to all my farmers market girls and guys!

[malaki]

i was wondering if any of you that have a booth at your farmers market sell anything else besides soap, candles and b&b in the summer months. Like bread, flowers, veggies or jam. i was thinking about selling my homemade jam at my booth but i dont know if you have to have somebody from the board of health maybe come in your kitchen and see if your kitchen is clean to their standerds or what. I dont know maybe im putting to much thought into this but for those of you that do this any help would be great.

[RobinInOR]

Since we're a side market to the true growers market, we aren't allowed to sell food at all.

But my neighbor is in the growers market, and the food vendors have to strictly follow the state's food regulation. There are inspectors there every couple of weeks. You should be able to find those regulations on the web for your states food & agriculture web page.

If I wanted to sell something else, I'd have to jury it in. Even on the growers market side, you can't add things unless you jury in the new product.

[Vicky_CO]

Well you need to check with your local heath department here the rules are pretty strict one of the main rules which kills most people is all the hand made packaged edible have to be made in a commercial kitchen. Here we have place that you can rent by the day or hour to do your stuff. Here you also have to have a health certs. and be ready for spot inspections.

[Maggie]

I see you are from PA.......me too.

Last year I did a 2 day fall show and the lady beside me was selling MANY different kinds of her homemade fudge...delicious by the way.

She told me about all of the hoops she has to jump through to be able to sell to the public. On the front of her table she had a binder with all of the paperwork so customers could see that everything has been properly inspected and she is licensed to sell food to the public. She told me that at one of her shows someone DID question her..can't remember who it was but she had all of her paperwork right there to show them.

There is another show that I do and this Amish couple has a huge booth of all kinds of homemade prepackaged food...soup mixes, dips and trail mixes and some other stuff. Not sure if the Amish would jump through hoops to sell their stuff...like the roadside stands in Lancaster County. I've bought their pies, cookies, jelly etc. I can't think they have inspectors check their kitchens...LOL.

But...seriously...I wouldn't want to take the chance.

Maggie

[malaki]

i figuered that the health board would have to be involved some how. has me thinking if the amish at my market have all their certificates and inspections done. all well i thought you guys would know so thanks to everyone.

[SherriLynn]

Hi,, I handpour candles etc,, however I have my own gourmet food line as well. I carry several different licenses, and I'm required to package in a commercial/stainless kitchen no home packaging is allowed. You can check with your Department of Ag in your state and see what the requirements are.

HTH's..

[MissMary]

Same here at the Farmer's and Flea Market in Colorado Springs. Lots of hoops to jump through for home made and packaged food. I thought about trying to sell gift baskets with chocolate candles and chocolate chip cookies, no go.

[Lumina]

I'm in Florida and they have to have a license to sell food, and it depends on which city your working in as to the other requirements.

I added simmering oil blends and rock salt potpourri. They have both done very well this summer. I had to scale back on the candles because the heat was just killing them. I also sell handmade incense and that is something I always carry. I try ever few months or so to add something new just to try it.

The little bags of potpourri didn't sell well, so I just used them in my candles.

Cindy

[tammyc]

I don't sell any food products, but I do sell photographs that I take and matt myself.