I make and sell pies mostly from the fruit I grow. They are good sellers at the farmerÂs market and I offer them 6 times a season with our CSA. I charge anywhere from $7-$10 each depending what's in them, which breaks down to about $5-$7 each for my labor. Cherry pies are the most expensive - picking and pitting them moves the cost up. Rhubarb pies are the easiest and cheapest. I make more profit from baked goods than I do produce. Its takes more labor (at least for me) to wash, pack, and transport $7 worth of lettuce. When I have time I will can salsa, jams, jellies, & pickles because Minnesota allows these items to be homemade and sold at farmerÂs markets, but not all states do (here in Minnesota itÂs called the Pickle Law).

Thanks, Loodean. We have similar rules for jams or high acid canning........and i make so much of that sort of thing anyway and see those prices on the jars as looking good!

Good to hear from you Janet - thanks. We are in the same state, and i will take the class next week for microprocessing. Alas, i do not live in anywhere near a metro area, so local sales of anything are extremely limited without marketing/driving quite a ways. But, folk here do so appreciate homemade and old-time recipes. I love to can and bake, so hoping it is worthwhile to some degree. I had heard from a few others that they thought the labor too intense for the profit. I think i will slowly give it a try.

I am waiting for my state to pass the new Homesteading License with respect to selling value added items at market. I would agree with Janet, that the baked goods are going to be your more profitable items based on your labor involved and the time it takes to make breads/pies/cookies compared to canning. Last year at our market, it seemed that there were more customers buying muffins and pies than there were those buying the jams and relishes and things. I think people would spend 4-5 dollars on a homemade loaf of cinnamon bread in a second, especially if it was still warm! One lady told me that a couple of years ago, a woman came to the market with a tray of still warm cinnamon rolls to sell and within the first 1/2 hour of the market being open, she was sold out. I think she charged 3$ a piece. I am sure it was a lot of work getting up early to make them though!

My Cinnamon rolls sell out fast, too! I make and form the dough the night before, then pop them in the oven about 1.5 hours before I go to the market, and they too, are still warm when I get there. I sell them for $4.50 - and they have nothing to do with my market garden. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing - Farmer's Markets are so often touted as being healthy alternatives and here I am bringing "junk". Homemade, sure, but junk nevertheless...

I do dried herbs and garlic powder as value added products from my farm.

I know cinnamon rolls are fattening, but they are probably still healthier than those you'd buy at the grocery store or a convenience store because there are no preservatives in them. You could probably make them healthier by using all wheat or oat flour or maybe 1/2 and 1/2 white and wheat. Plus I think another reason people go to markets is to support their local farmers, so it's that in addition to wanting healthier locally grown/made foods.