Farmer's Markets Are Fun!!

Daug's Desserts experienced its 1st Farmer's Market booth on Saturday.  It was a blast. Our whole team was there.

Let me introduce them to you. 

First, there's me, Diane, aka Augie's mom, the Not So Silent Partner. I'm old and bossy. I got there first with the tent, the cookies, the company phone, a brand new Square chip  and contactless transaction reader, our food service license,  $5 vendor fee, tape, first aid kit, scissors, table cloth, extra earrings, dog water bowl, and $100 cash to make change in a crossbody bag. I was set to throw an afternoon tea or be shipped off to serve as a combat nurse. I got the tent set up with the help of strangers who saw this senior citizen in her floor length skirt in striking rainbow colors, a chiffon summer blouse, gold lame' sandals, and tasteful earrings hauling a big as&* market tent out the back seat of her Subaru and start to set it up. I'm sure other vendors who had been set up for 30 minutes thought, "what the H#$L!" They came running. That tent was up in no time.  The Market Manager even helped.

Then there's Augie aka Daug, he arrived in his smile and cleanest dirty Hawaiian Shirt and 25 minutes late. I motioned for him to drive his truck into the vendor area. As soon as he parked we found out we already broke a rule and the Market Manager came (AGAIN) and gently corrected us and told us that no vehicles could be moved once the market started (in 3 minutes). Augie was fresh from three hours of sleep after hours and hours of mixing dough, baking cookies, and carrying crates of supplies in a torrential thunderstorm. So I moved Augie's truck outside the vendor area so we could have a free vehicle to get something if we needed it. He started setting up the table.

Then there's Kimmi, aka the Art Director.  She also was running on three hours of sleep after helping Augie with bagging cookies and making the sign.  Kimmi sees the world through magic glasses. She sees things that others don't. (at least not me) The night before the Farmer's Market, one of her jobs was to make the sign that said "Cookies $6 a bag". I could have written that in less than 30 seconds.  She composed several drafts in pencil and calculated what the angle of the sun in our latitude would be at 10:00am when most customers would be arriving and requested to see a sample of the tablecloth  before  committing the masterpiece to ink.  It was a fine sign. No one asked how much the cookies were. It was right there on the table in the perfect font and hue.

Finally, there's longtime Augie-friend Elijah, aka DJ Easy E, the SVP of Good News. He provides Augie with playlists to listen to to ensure he has a happy baking experience. He manages Daug's Desserts social media, marketing, advertising, and is always up to serve in whatever role I ask him to serve. He was the actor in the 1st videos we shot. His role was to take a bite of each of our potential products (there were 12 of them at that time) and say, "Mmmmmmmm." He was great!  Elijah took wonderful pics at the market.

We sold more cookies when I wasn't in the tent. So I took my bad juju with me and spread my love around the market buying things.  I had a lovely time.

Our experience at the Jasper Farmer's Market was wonderful.  Daug's Desserts made a little profit, learned a lot about customer preferences, where the best place is to put your tent, and that Jasper has some really nice people.

We plan to be there each week from now on until they close for the winter.