First I was thinking “What the hell are we going to plant this year?” Then I moved on to, “We always have way too many tomatoes.” I followed up with, “I wonder if I could put a table in the front yard and sell them.” So, that’s where I’m at. What do you think?
Part of me thinks, well, I don’t need anyone’s permission to have a garage sale, but then the overthinking superdork part of my brain goes off on how I’m not zoned for commercial or ag, and what about signage, and on and on it goes.
The answer depends entirely on where you live.
Unless you live in a city, I’m going to say that there is no way this is going to be worthwhile financially.
If you do want to pursue this, try asking about the rules for a lemonade stand. Start at the most local government office available.
Where I live, the only way (realistically) to get rid of excess production is to give it away.
If it’s a high volume enough to be a viable retail garden business there will be enough traffic to annoy the neighbors in a residential neighborhood who will call the county who will contact zoning who will then want to know exactly what you are doing.
If it’s for few days or maybe even a week or two you can probably get away with it, but honestly what is your time worth to make a few dollars an hour selling tomatoes? If you’re not going to go big it’s hardly worth your time and if you go big it’s unlikely you are going to be allowed to do it in your front yard.
Where I live, in Chillicothe, Ohio, you can definitely do this. Some folks even do it on the honor system - take your vegetables, put the correct amount in the unguarded cash box. I met a guy in Fenwick Island, DE, a teacher, who told me he grossed between $100 and $200 a day at his honor-system stand right at the Ocean City, MD border.
I do live in a city and the road I’m on has pretty good traffic. I left a message with the inspector’s office but have yet to hear back. I know they’re crazy overworked so who knows if/when I will.
I’m leaning toward the honor-system scenario. My grandmother used to do that to sell off extra zucchini, but that was out in the middle of nowhere.
Anyway, I was thinking it’d be something fun to try out, if I can figure out if it’s allowed or not. I suppose I could just go for it.
Farmers in Maine do this all the time. A lot of them don’t even man their stands. They just set up their produce displays, along with a scale if selling by the pound, and you leave the money in a box—on your honor.
I have no idea if there are any licensing requirements or not. Such licenses, if required, must be displayed somewhere, I think. I don’t recall ever having seen one at a farm stand, however. That could be indicative of a lack of enforcement of the rules, rather than a lack of rules altogether, however.
I see this in Michigan every summer. Most of the time it’s from a small local garden. I’m sure the rules regulating this vary from place to place but I doubt they are strictly enforced if they are enforced at all.
As mentioned above the place you live may have rules and/or regulations regarding such behavior. It is becoming more popular in cities to have a micro-farm in your backyard and I’ve heard of some restaurants coming by each day to pick up that days veggies and eggs for extra freshness and being able to claim better sustainability.
Another option to consider is a farmer’s market, often open just once a week. They are all over the country now. However they often have a limited number of spaces which are all taken up by long-time regulars.
In England here, so the rules are probably different, but my Mum did that for years when I was little, she sold excess vegetables, eggs and flowers. Basically it was on the honour system, but she was generally around the house anyway.
It was a rural location but on a fairly busy road with a space to pull over, and the neighbours didn’t mind, so it worked pretty well. Apparently the flowers were the big sellers.
‘Farm gate’ sales, as they’re known, even in the absence of a farm, have their own regulations here, which are far less stringent than a farmer’s market; I looked into it out of curiosity because I do grow quite a lot of vegetables myself in season, but where I live it’s just not practical.
I live in suburban Columbus, as in among the subdivisions and what not. We have a guy who has substantial plot one of the arterial roads and sells from a stand all summer.
If it is straight up produce and unprocessed in any way, you can absolutely sell it from your front yard. At least in Ohio, presuming local zoning doesn’t get in the way.
In our western suburb of Chicago, one household I’m aware of has their entire backyard done in raised beds with irrigation systems. They were on the local garden club’s garden walk last year. I understand that they sell some of their produce, but I’ve never inquired, and I have no idea what sorts of permits may be required.
They recently were in the local news because they had erected a “hoop house” - a temporary greenhouse. At least one neighbor complained, and the city made them take it down.
That’s exactly how Johnson’s Backyard Garden started out, about a mile from downtown Austin. Today they have 200 acres and sell huge amounts of produce through a CSA and at farmers’ markets.
City got back to me. I can get a “Conditional Use” permit, and if approved, I can apparently go full urban farmer and set up a produce stand right on the property. Now I have to decide if it’ll be worth it. Thanks for the responses, everyone.
I’ve been buying for years from a local farmer who has an honor system stand; no scale, he charges by the bunch / quart / bushel, etc. and has a bunch of plastic bags for people to carry their stuff away.
He told me the cash box has never been short – your results may depend on your neighborhood.
I have a neighbor that does exactly this - she has a chalkboard stand that she puts by the road with a list of what’s available, and at the end of her driveway there’s a table with the vegs, a price list and a cash box. We’re zoned residential/agricultural here, though, so there’s no problem at all with doing it.