Selling from the homestead, step by step

1. Before the first sale

Before you put a sign on the gate, answer three questions, in this order.

1. Am I allowed? — Check the rules for your product and the way you sell it: registering the holding or food business, hygiene and food-sale rules.
2. Does it pay? — Work out your costs and price before the first sale, not after.
3. Who buys? — Neighbours, town, tourists, restaurants: where they are and what they want. Only then the first customer.
4. What's simplest — Fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs are usually simplest. Preserves, cheese and meat need more: registered premises, labelling, approvals.

Why: In the UK and Ireland, rules for selling food rest on the same foundations as EU law: hygiene, traceability, labelling and the producer's responsibility. In the US the rules are set mainly by each state, often through cottage food laws, and in Canada by each province. The details differ and change, so check with the relevant authority.

• Don't rely on “everyone sells, nobody checks”. When a customer falls ill, whoever has registration, records and a clean stall has an answer.
• Meat from home slaughter is not sold; for sale you need a licensed or inspected slaughterhouse. Check any exceptions with the food or veterinary authority.

2. Farm gate

The farm gate gives the best price and the lowest costs: the customer comes to you, sees the homestead and comes back.

1. A sign at the gate — What you sell, opening times and phone. Readable from the road, with no promises you can't keep.
2. Opening times — For example Friday 4–7 pm and Saturday 9 am–noon.
3. Place of sale — Shade, a table or shelf, clean, away from animals and the workshop. A fridge for eggs, cheese and anything perishable.
4. Safety and payment — Dog tied up or shut in, customers' children away from machines and animals. Change in the cash box, price list on show, a daily sales sheet.

Why: Customers like to know when they can come, and you like peace the rest of the week. A customer who has seen hens on grass doesn't ask why the eggs cost more than in the supermarket.

• An honesty box needs a locked box fixed to a wall, a fridge and a daily check of goods. Check that the rules where you live allow it.
• Count on some loss to theft with self-service, roughly a few per cent of takings.

3. A market stall · Locked

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4. Fairs · Locked

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5. Weekly veg box · Locked

Buy the Selling: markets, farm gate, online module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.

6. Online and regular customers · Locked

Buy the Selling: markets, farm gate, online module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.