How much interest is there in Hamilton (and the greater Waikato) in taking on the project of getting an Ooooby stall up and running at the local Farmers' Market?
The seed and seedling swaps have been really successful, and there are clearly many of us out here in the Tron producing excess bits and pieces from our plots. If there was enough interest I don't think there would be much trouble in terms of stocking a stall.
It seems to me to be more a question of commitment - to going through the application process with the Market; to turning up, setting up and running the stall; and to doing to paperwork generally.
I would love to be involved with an Ooooby stall - how about YOU?!
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I have been chasing this up!
After talking with the Farmers' Market it is clear there is a lot of paperwork needed, and the Market will have to view everyone's garden etc in order to confirm that we really are growing what we sell, rather than just on-selling something we get from someone else. The Market admin also want to know what we would be selling at which times of the year, and would like this info in advance. I think this is possible but difficult, because for myself I want to sell my excess and it will be hard to guess exactly what this will be.
I also visited the Frankton Market yesterday as a general scouting mission, as I think it could be a possible alternative.
Also, would anyone be interested in going up to the Auckland Oooby Stall to check out how they run things?
And, in general, what do you all think?
thanks,
meg
I already have a stall at the Hamilton & Cambridge Farmers markets (not veg - Rocket Coffee) & am familiar with how things work with the Farmers Market.
There are already several beautiful seedling & small plant sellers, my gut feeling is that veg, fruit & flowers would sell better, especially un-usual crops.
It is important to present the produce clean & in an attractively way in the market, in baskets or tied with brown string or in shallow wooden boxes looks attactive & it fits with that brimming with home-grown goodness concept that customers like.
If you look up the Waikato Farmers Market website you can access all the criteria that needs to be met to have a stall.
Joining someone elses stall would still require you to go through the application process.
I imagine the trickiest part would be to have all the produce delivered by the growers to the right place at the right time.
Having a stall at the Farmers Market is immensely enjoyable, but you do need to be very organized.
Love your initiative. Please let me know if there is any way Ooooby can support you. We do have a bit of a users manual for an Ooooby Stall now, although it is still a work in progress. Would you like a link to it? Also, I would suggest a really good thing to do before you get started is to come and play with us one Sunday morning at the Grey Lynn stall. In a single 4 hour session you will likely learn weeks worth of trial and error. ;-)
I'm really interested in this - not sure how much excess we will produce this year but it's a great idea and I'm keen to be involved. I asked the creator of oooby about this and he said that there were no official oooby stalls other than the Grey Lynn one, although they are putting together a package which people can buy to set up official stalls - he said that there were unofficital oooby stalls running in various places - which sounds like a good idea to me. There's also a possibility of joining an existing farmer's market stall if they are willing which might be a good way to get started... Lots to think about - I will have more time in a month or so when my thesis is out of the way :)