It was better today—or was it?

This week I made less items to sell. I had 116 items for sale, and of that, I sold 90. Last week I sold 88, but I had started with much more (155 items). So, although this week I seemed to be doing better (i.e., my table was emptying out by the end of the evening), it's all relative, since I started with less items. Starting with less made selling the same amount as last week seem like I sold more things this week. Ok, I'll stop blabbering. My analytical mind thinks this way, but I realize that more than half of you are probably thinking, "What in the world is she talking about?"

So let me tell you about my day.

The weather was threatening today. It was windy, and it seemed like a storm was trying to brew all day. At one point, it did rain for a brief 10 minutes or so, but then the sun came out. A while later, it looked gloomy again, but never did rain. And then the sun came out again. Overall, it was a pretty nice day. It wasn't too hot, and the breeze was lovely. The crowd seemed about the same as last week. It's pretty dense right at 3:00, and each hour afterwards, the crowd thins out a bit, so that by closing time, maybe two or three people are left wandering from table to table.

I've had some great repeat customers, and that tickles me pink! I love that I recognize them now, and I even know one or two of their names. It's nice that they care enough to share that with me. And I make a point to remember them. Some people come back for the same thing, while some people come back wanting to try something else. Some people send their friends. One man and his wife have come twice now, and they're wonderful. He is a few years away from retirement, and has said that his dream, like mine, is to someday open his own bakery. He raves about his brownie recipe, but was willing to try mine last week (I understand this concept, as I find it hard to find another apple pie that tastes as good as mine). This week, he said he really liked mine, but now wants me to try his. So he's going to bring me a few of his brownies next week to get my opinion. I love the way this works. I love being in my community, meeting people, sharing stories, and having a following. Many people seem to be extra supportive when they find out that I'm baking from my kitchen, and that I live here in Whitehall. And that makes me feel good, too.

This week, none of my items seemed to be a real stand-out like they have in the past. In fact, the lime cookies sold so well the first week, but have tapered off drastically in sales. Maybe they just weren't good? I don't know. But the people that come back for them rave about how good they are, so who knows. Last week, the Squish Monsters sold the best, and this week, they moved slowly, but steady. This week, Cinnasnappers and PBL Dreams re-emerged, and I'm glad they did. People seem to like them. I didn't make a ton, but just enough to offer a nice variety. The muffins, on the other hand, are not selling at all. And this week, I only sold two pies, and one of them was to my mother-in-law, so I'm not sure that counts.

So yet again, I'm faced with what to prepare for next week. Next week is July 5. We're off of work, as I suspect many people are, so will the market be more crowded? Or will it be less crowded because people will be at picnics and such? Or less crowded because people will have had picnics over the weekend, so not really need anything else to start their week off? I don't know. With such a perishable product line, this is still the hardest thing to figure out. Until next week....

(On a side note, I ate dinner at the Escajeda Taco tent this week. It was so awesome. A fresh, soft tortilla that they deep fried in front of me, and filled with beef and simple toppings. It was delicious. And the Amish bakery finally appeared this week, and I tried one of their homemade donuts. It was fantastic! Uh-oh, is it dumb of me to write that here, since they kind of are the competition? Oh well. When it's good, it's good, and I can't deny them that!)

Week 2

Today was not as fun as last Monday.

I arrived home from work around 1:50 pm. We're allowed to start setting up at the market at 2:00, so I ran inside, packed up the car, changed my clothes, and headed down to Caste Village. My mom and Lila were with me this week to help set up. Set up went fine. It's not much physical labor—just big, bulky things like tents and tables that it's easier to assemble with two people. I was grateful for my mom's help, and Lila was a doll and knew to stay out of the way. By 3:00, the market opened, and we were ready for customers. While the crowd seemed to be the same size as last week, we just didn't have as many customers. And I don't think it was just me. I talked to a few other vendors who were also a little slower this week than last week. One thing that might have affected me, particularly, was the weather. It was hot and sunny. There was a vendor selling snow cones, and on a hot, summer day, he did very well. But for every snow cone he sold, that was probably one less pack of cookies I could have sold to a mom who wanted to buy a treat for her kid. So c'est la vie.

I made the same amount of treats for this week as I had made the previous week; however, last week I sold out, and this week, I had about 40% left. I had quite a few people stop by to tell me how awesome the goodies were that they bought last week, so that was nice to hear. Miss Bernie, one of the teachers at Lila's day care, sent her husband down to get some treats, and I was very appreciative of their support. He even came back for more! And our babysitters' dad stopped by after we were packing everything up, and bought one of my last apple pies. Thanks, Fred! We had several repeat customers, and I was happy to see Margot return for more lime cookies. She emailed me last week to tell me how good they were—that really brightened my day, to get an email from a stranger raving about something I made. This week, she introduced herself, so it was nice to meet her in person. And the lime cookies were better this week than last week, I think. However, that claim wasn't enough to convince one woman to buy another pack. She went out of her way to come to my booth yesterday and tell me how horrible the lime cookies were from the week before. She asked what the inedible hard things were in those cookies (the lime cornmeal cookies), and I told her it was cornmeal. But I had used a coarser cornmeal last week, and I personally felt it was too coarse, so I switched and went with a much finer cornmeal this week. I told her she should try a pack this week, but she refused. I'm not sure what people expect from me (or anyone for that matter) when they complain like that. What was her point? If she wasn't willing to try it again after I fixed the problem, why did she feel the need to complain? I felt bad at first, but when she refused a new pack, I realized I just can't care about what every person thinks. I receive too many words of praise over my treats to let one sour apple spoil the fun.

So now my dilemma is predicting how much to make for next week. And I need to figure it out quick, because my baking schedule starts on Thursday. At this point, I must say that predicting sales is the hardest part of selling at the farmer's market. That and standing around for an hour with very few people stopping by to say hello. I don't even care if you don't want to buy anything; I just like to talk to people. Thank goodness Jack came to keep me company yesterday. I would have been pretty lonely there by myself.

Thanks, again, to all of our family and friends that stopped by to support us: Kelsey, Paige, Mikey, Molly, and all of our friends, new and old, from Whitehall and St. Gabe's.

Starting Out

Wow, what a whirlwind these past few days have been. Yesterday was my first day of sales at the farmer's market, and it was a huge success. But let me take you back to the beginning.

I started out last Thursday baking 4 batches of my chocolate chip cookies. I was only going to make 2 batches, but decided at the last minute that that might not be enough. Then on Saturday, I baked all day (about 9 hours between baking and keeping the kitchen clean) as I worked mostly on cookies. On Sunday, I made brownies in the morning, then focused on muffins, and ended the day with Super Apple HappyJacks and regular Apple HappyJacks. Sunday evening was filled with packaging all of the treats, which took a substantial amount of time. I was grateful to our friends, Mikey and Molly, who were kind enough to come over and help.

Then the big day arrived. I was excited, nervous, anxious, happy, scared, etc.—every emotion you could imagine all at one time. This was my creation, this whole bakery thing, and I didn't want it to fail. It couldn't fail. Failing was not an option. We arrived at the site at around 2:15 pm, and the market opened for business at 3:00. It took us a while to set up everything, but I suspect we'll get much faster as the weeks go on. The tent was probably the easiest part of the whole set up, believe it or not. In the end, I was very happy with the way the table looked. Our first customer was my friend, Jackie, which made that sale feel very special. Throughout the day, among the strangers that bought from us, a variety of family and friends came by. It was nice to see the familiar faces every now and then through the crowd. I saw people from church, my chiropractor, the lady from the bank, from the drug store, from Lila's daycare, etc. I must say, it was a wonderful and fulfilling experience.

I learned some things, too. My lime cornmeal cookies sold like hotcakes, selling out first, and in less than an hour. The muffins didn't move as quickly, so I don't think I'll make as many next week. Everyone loved my "Better Than Regular Old Chocolate Chip Cookies", so I'm going to make even more of those than I made this week. Some other minor adjustments will be made as well.

In the end, we sold everything but two Crumby Monkey Muffins, which my friend, Bill, was happy to gobble up this morning at work. I'm very happy that I started this adventure. It was rewarding, fun, and great to meet all kinds of new people at the market. If you're reading this, and you purchased one of my goodies, I hope you enjoyed what you purchased, and I hope you'll be back again to support HappyJack Bakery. We look forward to seeing you at our table!