Market News

A couple of things before I get into the second issue of how the market works.

Ancient Awakenings unfortunately will only be able to do deliver to the Cumming Harvest market every other weekend for the time being. This weekend they are out of town, but will be back next week and then every other week there after.

Indian Creek Angus has added a half and quarter cow to the market this week.
1/2 Hanging Weight, 429lbs – Bone In Steaks (Rib Steaks, T bones, and Sirloins). It also includes ground beef, cube steak, boneless stew, roasts, short ribs and soup bones. Approximately 139 lbs of beef.

1/4 Hanging Weight, 429lbs – Bone Out Steaks (Ribeyes, Filets, NY Strips, and Sirloins). It also includes ground beef, cube steak, boneless stew, roasts, short ribs and soup bones. Approximately 64 lbs of beef.

Both of these are listed online.

2B Whole is selling this week, gluten free breads, cakes, cookies and donuts.

My Daily Bread is offering a sale on some of their Jam and Jelly, now only $5. They also have their Sourdough and Multigrain bread loaves on sale for $6.50.

Farm Fresh Foods is taking this week off, she’ll be back next week.

Cheese and Butter I will be sending in a group order of Raw Cheese from Meadow Valley Farm in Indiana and of Raw Butter. The cheese is between $7.25-$8/lb and comes in Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, Havarti, Jalapeno Cheddar, Colby, Gouda, Baby Swiss, Mozzarella and Sharp Cheddar. Place your order online.

Farmer of the Day We have a new vendor coming to the market, Snack N Joy, offering a line of gluten free items. She is currently a “grower” with Mary Beth at Joyful Noise Acres and is currently a vendor in the Atlanta area with Whole Foods Markets. Her gluten free items are milled in small batches with nutrient rich organic grains into flour which are then baked into muffins, cookies and breads. Organic fruits and nuts are used whenever possible. Preservatives or fillers are never used and all dairy is from cows not treated with rBST.

Now, back to the market detail…last week I reviewed legal issues and how the money is transferred. This week we’ll go over finances. This is pretty lengthy and much of it is copied from our mother market manager, Eric Wagoner, at Athens Locally Grown. He’s got this market thing down since this is his 15th year. We’ve been in business going on 5 years this coming August and even though I should have it down, I still need to refer to the mother ship from time to time.

First off, we’re legally an LLC, and the market is owned and operated by me. You may have heard the market described as a co-op but it has never legally been one even though it’s run in a cooperative spirit.

We’re not a non-profit, either, but we’ve structured things so that over time the market can just barely cover its own expenses. Just like all of our member farms are sustainable growers, the market itself needs to be sustainable. So how do we cover its expenses? One small way is through the memberships you pay. The $25 a year you give to the market is enough (to put it bluntly) to cover most of the costs of having you as a customer: banking fees from depositing your checks, paper and ink for printing, web hosting fees, and that sort of thing. There really isn’t much left and I’m happy to provide those that ask, a copy of our budget. We currently have 190 paid members out of the 1552 active accounts on the website.

By far the bulk of our funding comes from the growers themselves. They pay a 10% commission on their sales through the site. This money covers the storage we use, the tables and shelves used to spread out and organize your orders, the food allowance we offer our volunteers, rent and utilities, etc. During the slow parts of the year, the sales are usually not enough to cover our weekly costs, but in the busy times (late fall and early spring, for us) there is extra. If we plan things out well, it pretty much all evens out in the end.

Last year, the total sales and memberships combined through the market amounted to $168,509.00. 90% of the sales went straight to our growers, and the rest went to a food allowance for our volunteers ($50 a week), rent ($120/month), web hosting ($5,140/year), transportation, insurance and various small business expenses. The “profit” gets counted as personal income on my tax forms, and comes out to roughly $3000/year.

The growers get paid out of the shared cashbox for their previous week’s sales when they drop off their items, during the hour before we open the market. Then, you arrive and pay into the cashbox for your order. We used to then rush to the bank to deposit the money to cover the checks we just wrote to the growers, but now the growers get paid the following week (money you pay via credit cards takes up to a week to reach our account). As explained elsewhere on the website, you are really ordering directly from and paying the growers yourself, but our shared cashbox system makes things convenient for you and them. (Imagine if you ordered from ten growers having to write ten checks when you picked up your items!) This shared cashbox system has so far satisfied the tax man, but it does mean that if you place an order and then never arrive to pick it up, we’re left holding the bag. For that reason, you are responsible for paying for orders not picked up, and that amount is automatically added on to your next order for your convenience.

So, in probably far too much detail, that’s how we operate financially. Our market might be more expensive to run than a traditional “booths and tables” farmers market, but that price buys a system that’s simple, time-saving, flexible, and in my opinion, just better. There’s no money in the bank, but the market is paying for itself and that’s my primary financial goal. If you’d like to talk with me in person about this or any other aspects of TCH, just pull me aside when you come by to pick up your order.

LOCATION
Building 106, Colony Park Dr. in the Basement of Suite 100, Cumming, GA 30040.
Google Map

PICK UP HOURS
Saturday from 10-12pm.
106 Colony Park Drive, Suite 100 Cumming, GA 30040
Please contact me if you have any questions, problems or suggestions. EMAIL ME

To view the harvest today and tomorrow till 8pm, visit “The Market” page on our website, The Cumming Harvest

We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious locally-produced foods possible!