Seeds vs. Market

Sept.6/2020 Farmer’s Market, Gabriola Island

Growing seeds is such a different business model than growing fresh vegetables. How so? Well, for example, when the Farmer’s Market opens up in the Spring it is a Big Deal on our little island. Not everybody goes but it sure seems like they do. The market space is full of people chatting, buying, and generally “showing up”. Its a social scene. And as a grower, I’m in demand— at least my produce is. Pretty much everything I bring there sells. And it is like this for most of the season. Very full on. It is exhausting, but feels great of course.

The seed part of my business is quite different. Here I am, my seeds are all cleaned, my website is updated, and I’m rarin’ to go! But its December and people aren’t thinking about gardening and seeds just yet. Yes, there are some sales happening, but it is slow. The seed selling doesn’t get going until January, but doesn’t heat up until March and then it is crazy busy filling orders for a couple of months. If you could graph seed sales it would look like a bell curve, with March and April being right at the top. A graph for the Farmer’s Market would probably look like a table. Nothing, and then a sharp rise straight up and staying there until the end of the season when it would once again drop straight down.

Why do both, one might ask? Its, like, full circle man. Seriously, I wouldn’t want to give up either seed growing or market farming. They dovetail together so well. Other than the actual growing of the seed crops, much of the work is done when the Farmer’s Market is over. And similarly, when seed sales have slowed down, I am earning a good income from selling produce at the market. It works.