Starting a Roadside Produce Stand
Looking to supplement your income and offload some of your delicious bounty of fruits and vegetables? Why not start a roadside produce stand? It’s much easier than you may think it will be and it’s a lucrative and rewarding way to share your farm’s produce with others. You won’t need to invest too much money into the enterprise and you’ll soon reap the rewards if you get started now.
As your Little Rock agricultural equipment dealer, Central Arkansas Mahindra has the information you need to start your very own roadside produce stand this summer, and you can keep selling your produce right into the fall harvest season!
Select Your Produce
The first step, of course, is choosing what produce to plant. Right now, you may already have crops in the ground and selling whatever you have is fine, but you may want to plan ahead for next summer’s stand. Choose crops that are affordable and easy to grow and begin them indoors as starters during the end of winter or early spring. This will let you grow crops more quickly since they’ll already be started by the time the last frost passes.
Fruit is a major seller at roadside stands because it’s so hard to resist when it’s sweet, ripe and colorful. Some very popular fruits include berries, peaches, pears and watermelon. Vegetables like tomatoes, snap peas, green and yellow beans and bell peppers are also popular.
Corn, squash, apples and pumpkins tend to ripen nearer to the harvest season, which means that you can continue your stand through the end of summer and into fall. If your farm has bees, you can bottle the honey as well, and you can also make jellies, jams, preserves and butters from any extra fruit to sell in the fall or store in your freezer.
Construct a Stand
Next, you’ll want to make the stand itself. Select a spot to set it up that’s a bit out of the way of the road while still being visible. You’ll want to make sure there is space for parking a few cars so that people aren’t stopping their cars dangerously on the side of the road to buy your produce. Avoid uneven ground that doesn’t have any holes or dents in it that people could trip on.
If you can expect good weather and don’t want to invest a lot of money right off the bat, you can simply set up your wares on a folding table. A sun umbrella planted into the ground or a tarp draped across a few tent poles will serve as sun protection for you and your customers. Those who are more ambitious and handy with carpentry can construct an open-faced shed from scrap metal and scrap wood that has shelving at the rear for produce, as well as a counter space for making transactions.
Post Signage
Make sure that all your signage clearly displays prices for each item. You may want to make a sign that has your farm’s name on it, too. Another good way to draw in business is to have some signs on posts a few hundred yards down the road in both directions to alert drivers that a produce stand is coming up so they have time to decide to pull over. Avoid posting signs on utility poles and check to make sure your county has no signage restrictions. You can also try advertising with flyers at your local library, church or grocery store if they’ll let you!
Gather Supplies
Obtain some containers for people to keep their purchases in, such as plastic or paper bags or small fruit baskets or even cardboard boxes. A pump bottle of hand sanitizer on your counter lets people clean off any sticky residue. Have a trash receptacle by the stand for any litter. Your money can be kept in a simple locked cash box that you take with you when leaving the stand for any reason, or you can use a card-swiping machine attached to your phone or computer to complete transactions.
We hope this guide proves useful to you in starting your own small business selling produce. In search of some agricultural equipment to keep your farm in good shape? Browse our website to see the full stock of new and used agriculture equipment for sale at our dealership in Little Rock, AR. Our staff will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Central Arkansas Mahindra proudly serves the cities of Hot Springs, Conway and Sherwood, AR.