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Our first real job

FM Former Member
I wanted to let you all know how our first "real" job went.
We hooked up with the local farmer's market which takes place at the St. Augustine Amphitheater on Saturdays from 8:30-12:30 a.m. We were a little nervous since I had heard that a lot of vegetarians attend. (Don't know if I mentioned that to Jack, beforehand. I was just excited for us to have work.) The vending fee is very reasonable and we are the only hot food vendors.
Jack started cooking picnics and turkey the night before. He slept at the trailer about 3 hours. We both had lists, just like for competition of things to pack.
We came up with some pretty cool breakfast ideas which sold real well. My idea was hash brown patties that are shaped like boogie boards with cheese and ham on top. Cost was .56 apiece and sold for 2.00. Jack came up with chopped beef brisket in sausage cream gravy over biscuits. I think the cost on those was around 1.00 and sold for 4.00. Used grapes as garnish with both. Jack also did a sausage cheese loaf on a biscuit with a dollop of orange marmalade. That sold for 3.00. We started offering lunch at 10:00 and they started buying slowly. Had pulled pork on white bread for 4.00. Turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with cheese, lettuce and tomato for 6.00. We also offered a box of pulled pork as a carry home idea and sliced pork sandwich. Had Brunswick stew and coleslaw. No orders for sliced pork or coleslaw at all! Nobody wanted anything like a vegetable! The pulled pork went like wild, then the turkey sandwiches caught on. Thanks, Zeb! The best profit item was the box of pulled pork which sold for 7.00 and probably contained about 7 oz. of pork. We made money on our first day! The lady who ran the market asked us to please turn off our generators because she could smell the gasoline when she walked by them. Jack said he couldn't do that without shutting down because he wouldn't put the people at risk of food poisoning. Hurray for my Jack!
We worked like 2 Greyhounds running the whole time. And our muscles are very sore today. This free gym membership came with the job. Our generator lifting works every muscle.
Oh, they wanted us to put up a canopy to break up the trailer-look. Well, we had a very windy day and the canopy started jumping up and down. Jack tried to attach it to the trailer. Then it looked like it was going to take down pedestrians. So in the midst of all the business, we had to take down this hang-glider thing. I figured after the generator problem and the canopy excitement we'd be shown the gates, but everybody was going to the lady and telling her how good everything was. She begged us to please come back next weekend. I guess a lot of vegetarians like meat!
Thanks to everyone for helping us in here.
Peggy
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FM Former Member
ok peg left out a few things
1- i got to clean the hood system after this Razzer
2- but i got the best part. i started smoking at 1pm friday afternoon and the butts got done at 3am saturday. but the shortwave reception is great out where we store the trailer so i got to listen to the financial reports from tiawan.

now in order of response here goes
1- katelesley. thanks so much for the sugar lesson. i made a few changes to my stuff from your post and it really helpped
2-todd. thanks for just all your good advice!!! i just knew that anyone that liked nigel as much as i do had to be allright!!!! Eeker
3-raiderbill. to you i thank the questions that you have posed on this forum. they always make me think and because of that i am better at what i do!!!! Wink
4- geyserQ yep the cash flow gets me one step closer to the fine i mean really fine f. dick sausage stuffer you got!!!!! Cool
5-cadillac. thanks for all your support but we really found out we were on the right track when a wonderful young lady you know kept coming back for more food and it sure was a pleasure to meet her!!!!! Big Grin
6-kinsman. sure made the hassells we both went thru on our rigs worth it!!! by the way i think i lost my grey water shut off valve saturday due to fatigue. i have to re-run the pipe but this time i am going to secure it to prevent vibration. Mad

and last but not least thanks zeb!!!!!!!!! and you know what for!!!!!!!!!!

again thanks everyone
you have no idea how each of you and this forum has helpped us

jack
FM Former Member
oh man i left out another person Frowner
candy sue-thanks so much for making a great pellet and letting me ask you questions. your pellets let me cook the way i want to and peg and i still consider it an honor that you let us fly your banner and pass out samples. hope everyone followed the directions-go left outta here, go right at the 1st lite, go over the intercoastal bridge and albertsons is on your right,pellets are aisle 13b left side 3rd shelf down
jack
FM Former Member
Nigel's great, but nothing beats a good hood cleaning for maxed out fun! Did you remember to spill a little grease on you when you emptied the grease trap on the hood? That was always a special moment for me.

Glad you all are doing well. It sounds like you've got a great(busy) summer ahead of you. If Peggy can sell meat to vegetarians, imagine what she can do with a crowd of normal people.
FM Former Member
U 2 Can Que,
They sure don't show all of the stuff on TV, do they? I think it would make a really good read, though, if anyone collected all these experiences and wrote about it.
Thanks again, to all of you.
Kate has been keeping me updated on the arrivals of the baby reindeer. I think she is just awesome. That's another neat thing in this forum. When I feel like I'm drowning in sauce, if you know what I mean, there's always a nice person to put things in perspective.
Peggy
M mnhogfarmerMember
Congratulations! I've been busy trying to plant my crops, sorry I couldn't reply sooner.

We have been vending our pork at Farmers Markets for some time. That's where we got our start.too.

In the St. Paul system, we can only vend what we raise, unless you are grandfathered into some products.

A couple of things we do:

Offer a "venders discount". It doesn't have to be much, maybe a product that isn't moving as fast as the others, or $.50 - $1.00 off. As newbies, it helped us get accepted faster into their "family". Some vendor families have been in for over 100 years. It helped make friends fast, and they will brag you up to their customers.

Buy from/support the other vendors. Sometimes we trade. We don't keep a garden any more, and we can't grow as nice of a product as they do. There's a bakery vendor there that delivers all of or buns.

Develop a unique BBQ Sauce, and promote it. Thats how we got ours started. The head buyer for a large upscale Twin Cities grocery chain bought some at the Farmers Market in Lakeville, MN and now wants it in all 20 his stores.

Tents flying arond in the wind: Most use EZ Ups. We are required to have 20# of weight on all 4 legs. I torched up some 3" shaft {an old manure tanker axle} and welded up some nice weights with brackets/pins. Some use 5 gallon buckets with concrete and rope. When we vended at Sturgis, a man got killed when a fast moving storm moved in, as he held onto his tent the wind slammed him into a wall, breaking his back. I doubt 80# of weight would of saved him.

Hope this helps some, I hope I can help some more.

Good Luck! Roger

Listing of our Farmers Markets: www.prairiepridefarm.com
FM Former Member
Thanks, to all of you for your kind words.
Roger, we didn't take the canopy this last weekend. I told the lady about our experience and she still wants us to put it up. We use an EZup, too. It really scares me, but I guess we'll try again.

Jack cooked a brisket, just for the yell of it, this last Friday. We sold out of everything except for maybe 1 1/2 lbs of pork, brisket, and turkey each. There was a guy from Texas that I got to sample the brisket. He didn't want to order it because he said he could get that anytime at home. But he said it was as good as any he ever had. That picked up the sales.

We have been trading with the other vendors, who are really nice. I got fish from the people next to us and in return they get a nice meal from us. That fish tastes really good after all the work we put in. Got some nice chard and a lovely loaf of bread from some other neighbors. Moose snuck the bread off the counter when we got home and said it was very good! Greyhounds deserve a treat, too, I guess. We got asked if we'd like to do an event in August that sounds pretty good so far.

Now, it's getting that time for our next state inspection, but we won't have another for 1 year.

Thanks again, to all of you.

Peggy
FM Former Member
Roger,
Tell me exactly what you would use to anchor the legs of this canopy. We have sandy soil here. So I'm scared the pins that came with the canopy will slip right out in the wind. I don't want either of us or anyone else struck with a canopy.

Another thing I thought of before we did this farmer's market, and something I will continue in every job, is to have a hand sanitizer available for the customers. I got a huge jug with an applicator at Sam's. Some folks use it. Most don't. But it shows that we want healthy customers. I put it in the serving window so they can use it easily. It should last a long time.

Peggy
M mnhogfarmerMember
Peggy,

No those pins they send with you aren't much more than a pole barn nail.

When I made several outdoor volleyball set-ups for my tournaments, and I cut 1/2" rebar 18" long to drive into sod. Or a contractors stake, from a lumber yard is heavier duty.

Drive them in at a 45 degree angle away from the tent leg, and the pull of the rope will be against the length of the stake, and shouldn't pull out. Don't drive it in to far so you can't pull it out.

Some vendors use 5 gal buckets 1/2 full of concrete. I think concrete weighs 20# per gallon, if my calculations are right.

Most use a 1/4 or 3/8" nylon rope and tie them to the upper corners of the tent somehow.


If it's to windy for our 20" weights, we take our tent down.

Our BBQ rig has an RV canopy, but we pull that in in the wind too.
FM Former Member
Hi.

I didn't run this by my husband, so it may be a real dumb idea, but, when I lived on a boat, we held our mooring down with sand screws (among other things). Would those dog chain holder things that have a corkscrew that twists into the ground work for holding down an easy-up? Actual sand screws are pretty long, but maybe this would work? I don't know what they call the dog chain holder things, but you know what I mean, right?

Just a thought.

Kate
FM Former Member
Thanks, to all of you. This canopy, EZ up, sets us back too far from the traffic. We got a beach umbrella. Wild colors. We're thinking, set the base in a bucket of concrete. One more heavy thing to tote. Set a couple of chairs next to it. We can move the trailer closer to the traffic. The EZ up, that was asked for by the farmers market lady, reminded me of a funeral for some reason. This huge tent set up over nothing, with a trailer parked behind it. Serving windows open to the open grave.

We're getting ready for state inspection. Wish us luck!

Peggy
FM Former Member
jack, like raiderbill said, hurricane anchors from h.d. work good. I have 2 canopys in back yard w/1 anc.on each corner that went thru the last hurricane in sept. lost all my screen on porch but not the canopys. winds were at least 70 miles per. hpoe this helps.

p.s. anc.were 3ft long.
j foley

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