies, flourless peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip brownies (again with the white stuff).
Baking is very theraputic for me…therefore I will undergo much therapy today and be calm and cool as a cucumber by tonight’s market when I get to eat my fresh strawberry. Ahhh……
What kinds of crazy things do YOU do for therapy?
*UPDATE* Just about the time my therapy session ended (except for the wash all the dishes when you’re done with therapy part)…we got an email letting us know that because of the threat of very horrible weather…the Farmer’s Market will be cancelled for the evening. Grrr. Better safe than sorry though, of course.
Well…looks like for dinner tonight we’ll have Pretzels and Brownies with a side of Cookies. Anyone want to join us? :)
Joelle says
I like baking and cooking too. But in addition to that, I really enjoy playing the piano as a relaxation method. :-) Sadly, I don’t even have a piano right now though. We hope to get a keyboard soon.
jayme says
So…I want to know more about this. How many of these pretzles and cookies and breads are you baking?? What will you sell them for? Do you only have one oven????
Char @ DigiScrapChat says
I like to eat Laura’s pretzels and cookies for therapy… oh wait, no I don’t, I live in Nevada now. But, NEXT WEEK, I get to be there and have me some! WOOHOO! (Ok, this really was nothing but a gratuitious, “I’m gonna be at Laura’s house next week” comment!!)
And now I’ll stop referring to you in the third person…
Laura says
To answer Jayme’s questions…I only have one oven…I’m baking one batch of each thing mentioned, with the exception of the applesauce bread…I tripled the batch of that when I made it.
I haven’t figured out what I’m charging for it all yet…opinions? How much would you pay for a big delicious homemade pretzel at the Farmer’s Market? How about a giant chocolate chip cookie? A big chocolate chip brownine? A loaf of applesauce bread? A plate of flourless peanut butter cookies? :)
Tiffany says
You must not be in Oregon! In order to do that at our Farmer’s Market I’d have to have a certified kitchen.I hope it goes very well!
Joelle says
I used to bake and sell sweet rolls (like cinnamon rolls) as a kid. The prices are fuzzy in my mind now, but I used to charge $2 or so for big rolls and $1.50 for small ones. I bagged them individually and sold them to college kids on the campus of a Christian college.
If I were you, I would check out prices from “competitors”, such as Panera bread or Anne’s pretzels (I think that’s what it’s called anyway).
Lenetta says
I have to tell you, the thought of firing up my oven right now makes me ill. :>) I finally broke down and turned on the a/c because the humidity got to me. Anyway . . .
homemade pretzel – $2
giant chocolate chip cookie – $1
big chocolate chip brownine – $1
loaf of applesauce bread – $3
plate of flourless PB cookies – $3
Just guesses. It really depends on the sizes. But now you’ve made me hungry for some baking, and my wheels are turning . . . if I use your recipes to sell stuff at OUR farmers’ market (once it finally EVER opens up), what percent commission do you get??? :>)
Laura says
I’m totally a therapeutic baker! My friends in college loved me so much b/c I was always making cookies b/c I needed the stress-relief… And, of course, I could only eat a few of the cookies, myself, so I was forever giving them away to others.
Sally says
Be calm for Jayme and I…we’re in the middle of severe weather warnings, and we’re a little freaked out. Hope farmer’s goes well…I LOVE farmer’s markets.
Org Junkie says
LOL, seriously you probably don’t need to ask me…ha ha. It almost always involves baskets/containers/totes of some kind and just a tad bit of drool :)
Donna says
Baking is nice therapy for me too…love it! It is ‘productive work’ –much of my (any Mom’s) work does not seem to produce too much immediately or its undone quickly! (Clean a bathroom, one kid can make it just as dirty as it was before. Cook a meal, food’s gone and dirty dishes stretch from the sink to the table!)
We had a Bake Sale recently at church and here’s what some of my stuff went for:
my cakes sold for $6, 2 loaves of french bread sold at $11, and my cupcakes and cookies were eaten by the ‘staff’, lol.
You gonna freeze that stuff up or feed all of us too? (…wiping the drool):-)
May the Lord keep you safe through the storms!
Lenetta says
In addition to going to the basement at 12:20 this morning (which the baby thought was very fun!), we’ve had 2 or 3 waves of t’storms go through today. I think we’ve had about 3 inches of rain the past 2 days.
My favorite therapy? Eating carbs. What time shall I come over? :>)
Also, after further thought, I’d up the price on the applesauce bread that is probably in your freezer right now anyway. (Man, that sounds good!)
Yvonna says
Please explain the process you went through and who to contact to sell food items at the Farmers Market. Also, what did you decide on your selling prices? Blessing’s, Yvonna
Laura says
I’m not sure how it works in your area. Here, we contact our Chamber of Commerce, who is in charge of our farmers market.
To decide on prices to charge, I usually figured out my cost, then doubled or tripled that number. It depended on how labor intensive the item was to make. Or, I’d take note of how much that item would be at the store, or how much others were charging for like items at the farmers market. We did a lot by trial and error!