Saturday 18 May 2013

Farm Gate Sales

 
Selling from the farm gate is something we've only started doing recently.  The main reason was my allergy to Goose eggs, the geese were laying prolifically and at work, where Lovely Hubby usually sells our free range hens eggs, there was only a limited demand for the goose eggs and he couldn't manage to eat them all by himself.
 
So we bit the bullet and hotched potched together a way of selling at the gate.  The old tyres were already there from last year, a very necessary marker for folks looking out for the end of our drive in amongst all the hedges and undergrowth, and something we could tell visitors to look out for as most Sat Navs tell folk to turn in one turn too early.  Believe it or not they were painted white, but after only a day or so of being sat out there they had changed to this dull grey colour, but hey ho they were still there.
 
My lovely old tin bowl has been in use for years as my weeding bowl, pull up the weeds and then carry them over to the chickens,  and then more recently it was in use as the geese's paddling pool, but now they have progressed to the old 'dust bath' paddling pool that we used last year for the chickens, it never really worked as the sifted soil would turn to mud at the first rainfall, and you know how much rain we had last year!!  Are you keeping up with all this chopping and changing, we do like to move things round and get multi purpose use from everything we own :-)
 
Well anyway, we knew this bowl would sit nicely in the tyres as this was how we had it for the geese so they wouldn't upset the water each time they climbed in and out.  So I put together a few posters, one for Bantam Eggs as you can see above, one for Goose Eggs and one for the free range eggs.  With a brief desciption of who was laying the eggs that were for sale.
 
Now most days it is sat out there catching folk's eyes as they drive by. 
 
 
 
With a sign on each side of our American Postbox folk know if there are any available each day.
 
Up to now everyone has been extremely honest and has left the right money for their eggs in the little 'Honesty Box'.  One lovely lady even left me a cheque for £2 with a note on the back saying she only had 30p in her purse, she left me her phone number so I sent off a quick text thanking her for the cheque so she would know I had safely got it and she replied with the most lovely message,
 
in her words.......
 
'Thank you for putting out these lovely Goose Eggs and for making such a great contribution to my little ones understanding of fresh food. They were so excited to bring them home (and so was I).  So sorry we didn't have more than 30p cash on us to pay for them.  We'll certainly keep an eye out for more.'  Mrs T**** 
 
It's little things like this that make my day.
 
Oh, and one day there was a little note with a smiley face along with money for eggs from our old milkman, now that shows our eggs are good value .... he sells free range eggs on his wagon!!
 
Off to do some more weeding now, this weather is proving perfect for the blighters, little pockets of sunshine followed by lots of warm heavy showers.  I could do with the exact opposite, lots of sunshine followed by brief showers (preferably at night), but up to now it's drier than this time last year so it's not all bad.
 
Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Karan this post should help you :-), see you on Tuesday!!
 
Sue xx


15 comments:

  1. I buy farm gate eggs, I also buy eggs from a colleague and her workmates are her customers xxx

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  2. I have also started selling mine too! We can't keep up with eating all the eggs that we are having at the moment. Goose eggs make the most amazing omelettes.

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  3. We are not allowed gate sales here unless we are licenced. We are only allowed four yard sales per year too. Meanies.
    Jane x

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  4. Our church cafe sells free-range eggs from a nearby village at £1.10 a half dozen. Great value and supporting a local farm.

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  5. So jealous! Wish we lived near you - we love goose eggs. Do you ever bake with them?

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    1. Unfortunately I can't, I'm allergic to them and it would mean that only Lovely Hubby would be able to eat the produce, brilliant for him, not so good for me!!

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  6. What a great idea Sue!

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  7. Oh how I wish you were closer. Our farm shop sells free range but they are £3.00 a dozen and I have never ever seen or heard a chicken on the farm.

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  8. I wish some one did this near me. I am afraid it would not last long, some one would take all the money and the food. How sad life is when you cant do something like this.

    So pleased you can sell your surplus. Will this money replace/supplement your £2 coins? or do they eat a lot of feed...

    Very interested in chickens and greese keeping.

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    1. All the cash goes straight back into our business under 'Poutry Takings'. We couldn't buy the birds, equipment and feed through the business if we didn't put something back.

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  9. How lovely, a friend of mine does that and asks for the old boxes back - she gets lots and it saves buying new ones xx

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  10. Sue, thanks ... Hope there will be some left for me to buy on Tuesday! Really looking forward to it. Karan

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  11. Oh how I wish we lived close by to someone like yourselves!

    You know, I'd never heard of an honesty box until I was in my late twenties and was visiting a small village in the Highlands (and got very confused over how to pay for the item I was purchasing)... you can take the girl out of the city, but not the city out of the girl at times!!

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  12. I used to love selling the hens' eggs at our gate & our neighbours loved it too !

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  13. My neighbouring farm has an honesty box for eggs - I love buying them from there! Fresh goose eggs to me conjures up visions of delicious sponge cake!
    Rose H

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