Great sideline for a gardener.

[Kato]

Last summer I spent a lot of time chasing relatives down to give them my extra garden produce. Over the winter, I gave it a lot of thought and decided maybe it was time to put my overenthusiastic planting tendencies to a better use. We browsed seed catalogues, made some orders, and fired up the greenhouse. In May we proceeded to put in a pretty big garden. I actually let Hubby put in 27 zucchini plants! I usually limit him to three, and that's too many. The amazing thing is that I not only kept up to them, but got ahead of them!

Anyway, to make a long story short, in the beginning of August I started loading up the Metro and making the trek to a nearby flea market at our neighbourhood national park with loads of veggies, homemade cookies, and jelly. It was a lot of fun, and I actually brought home a good profit. What a blast it is to decide what you are going to charge for your work, and then get it! For the first couple of weeks I went up on Saturdays, but once the cucumbers and tomatoes started coming in I went Saturday and Sunday.

It was well worth the effort. The garden wasn't any more work than usual, since I have a habit of planting too much garden anyway. The biggest work was getting ready to go, but I did it at my own pace, so it wasn't bad. The sale up at the lake is over on Labour Day, so for September I am going to try and find another market to move the truckload of tomatoes I still have.

Anyone here who is like me, and can't seem to restrict their garden size should check out local farmer's markets. It's a great way to pick up some extra cash, get out and visit, and generally have a good time. It's so rewarding to have someone come back a week after they've bought something and say they just have to have some more! The last week I sold a lady a crabapple pie, and she came back the next morning and bought every one I had! Needless to say, I've been putting pies together ever since.

[Big Muddy rancher]

I don't know how far you are to Virden but they have a shed for the farmers market.

I know cause my daughter was instrumental in getting it built when she worked in Virden.

[Mrs.Greg]

The farmers market our small town started just didn't fly. I loved selling pies and some of my veggies,was alot of fun.


Now does anyone want zucchini,it makes a great chocolate cake......

[jigs]

would be convienent if you vacationed in Kansas... I would buy all the tomatoes you had!

[leanin' H]

Around here, if ya leave your car or truck or buckboard or tractor unlocked and unattended folks don't steal it.....they fill it with zuchinni!!! My wife has bottled choke cherry jelly and now she's building zuchinni relish!

[Faster horses]

Crabapple pie? Recipe please!!!

Good for you for being inguenuitive enough to find a market for
your goodies. The thing is, people LOVE you for bringing home
grown veggies for them to buy. Talk about a WIN-WIN situation!

[I Luv Herfrds]

I made a bunch of Bread and Butter pickles. Was told by an elderly lady that instead of giving them away to friends I need to sell them. Just don't have the time right now.
Had pretty good luck with my garden this year, so we are enlarging it for next year.
I have canned most of what we grew or we ate it right away.

[andybob]

When we moved into this house 5 months ago, I battled waist high weeds to clear enough space for a vegetable garden, but typically still overproduced! As I have been busy sorting out the farm in my new job I haven't had much time to plan for surplus disposal, so a table and "honesty box" at the gate have worked well. I will double the vegetable garden this winter, mainly to increase the variety of produce, but will work out a better sales strategy, possibly through one of the farm shops in the surrounding villages.

[Jigger Boss]

They're (government and health authourities) trying to stop people from selling produce and baking at our farmer's markets here They figure its "not safe" . How stupid!!!
I trust the home grown/baked stuff way more than anything the stores sell .

http://www.bcfarmersmarket.org/ind/healthreg.htm

Welcome to BC, the province of dictatorship!!!!

[Kato]

That's just crazy! The stuff from the smaller gardens is far more likely to have never seen a chemical, and is a lot fresher than the trucked in stuff. How can they call it a Farmer's Market if they have no veggies?

In Manitoba they don't allow things like cream pies, dairy and ungraded eggs, but are OK with a lot of things. They do have labelling requirements. You can't be anonymous and leave your name off of the pickle jar.

FH.. crabapple pie is as easy as apple pie, if not easier. You don't have to peel the apples. I have those big sweet yellow crabapples.

My recipe kind of evolved from when I used to can crabapples. I would preserve them in jars with a medium syrup, then when I wanted to make a pie, I would drain the syrup, thicken it with cornstarch, add some cinnamon and put it all together in the pie crust.

What I do now is to take the crabapples, and working around the outside, cut slices until all that's left is the core. I put the slices into water that has lemon juice in it so they don't brown too badly. When they are all cut, I make a syrup of 5 cups water and 3/12 cups sugar, bring it to a boil, and blanch the apples in small batches to stop the browning once and for all. When they are all blanched, I thicken the syrup with cornstarch (mixed with a bit of cold water), but don't really measure it. It kind of depends on how much syrup you have. Then I add the thickened syrup back into the crabapples along with a good blast of cinnamon. I always seem to end up with lots more syrup than I need though, so don't use it all. I just use enough to make it look like pie filling. When it's cool, I put it into pie crusts and bake them exactly like you would an apple pie.

My favourite way to do it is to freeze the pies unbaked. Then I can take them out and pop them in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes and have fresh baked pie. Frozen pies actually don't take any longer to cook than raw ones do, and I think the crust comes out flakier this way. By the time the filling has thawed, the bottom crust is cooked and doesn't get soggy.

[Les]

[Yanuck]