I have an oportunity to take my products to the local Farmer's Market. They only charge $25 per day with a 4-day minimum. I figure it's a gamble, I could do great and only have had spent $100, or it could bomb and then I have only lost $100.

Has anyone had success at Farmers Markets? What was your best selling product(s). My plan is to do cupcakes, sugar cookies and a few Cake Dummies to showcase my Cake work. Did you offer samples? I was considering doing mini cupcakes for $.25 so people could "sample" but yet I still make some money back.

Bring on the suggestions/experiences!!!

We have considered doing this to get our name "out there" and also access a client base that already believes in shopping local!
We have not had time to do it though... I'd give it a shot if you can, and you feel it might suit you. I really like the idea of the quarter samples in addition to everything else. I bet those will go like hotcakes! ...oooor... heads of lettuce, as it were.

Mom and I had a table at a local farmer's market last year. We appreciated that it was walking distance from home, and that we had pretty much free rein over what we could bring. Our sales were so-so -- bad weather keeps people at home, and not all shoppers who are into fresh produce are also into cookies and cake. Also not very much fun was posting a full ingredient list for everything we brought, in both languages.

Our best seller, hands down: lemon bread. lemon anything. And NO CUPCAKES. We can't sell the cute little things at any price. (See my post from a while back about beautful food not selling.)

This year, both we and the organizer want to participate. However the government is now asking for a raft of permits and paperwork -- the cost of which exceeds our baking income for last summer. So our table for this year is not confirmed.