Tag Archives: T-shirts

Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest 2019

Learning Adventures, , ,

It is Tuesday morning; I have the day off and we are still slowly working our way through packing up the event supplies. Things have to be washed, sorted and organized. This has been an event saving policy for me. Nothing was forgotten this time, though I must admit supplies were not always found where they should have been. There was a scramble to find the hand soap and I thought I forgot to bring my camera.

We did adhere to Ron’s time line and were out of the house by 5:30 am and pulling into our spot just before 6:30, We were so early we beat the spot markers and had to wait for them to measure and draw the needed lines. But we weren’t the first vendors there. We made the “brilliant” decision to unload everything and get the vehicles parked. Ron’s favorite word used to describe both good and bad moves on someone’s part. Once our chalk lines were in place we jumped into down loading our stuff. We needed to get both vehicles emptied so we could get them parked and out of the way. Brother-in-law Don arrived early too. And his help was greatly appreciated as we struggled to get the tent up. It is a beast to maneuver and the fourth set of hands was a blessing. The forecast called for a rainy day and we needed the tent up fast. I thought we would then be able to take a breath and take our time getting the setup just right. I had forgotten who I was married to. I guess because we had not been the first vendor to arrive, the goal now was to be the first one ready to go.

This was easier said that done. We were able to get the cooking and samples section up and ready to go quickly, but we had to deal with how to set up our new T shirt display and a changed mushroom bolt set up. Ron’s shop class skills came into play again. He had a new sign printed and laminated but they would not able to give him the rigidity he wanted. So he needed to come up with a plan.

And he did. The wire hanger was strong but light and the sign did not flop over. Getting it secured to the middle tent post was another matter. That took some wire and the rubber bands I found.

Only a few hiccups in the process but soon everything in its place and ready to go. We have to tweak the T shirt display. The sign describing it was up too high and most people did not read it. The shirt itself, was a big hit and got a laugh out of everyone. I will be keeping my new location in the future. I liked having my skin care products on the front row as it was easier to catch attendees’ attention and make my pitch.

So there we were, set up and ready to go by 9 am. Just waiting for potential customers. One problem. They would not be arriving until 10 am. The vendor paper work clearly stated opening time. We just did not register that. Well, at least that gave me time to run over and get breakfast sandwiches for us. We were going to need the fuel in order to get through the day.

After a slow start, we had a steady stream of customers all day. The hook was Ron cooking shiitakes for samples and his constant stream of chatter. They listened and bought. Jo once again manned the sample prep table, handing them off to me for sharing with crowd. Don sold all our logs again. People who came asking about them told us again and again they had seen someone carrying one again. They wanted to know what they were for. I ran the register again. We had 11 credit card transactions this time. Ones we probably would not have made without using the Square, but cash was used for the bulk of all purchases. This is why I don’t understand why some keep pushing the idea we will and should be a cashless society.


We learned again that people can be odd. More than one person wanted to eat the shiitakes we had on display. Ron had to be vigilant in making sure they did not follow through on this process. We will have a sign at the next event stating for display only. Do Not Eat. I brought a jar of dehydrated shiitakes with us to show folks what they could do with an extra bag or two. I pulled one out to show a customer. She caught me off guard when she took it from me and bit off a piece to try it.

The rainy day did not materialize and this made the day better for all of us. The bread lady was next to us again and the garlic guy across the aisle. We had been shifted down the row a bit this year. The pickle man was on the end of the row across from us and he always has a line around his booth. The organizers wanted to make sure the aisle did not get jammed up. The crowds started thinning out after 4:45 and I was able to send Jo off to get something to eat. None of us had left the tent since the first customer stopped to watch Ron. Promptly at 5 pm everyone started breaking down their site. We pulled everything out of the tent so we could collapse it. Being so large, it would have blocked others from getting their vehicles close enough to load up their stuff. We dumped what we could back into bins and then sat down to wait for a break in the traffic congestion. I was able to get the Outback moved in and we loaded that up. Ron was finally able to bring in the trailer and we were soon heading home.

Once there we unload only what was most important, and collapsed on the couch. Jo had to work the next day so she was soon off to sleep. Ron and I talked shop while we each had a drink and decompressed. There are things we will change for our next event and others that worked out just the way we hoped. One of those was my idea to bring our “staff” Tiny House Farm T shirts and offer them for sale. And I sold one to a young lady who loved the mushroom house.

Sunday morning was unload day for Ron and me. Jo missed all the fun by being at work. We also had to head out to THF to check on the shiitakes and drop off the supplies. We took a chance and drove the Transit onto the property. It made it so much easier to unload the trailer. One trip in and out. Neither one of us was up for a lot of work. We picked what shiitakes we could and headed home. The plan was to dehydrate them for later use. Over the next few days we will get the rest of the supplies stored away. Lists have already been started with the things we need to replace and ideas for what we need or can change. One big take away is my taking time off before and after is a huge benefit. I was able to help Ron bring in the mushrooms and supplies. And now I am able to get the stuff all put away.

It was another good day for Tiny House Farm. And we are looking forward to attending again in 2020. It is anyone’s guess what Ron will come up with for us to add into our product line.

“eat my shiitakes”

Learning Adventures, , ,

Though Ron would love to find a few more events for THF to sell our wares at, Mohawk Valley Garlic Fest is the last one we are doing this year. He has looked into a few others in our area; but we are not ready for two day events and others are too far away or just cost too much. Sometimes you are just not a good fit for the event too. That is something a vendor always has to factor in when deciding which events to sign up for. It can be very disheartening to run your tally at day’s end and discover you have just barely covered your costs. You also have to factor in the expected clientele at each event. That will change the items that you bring to sell.

We have made a few changes this year to our set up. The biggest (pun indeed) was purchase of a larger tent. Most event sites are ten feet wide but you can pay for a double space. We have done that for the past few years as ten feet is really not that much. At the CCE Herb & Flower Fest we had great wings on each side that gave us more covered space to work with. Turns out Ron thinks it does not look “professional” and he pushed for a different tent. That way we won’t have to worry about getting enough protection from the elements. Because we liked the brand we had, we went with their larger model.

We had a beautiful Saturday morning to work with so we loaded up the new tent; along with the tables, coolers and stove and headed out to Tiny House Farm for a practice set up. There was no way this testing could be done in our yard; the tent was just too big. A practice run was necessary as we did not want to be struggling to get the darn thing up at the Garlic fest on September 14th. We had set up and taken down the smaller tent numerous times over the past few year. It should have been easy enough, but the new one was a totally difference beast. The thing is twice the size of our other tent, obviously. But it took more than twice the effort to get it set up. You have to put the canopy on before you raise the tent frame up. Unless you are someone who can float in midair, you are not going to get it on after the fact. The problem is that once it is on the frame it adds to much weight that Jo and I struggled to get the legs we were working with up high enough to set the pegs.

This is going to be such a change for us. There is so much space inside the tent now that it feels a bit empty. But the biggest difference I will have to deal with is being inside, not outside. My table has always been outside and that left me free to move around, bagging the shiitakes, handling sales, and hawking my products. Now most of my time will be inside and I will have some figuring out to do. We will no longer have our logs outside on right side either. Which will change the way our salesman, Don is going to manage. Right now Ron is planning on having the logs front and center (literally) and Don working his magic from there. Ron will be cooking on the right side of the tent with Jo behind him getting the samples ready.

Once again our mushroom bolts will be sold un-soaked as we are offering them as Christmas presents. I am making special bows for them too. Ones with a more Christmassy feel. But not going over the top.

Ron will be hawking our bolts as the perfect gift when you are looking for something unusual. My skin care products will also be included in the Christmas push. They will make great stocking stuffers. They just need to right signage to catch the attention of those walking by.

A big attention getter we will have at this event and one we hope will sell well, is our new Tiny House Farm T shirts. We had THF shirts made three years ago but they were planned for staff wearing and giving to our returning shitake inoculation volunteers. This shirt was specifically designed for us to see. Ron went all out with it. The shirt itself is a combination of hemp and organic cotton, all sourced from the US. Did you know that New York states is new one of the sources for hemp? And before anyone asks, suggests or even thinks about it… NO we will not be growing hemp on Tiny House Farm. Turns out that crop is even more fiddley than shiitakes are.

The process of getting these shirts made was more than a struggle. To start with we had to decide if the large investment would be worth it. Once we all agreed it was, Ron tweaked his design until he was happy with it. Finding the right company to work with is made much easier by the internet. He was able to contact multiple companies at the same time. The price point was a huge factor in choosing the printing company. But then we had to deal with additional expenses as they advised we needed to use 6 different ink colors in order to get Ron’s desired result. We even took a hit from Labor Day as our shipping was delayed until the day after. BUT, the boxes arrived on Friday. Ron sent me a picture and my response was… Are you happy? It was a stressful couple of minutes before he replied with a strong yes. Both of us took huge deep breaths of relief. The whole process had been nerve racking. Until we had shirts in hand we had no way of knowing if they were going to be right. We also had no idea what the heck we would have done if they were terribly wrong.

But they are fabulous. I had pushed Ron into getting 4 sizes; small, medium, large and extra large. That was really all we could afford to go with as we had to get 50 of each size. So that ending up being a total of 200 shirts. We are going to be selling them for $30, tax included. I know that seems a bit high for a t shirt, but these are 60% hemp and 40% organic cotton. We had them printed by a company in North Carolina so we can state, truthfully this is a completely American made product. We did have one last battle over the shirts. Ron is determined that people will notice the shirts so just stacking them neatly on our tables was not going to do. I do believe that if he had his way, a female model wearing the shirt with the full sales pitch memorized would be a new addition to our event set up. He went through the gambit of possibilities from a simple carboard shirt form to a set of 2 human sized standing forms that would cost us $200. I put the kibosh on that plan. He settled to two flat torso forms that we can hang from the tent frame.

Ron’s immediate thought for advertising our new product was to go back to his friend Jennifer and have her do a make over of her previous shiitake shot. The two of us headed to Rome with cell phones and camera in hand. I tend to get better results with my trusty camera and those shots are easier to upload into my blog. Jen was happy to sign off on his model release with payment of the t shirt, some shiitakes and the promise of lifelong friendship. What she doesn’t realize is that her continued participation in our shiitake inoculation events is assumed.

He has already posted the final result on THF Facebook and our Instagram pages. But I got a couple good shots of him tweaking the scene. He really does love to tweak.

And you can bet Ron will be doing some serious tweaking on to our event planning right up to opening time.