Ideas For Your Farmers Market Booth Or Vegetable Stand
Ranked #118 in Home & Garden, #2,421 overall
Give Your Produce Stand Pizazz
Once upon a time, Steve and I lived on a farm. And on that farm we had a garden full of organic vegetables. Intending to grow only what we needed for ourselves but being new to gardening and not confident in the greenness of our thumbs, we not only tilled far more ground than necessary and planted more than necessary but, by george, it all grew!
Needless to say, we had vegetables of all kinds -- some we had no idea what to do with (kohlrabi?) -- coming out our ears. So we gave some away, traded vegetables for farm products we didn't grow or raise, and, when we still found ourselves with excess, we set up a self-serve stand out in front of the house (complete with "The Headless Harvester" pictured here, who had butternut squash for a neck).
Finding the produce stand to be a success and enjoying meeting new people when we happened to be nearby when they'd stop, we took a friend's advice and signed up for a booth at the local farmer's market.
Some of the photos you'll see here are from our early days of selling produce, before we got better at making our displays look even tastier and more inviting. But, over time, we improved our farmers market tables and our sales, and I'd like to share with you my tips for making at least some extra spending money, not to mention pay for next year's seeds, by selling what you grow.

Steve, up to his ears in corn
Beginners' Luck In The Vegetable Garden
Broccoli, onions, beans, oh my!

Our market garden on the Connecticut farm
And lettuce and tomatoes, squash and cucumbers, peppers, herbs, cabbage and potatoes. Out of the ground also came garlic and turnips, carrots and celery and ... well, let's just say I made good use of my Victory Garden Cookbook.
Matter of fact, I think I saw a neighbor duck inside and pull the curtains when she saw me coming with an another arm-full of zucchini.
And Speaking Of The Victory Garden Cookbook....
I LOVE this cookbook. It saved us from yet another night of steamed broccoli. And my husband was about to go on a hunger strike if I made one more vegetable stir fry. But then I bought this book, and a veggie wasn't just a veggie anymore. This, to me, is a vegetable grower's must-have recipe book. It's been around a while -- since 1982 -- and is still a best seller for good reason.
The Victory Garden Cookbook
Amazon Price: $199.98 (as of 02/14/2012)![]()
Used Price: $13.74
You don't have to be a gardener to wear out the pages of this book, which grew out of a public television series called The Victory Garden. It was a how-to program aimed at home gardeners, with a recipe segment thrown in in each episode.

And they grew and grew and grew....
A Self-Serve Vegetable Stand
Pay-and-take on the customers' honor worked very well for us.

Our self-serve vegetable stand
So, after the neighbors starting politely declining our plethora of free produce, we took to the street. We figured, well, if people just take the extra vegetables and fruit, that's fine. But we posted some prices per piece or per pound, bought an inexpensive scale, and set that out along with saved grocery bags and baggies, and placed a shoe box on the table with several dollars of "seed money" inside for making change. Then we went about our business of tending to the farm and running errands.
The evening of our first day as bonafide market gardeners, as we were heading back to the house, I noticed that our vegetable stand was looking a bit ... sparse? I hurried over and, to my delight, found the shoebox full of green! There was even a note from a lovely gentleman, with his name and phone number, saying he'd be back tomorrow with the other $2 he owed for the tomatoes!
Off To The Farmers Market
In Kent, Connecticut

Our first booth at the farmers market
The following spring, as our garden once more looked on the verge of exploding with organic produce, we paid $30 for a spot at the local farmers market in Kent, Connecticut. (Small town, very inexpensive booth space, at least back then.) And when the lettuce, spinach and other early veggies began making their appearances, we grabbed our old card table, miscellaneous baskets and plastic bins, some plastic baggies and an old dry-erase board we had lying around, and off to market we went.
Our produce table was pathetic. As other growers set up their booths, we looked from their displays to ours and back again, and felt like kids with a lettuce stand. So, as buyers began to trickle in, we outdid ourselves with niceness and, despite our sad little table, we sold every last head and leaf of lettuce. At the end of the afternoon, we had enough money to go celebrate our farmers market premier with pizza, then buy a few things to help spruce up our table for the following week.
My Farmers Market Sales Tips
and Display Ideas
Work Your Farmers Market Table
Don't just sit back and wait....

First things first, though: Before any decorating or other display ideas, I say that working the booth is number one. By that, I mean both interacting with shoppers and continually keeping your display neat, clean and looking nice, even if it's very basic.
As people buy and produce goes home with them, fill in the gaps on your table, either with extra stock or simply by rearranging what's left, and, if need be, offer some late discounts to last-minute customers. Unless, of course, you want to go home with all the leftovers (which we'd usually preserve or share with the pigs).
Fun, friendly conversation with customers really made all the difference for us, even more so than anything we did to our display.
Make Colorful Displays
Your farmers market table can be a work of art.

Image Credit: Stock.xchg / CC
Just by laying around, being themselves, vegetables and fruits are pretty to look at, so making colorful produce displays certainly isn't hard. But be mindful of presentation when setting up your farmers market table.
That is, you might not want to group everything green together but, rather, separate greens with oranges (like tomatoes) and reds (such as strawberries and red peppers). Bunched radishes are great for adding a splash of color variety here and there, and mix up the various shapes, sizes and colors of squash and pumpkin.
I say, treat your table like an artist's canvas and paint the most eye-catching picture you can with your produce.

Squash and pumpkins hold up well and can add great color to your farmers market booth.
Use Baskets And Other Attractive Containers
Display your produce the countrified way.

Image Credit: Stock.xchg / CC
Baskets sure look better than cardboard boxes and plastic bins for displaying produce; although, we used the latter two on our table, along with stock pots and buckets, when we first started selling at the farmers market.
As weeks went by, however, I collected dozens of fun baskets, some for just a dollar or less at garage sales and flea markets and some for free, from neighbors and friends who had unused baskets lying around in garages, barns and closets, that they were happy to donate or at least loan to the cause. I've also found free baskets on Craigslist and Freecycle.org.
I'd often line my smaller baskets with cloth napkins to absorb moisture and for an extra added touch of country. Rustic wooden boxes and crates also make attractive containers, particularly for large quantities of an item, such as green beans and baking potatoes.
Image Credit (baskets below): Stock.xchg / CC

Display your produce in baskets to add rural "character" to look of your farmers maket booth, even in the city.
Use Flower Arrangements at the Farmers Market
Decorate and sell as bunches or singles.

Image Credit: Stock.xchg / CC
We not only combined flowers, like marigolds and nasturtiums, with our vegetables for companion planting as a means of organic pest control, but we also grew flowers to decorate and sell at the farmers market. Sunflowers, which come in a variety of sizes and colors, were not only easy to grow once they got started, but were a big hit at the market.
We grouped flower arrangements in various places throughout our display and often that was the first thing shoppers commented on when they approached the table. Of course, those arrangements were also for sale, as were vases full of flowers that could be bought as singles, and we rarely had any left at the end of the day.
Image Credit (below): Stock.xchng / CC

Cut flowers add great color and beauty to your produce stand and were always a great seller for me.
Selling flowers at the Flagstaff farmers market
Use A Table Cloth at the Farmer's Market

Image credit: Stock.xchg / CC
Just about any table or makeshift stands will do for the farmers market, but covering them with pretty, countrified cloths makes your display look more uniform and attractive.
In our early days at the farmers market, we used a combination of old card tables and plywood on top of stacked cinderblocks to create our stand. And, in our first week, we actually used some old but clean sheets-turned-table cloths to cover them up. In fact, they didn't look bad at all. Eventually, though, we spent some of our earnings on good ol' red-checkered cloths, not to mention better tables.
Table cloths, if long enough in the front at least, also help to hide extra stock and supplies stored under your table.
Pick A Cloth, Any Cloth, For Your Farmers Market Table
These are some of my favorites available on Amazon.
Craft Your Vegetables for Market
Braids, ristras and wreaths

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC
This was a big selling point for us, particularly when it came to garlic, onions and spicy peppers. In addition to selling singles, to be purchased by the piece or the pound (or part of a pound), we made braids of onions and garlic and "ristras" from the peppers.
We'd create varied lengths and quantities, to give the customers more choice (especially the early birds) and even sometimes mixed the varieties, combining yellow, white and purple onions, for example, in one braid.
We also made some wreaths out of these vegetables. Though that took more time and effort and the results were priced higher than the braid and ristras, we always sold out.
The nice thing about these "crafted" vegetables was, if we didn't sell them all one week (which we usually did), they'd be fine to sell the next. After all, dried ristras are often used simply as decoration. They also added some pop to our display, though we had to improvise ways to hang them.
Image credit (garlic braid below): Stock.xchg / CC

Braided Garlic
Want to learn how to make a chile pepper ristra? Here are two good how-tos:
USING CHILE: Making Ristras, Making Chile Sauce
How To Make A Chili Pepper Ristra
Learn how to make a garlic braid at:
Bloomingfields Farm: How To Braid Garlic
Display On The Stalk

Image credit: Stock.xchg / CC
This was a fun way to sell brussel sprouts, not to mention a perfect way to store them in a root cellar--right on the stalk. We even added these stalks of sprouts to flower arrangements on our farmers market table, and promoted them as interesting candidates for late summer and early fall centerpieces for customers' country-style dinner parties.
In fact, these on-the-stalk displays were so popular, some people who bought them said they didn't even like brussel sprouts; they just liked the look of the stalks and hadn't ever seen how they grew.
Kohlrabi was another vegetable we sold on the stalk, as well as some tomatoes on the vine.
Sell Value-Added Produce at the Farmers Market
Take some of the work out of your customers' food preparation.

In addition to selling produce "as is," you might want to try doing a little chopping and mixing, which will also add some dollars to your farmers market earnings.
For example, we had great luck with baggies full of chopped cabbage, carrots and onion a la coleslaw mix. Chopped stir fry veggies and soup mixes were also a hit. Mixed dry beans were another value-added homegrown product that sold extremely well.
With all of these pre-chopped and mixed items, we included a handwritten recipe card, stapled right onto each baggie.
Give Out Recipes For Uncommon Veggies
Tasty ideas will encourage people to buy the ingredients.

Image credit: Stock.xchg / CC
As with the value-added produce, we also offered free recipe cards for all of our less common (or less popular) fruits and vegetables, including things like rhubarb, kohlrabi, kale and quince.
Oftentimes, shoppers would be perusing our display and ask, "What's this?" while holding up a vegetable or variety they'd never seen before, or one they'd seen in the grocery store but never had anyone around to ask what to do with it. So be prepared with cooking tips and recipe suggestions for all of your produce.
Those questions about uncommon fruits and vegetables nearly always turned into fun conversations, complete with those free recipe cards. More often than not, the customer went home with something new to try. And, many times, those same customers would return the following week to buy even more.
Stock Up on Blank Recipe Cards
For making the recipe cards, I often used blank index cards that I'd decorate by hand and sign, along with the name of our farm. But if you don't have the time or patience to add some doodles to blank cards, you can always use commercial recipe cards, like these:
Group Produce By Recipe

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC
Another idea for your farmers market table is to group some of your fruits and vegetables according to what one can make with them.For example, why not take some of your sauce tomatoes, garlic, onions and bunches of fresh basil and set them a bit apart as a group, along with a sign that says something like, "Ingredients for your own homemade tomato sauce," and put out some recipe cards too. Depending on how much sauce the customer might want to make, you can help them select the right amount of each ingredient. Perhaps you might even price that sauce combination as a group by weight.
You might even have a "recipe of the week" that you customers can look forward to, and each week have the ingredients you grow set aside along with a catchy sign with the name of the dish.
Recipe categories might include:
- Sauces
- Salsas
- Soups
- Stirfries
- Smoothies
- Salads
Gee, that's allotta "esses" there. Well, okay then, how about:
- Pies
- Stews (oops, there's another "S")
- Chilis
And don't forget about growing some of the herbs for these recipes as well.
Need help with some farmer's market recipe ideas? Check out the Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association's recipe page along with links of recipes by fresh ingredient.
Offer Samples at the Farmers Market
A little taste can go a long way.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / CC
We saw other sellers doing this and soon followed suit, and our sales increased even more.
One of our first freebies was a little refreshment--a cup (or two or three) of what we called "rhubarb ade" to anyone wanting a taste. It was my husband's concoction: pureed rhubarb pressed through a cheese cloth, with water and sugar added to taste. We'd set out our pink drink in a large punch bowl, with ice and a ladel and a stack of small paper cups for shoppers to help themselves.
Throughout the rest of the summer, we offered a different sample each week, including slices of zucchini and pumpkin bread, roasted garlic, sliced tomatoes with basil, homemade coleslaw, and grilled and seasoned mixed vegetables. The ideas are nearly endless.
We did find, though, that the most convenient samples were those that could be eaten with the fingers or on toothpicks, cutting down the cost for small, plastic utensils, not to mention the waste.
Offering free samples is a great way to draw shoppers to your table and show off how tasty your homegrown fruits and veggies really are.
Consider offering online pre-sales for customers with just a little time on their lunch hours or who can only swing by at the end of the day.
Here's an interesting article from Small Farm Central.
What's Your Bestselling Item?
At the farmers market or produce stand
And it doesn't have to be something edible, either. I see lots of people selling other products from their farms, like hand-spun wool or homemade soap for example.
Please add your answer to the list below or, if it's already there, vote it up.
**You don't have to be a member of Squidoo.com to participate.**
Handmade Crafts
Cute crocheted 'critters' and practical household more...4 points
homemade bread
Make different types (raisin bread, honey wheat br more...1 point
Market Garden Reading & Recipe Books
Recommended By A Fellow Gardener
The Vegetable Gardener's Bible: Discover Ed's High-Yield W-O-R-D System for All North American Gardening Regions
Amazon Price: $17.00 (as of 02/14/2012)![]()
Used Price: $4.29
A committed organic gardener, the author is a proponent of staggered planting in raised, wide and deep beds that provide conductive root systems and produce abundant harvests. He explains his system, from optimum siting and soil preparation (he prefers broad-forking over rototilling or double-digging) to companion planting and compost. For beginners, he takes the mystery out of such subjects as hardening off and deciphering the shorthand used in seed catalogues. An abundance of photographs bolster the techniques described, while frequent subheads, sidebars and information-packed photo captions make the layout user-friendly. The book concludes with an alphabetically arranged listing of vegetables and herbs in which Smith offers advice on every aspect of cultivation, as well as a selection of the most flavorful varieties.
And Here's Another Great Idea For The Farmers Market
By Clouda9 a.k.a. Correen
More Farmers Market & Market Garden Articles
Thanks For Stopping By My Stand
Do you have any additional ideas to share to help others spruce up their farmers market book and increase sales?
Do you grow a vegetable garden? And have you ever had a market garden? Or have you ever bought from a roadside stand or farmer's market vendor? Tell us about it.
**You don't have to be a member of Squidoo.com to leave a comment.**
-
Reply
-
cottagecrafts Feb 7, 2012 @ 10:07 pm | delete
- Nice Lens, thanks for sharing it. Stop by and take a look at my post we have a lot in common.
-
-
Reply
-
seosmm
Jan 31, 2012 @ 6:52 pm | delete
- Very informative lens. Great job!
-
-
Reply
-
seosmm
Jan 31, 2012 @ 6:50 pm | delete
- Very informative lens. Great job!
-
-
Reply
-
athynz
Jan 24, 2012 @ 1:35 am | delete
- It such a nice readings, includes how gardening could really help us somehow. Good photos also. Hope to see some photos of honey extractor used in producing pure honey. Thanks
-
-
Reply
-
Jan 17, 2012 @ 9:54 pm | delete
- This is a great lens! I am planning to set up a booth this summer at our local farmers market. You gave me a lot of good ideas and some things to think about. I never thought of doing things like adding recipes and value added items.
-
-
Reply
-
sarahrk
Jan 17, 2012 @ 12:24 pm | delete
- I love shopping a farmers markets. The produce is so fresh.
-
-
Reply
-
JaredBroker
Jan 15, 2012 @ 1:28 pm | delete
- Love the intro pic! Great lens and very important info as food prices rise and inflation is sure to keep increasing.
-
-
Reply
-
Bjoy @ Bees for Sale
Jan 13, 2012 @ 11:04 am | delete
- Looks like we have to stop to shop. I really enjoy all the readings, I love sunflowers it reminds me of my bees for sale venture. Anyway hope for more blogposts.Very much appreciated
-
-
Reply
-
nyclittleitaly Jan 6, 2012 @ 2:07 pm | delete
- great lens
-
-
Reply
-
marsha32 Dec 25, 2011 @ 2:02 pm | delete
- My friend and I are thinking of selling at the farmer's market, but our crafts. I'm sure between the 2 of our gardens we also will have some food products as well as some homemade cookies, muffins and the like too. Right now we are talking about it, haven't paid membership or space fees yet.
-
- Load More
This module only appears with actual data when viewed on a live lens. The favorite and lensroll options will appear on a live lens if the viewer is a member of Squidoo and logged in.
by Ramkitten
For a number of years, my husband and I grew almost all of our own food, and then some. The excess we both gave away and sold at the local farmers market... more »
- 189 featured lenses
- Winner of 19 trophies!
- Top lens » Becoming a Search and Rescue Volunteer
- This lens »
Won purple star

Explore related pages
- Start a profitable Gardening business Start a profitable Gardening business
- Start My Own Business - Great Idea! Start My Own Business - Great Idea!
- Aiken County Farmers Market Aiken County Farmers Market
- Property Caretaking: How To Get The Job & Make The Most Of It Property Caretaking: How To Get The Job & Make The Most Of It
- Suburban Homestead Suburban Homestead
- Growing Carrots Growing Carrots


