Wednesday, July 15, 2009

We're Official!

We received our State of Ohio Certificate back in the mail today as an official record of the trade name Daisy Mae's Market. We were waiting on that because Barry needs the document number and proof that we're "for real" in order to apply for zoning permits. I'm not sure what real purpose the document serves other than that---and the fact that it costs $50 so I guess it's a contribution to the state coffers.
Jeff has made a connection with a produce guy in Louisville. For the last two weeks, he has been buying several hundred cases of tomatoes from our wholesale supplier. Jeff gets a nice commission, some watermelons, and has established another network that may lead to something else.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A Bit of a Roadblock

We've discovered that zoning regulations in several of the local municipalities don't allow "open-air markets." I'm sure they are trying to keep the folks who sell the velvet Elvis (and Michael Jackson) paintings from invading their communities. Nevertheless, we need to convince them that our concept is more than just your basic roadside stand. To that end, I'm in the process of creating a presentation to use as part of our sales pitch. I'm using Google Docs. If you haven't tried it, you should. I can put together the presentation and then invite collaborators (Barry) to view and edit it. We can work back and forth on it from our own computers. I can imagine it would be great for group projects in both an office or school setting.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Easing Back into Things

We've been away for a few days...spent 2 days in Washington, DC visiting Matt and finding out more about his summer internship at the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Then we went to Charlottesville for a couple days to unwind from the hectic DC pace. We stopped by the local Saturday morning Farmer's Market in Charlottesville and spent time comparing prices and admiring the produce. The potatoes especially looked great---so clean with hardly a blemish. Some of the berries looked wonderful, too...but so expensive compared to what's available at Cincinnati grocery stores.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, we're continuing to move forward on our new "permanent" location. We should have something to announce in the next week or so. We're aiming to be ready to roll when the local sweet corn is available.