Center for Community Futures
Phone: 510-339-3801
Fax: 510-339-3803
E-mail: jmasters@cencomfut.com		 Mailing Address:
Center for Community Futures
P.O. Box 5309
Berkeley, CA  94705
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How To Start and Run a Farmer's Market

Farmer's Markets and Other Public Markets 
By Deidre Holmes

How to Start and Run a Farmer's Market or Other Public Market

 provides all the information you need to get the business established and operating ... successfully. 350 pages. Your organization can start and run a public market, or you can help another local group do it! 

bullet This can be:
bullet a fund-raiser for your agency
bullet a way for local people to make money selling their goods and services.
bullet a low-cost entry into business for people not now in business.
bulleta way for people who have been thinking about self-employment to reality test their products -- and their hopes.
bullet a recruiting process for training that is sponsored by your agency.
bullet a link for your agency to "partner" with other local groups.
bullet an organizing tool for a segment of the community, or a new membership group.
bullet a valuable learning experience for youth and others.
bullet great publicity in the local paper as an economic development project.
bulletan opportunity to have fun!

    You can do a specialty market, i.e., you might just sell produce grown by local farmers. A farmer's market positions you in the environmental movement because you will be helping to develop or expand "sustainable" businesses. This is a growth area! You can have an ethnic theme, like a Mercado that focuses on Hispanic goods and entertainment. You can do a "flea" market, with people selling that fascinating stuff we like to look at -- and sometimes even buy. And if you decide to allow the vendors to cook and sell food (barbecue contest!) you can have some really exciting discussions with the County Health Department and you will learn about all kinds of rules that you never even knew existed! You might start this as an annual event. You can start small and build over time. You might do this every other weekend during the spring. summer and fall -- follow the seasons. You might do this as a "lead in" or a "follow on" to a county fair. You can do this indoors, or outdoors, or both! You can adjust your approach to find the niche that works for you.   It requires a very small capital investment. For a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, you can open a public market. As a nonprofit agency, you can probably get access to outdoor space for free.

This workbook has 350 pages of information, case studies and other materials. It is an A-to-Z workbook. This workbook can be used to develop and run a farmers market or as a business, to show others how to run a farmer's market, or to provide training to people who might rent booths from you, or to recruit people to sell their wares. 

Price: $95. Click here to order.


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