do yourself a flavor...
It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I have been trying to can about 15-20 jars a day, with the prep work involved (peeling, coring & slicing fruit) that can take almost 4-5 hours. Once we had filled up our shelves with jars, got everything labeled and created signs and displays; we felt ready to see how our first Saturday at the market would go.
We struggled a little trying to rise before the sun, but since we had packed everything in April's car the night before we were able to autopilot through getting ready and hit the road about 5:45.
about halfway loaded up
I was campaigning hard for a biscuit and coffee at Bojangles and April indulged me although breakfast is far from her favorite meal. We got the market a few minutes after it opened and I went hunting for the boss lady to ask where we should setup our stall. We got lucky with a pretty prime location in the middle of everything and started unloading our tables, chairs and awning. The weatherman was calling for rain but it wasn't supposed to start until after the market closed at noon. We felt the awning was a priority since the sky was already an ominous cloudy grey, unfortunately we had never setup the thing before and it did not come with any directions. Before you start wondering how difficult it could be to setup an awning, I should clarify that this was not one of those easy pop up accordion deals that just expands and collapses in on itself. No sir, ours is a genuine made in China bargain awning that has 4 different sizes of pole, 3 different styles of connectors and no instructions whatsoever on how to slap them together into anything resembling a shelter. After sizing up our opponent, we carefully packed him back into his box and decided to take our chances with the rain.
By the time we had our jars arranged on the table and noticed a slight drizzle had begun to fall, April was already growing concerned that no one had stopped to peruse our wares. She shouldn't have worried because at that exact moment a fellow vendor sauntered up to our table, glanced over our selection and in a hushed tone said we should probably take ALL of our fruit butters, relish and pickles off the table. At first we though it had something to do with our stuff being labeled organic, but not having any certificate to prove it. But no, it turns out it is against the law to sell any home canned goods(besides jams and jellies) without completing a $300 food preparation class through NC State. The Department of Health actually has undercover agents patrolling farmer's markets and the fine is a whopping $50 per jar, so we were looking at a fine north of $400 with just what we had on the table. The vendor recommended we just move the jars back inside the car and keep the products listed on our sign, that way if anyone expressed an interest in our peach or apple butter we could feel them out and do a little underground transaction if we were pretty sure they weren't the food police. Thoughts of whispering things like, "Hey bro, you wanna try some of the good shit?" to passersby started running through my imagination. April suggested we rename and relabel our fruit butters and apple sauces to say something like, "So good...it's against the law!"
With about a third of our supplies relegated to the back of her car, we started to wonder if we would even sell enough to pay for our stall. But as the day wore on we started to see things pick up and I was soon extolling the virtues of our homemade organic jams to Caldwell County's Central American population en espanol. I was doing pretty good (I thought) until they started asking if we had pineapple or watermelon jams. I explained that we grew all the fruit ourselves and that I hadn't put in any pineapple this year, but one lady asked me what about this pointing toward the watermelon her husband was cradling in his arms like a large green baby. "Oh," I said, "No tengo melon de agua, lo siento." This elicited much hearty laughter from their whole family and the missus gently corrected me with the proper name for her watermelon, "Sandia...Sandia, " she said. They ended up buying one of our Caramel Apple Jams and I felt pretty good that folks besides hippies were willing to spend $4 on organic fruit preserves.
a batch of Caramel Apple Jam thickening up
As the day drew to a close, our little money jar grew fuller and we felt encouraged enough to commit to returning next week. We met some good folks, learned some new rules & regulations and had a good time. I will have to work on devising ways of determining who is an undercover food inspector, gotta figure out how to move 60 jars of illegal apple butter without getting busted. Damn the man...
If you want to send some apple/peach butter this way I'll pay you what you ask and pay for shipping as well.
ReplyDeleteSeriously!