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Eggstatic!
We've worked out how to divide eggs with the neighbors (every other week, basically) and we already have some regular customers– so far all friends and co-workers. I have 2 dozen more eggs being picked up by people who are also coming to my party tomorrow, and with that, for the first time since winter, we will be down to less than a dozen eggs!
That's amazing. We've had an issue with too many eggs most of the time, but my plan to offer the first dozen free to interested parties WORKED. Every single person who tried our eggs came back to PAY for more! Most of them at least twice now and I only started this in March, so whoop! whoop!
We're getting the egg-handlers license here soon, but honestly– our fledgling egg business is growing easily. Its a darned good thing we are adding hens to the coop this year because, yeah– we will have customers who can help us pay for feed. Already we can pay for the feed 100% based on our half of the eggs by selling extra eggs for just $3 a dozen, which is the going rate for “moving pasture” hens. (Plus ours are part-time free-range, roaming the yard in search of fresh greens, bugs, and slugs to eat! Weeding the dandelions and clovers for us– and fertilizing the lawn. Its never looked better, quick frankly.)
Fara, Meka, Finnegan, Dawn, Tom and Pete are all regular customers now. We've even begun selling our extra salsa, plus our blackberry and white nectarine preserves! Again, people taste it– first one is free– and come back to return the jar and pay for the next, which should cover costs of sugar, salt, and such to make it in the first place and then some. Of course, its only a few bucks here and there — but that type of thing adds up. What began as a money sink (because you have to pay for feed, salt, sugar, etc. for chickens and preserves) eventually starts to pay for itself and, if you're clever, a bit beyond that.
Plus it feels good to be making stuff that's all-natural and organic (even the sugar we use is raw organic sugar we buy in bulk with the neighbors to cut cost and split…) Little by little our “White Gables” brand (yes, I make homemade labels using that name) is expanding and finding more people who are willing to buy it. Maybe one day we'll have enough to participate in a local Farmer's Market, but we're not there yet.
Source: http://lucretiasheart.livejournal.com/1030449.html
