Thursday, June 26, 2014

Welcome to the Market: Selling Bison Meat at Farmers Market of the Ozarks

Caleb and I have always loved farmers markets. We love to shop local, and to meet like minded farmer folk - plus we always end up finding some really cool vegetable, tasty baked good or awesome smelling homemade soap. So when it came time to start selling bison meat from our ranch at Farmers Market of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri, we were SUPER excited. We would finally get to see what it was like to be on the other side of the vendor booth...

Jane and Caleb ready to sell some bison meat!



Our first big market day was a Saturday – the first day of summer, to be exact. And it was certainly hot enough! Our booth was set up outside, but the market provided tents and tables to their vendors, so we had shade and plenty of room to display our products. Our first several markets, we will be selling ground bison, bison burger patties, our 100% bison franks (my favorite!) and our cut and formed bison jerky. By 8:00 am, our banner was hung, our jerky samples were cut and assembled on toothpicks, and one very large bison skull was displayed on the table. We were the new vendor at the market and we received several very warm welcomes from the other market members. It quickly became clear that Farmers Market of the Ozarks was one big family and we were already a part of it.

The bison jerky was one of our biggest sellers that day – I would offer passerby a sample on a toothpick, and they couldn't seem to resist! Jane and Caleb sold package after package of the stuff, along with plenty of ground bison, bison patties and bison hot dogs. We gave out more than 750 bite sized jerky samples, and ran out of ranch brochures. All of our customers were so excited to try our responsibly ranch raised bison meat products – many of them had already heard about the health benefits of bison, and those who hadn't, we provided with a pamphlet that listed nutritional facts.

Not only were our new clientele interested in our products, they were also interested in our bison ranch – we had lots of questions about the bison, the cabin, the tours, and the land.

All in all, it was a pretty great first day at the market. Our new vendor friends were anxious to find out how we had done, and they promised that it would continue to get better. We even traded some jerky for some muffins, kettle corn and salsa! How fun is that? It was great to feel so at home among the locals, and we can't wait to see everyone again at the next farmers market! Stay local, friends.

Visit Farmers Market of the Ozarks this summer! Thursdays 4:00pm - 8:00pm, Saturdays 8:00am - 1:00pm

4 comments:

  1. I wish I lived closer to this market! How interesting it can be! I'm eagerly waiting for the next posted to be read! It's so exciting!

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  2. What a huge skull lies on this counter, I wonder how much meat is obtained from one carcass of bison.

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  3. It seems to me that it's so interesting to have the market like that at hand and buy some trinkets like that.

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  4. Also there are two big problems with them you can forget where you put them or they can be stolen. ginklas.lt

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