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Hedge veg
Guernsey Donkey2
Posts: 6,713
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Do you have hedge veg for sale in your area? Over here it is a tradition that has been happening for many years whereby if you have surplus produce to sell you are able to display it for sale outside your home. Originally it used to be just surplus grapes or tomatoes then increased to other foods & flowers & various other bits & pieces. I have seen this type of selling in France too.
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I live in a village on a quiet lane, but can get rid of quite a bit of surplus produce by putting it out at the gate. If it's something like tomatoes or gooseberries, I put out an honesty box and charge a modest amount; with windfall apples or overgrown courgettes, I just put a notice saying "Help Yourself."
Or sometimes I just donate produce to the village shop to use in their veg boxes.
It happens lots in Suffolk and Norfolk - either with an honesty box or a sign saying to put the money through the letterbox in the front door.
Veg, eggs, honey, home made preserves, bunches of flowers and garden plants on little stalls by a cottage front gate
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Yes, we call them honesty boxes too, or hedge veg. stalls. We sell logs, courgettes, plants & other garden produce throughout the year. Others make chutney, honey & bouquets etc.
Think it's advisable to keep the Honesty Box screwed down to the table - most are
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We have an honesty box at the end of our drive for our honey, beeswax candles, and lavender and beeswax furniture polish. People seem to like to buy it and some now come from quite a distance. We've had people stop and take photos of the hives.
In five years we've only had one person who took some honey and didn't pay ... you'd get that level of theft in a shop.
When I have far too many courgettes ... which is most years ... I put them out with a "help yourself sign" and they always go quickly.
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Only one theft Bee witched - that is pretty good going - we get thefts too, but the pleasure of selling to people at a real knockdown price far outweighs the occasional under or none payment. I imagine that you have a niche market for your produce Bee witched. We use a drainpipe at a downward angle with a tin at the end to collect the money - it works although if the pipe is damp from rain the pound notes get stuck halfway down the pipe! Some people use locked money boxes or old milk churns for the money.
I agree GD2 .... so many people tell us how much they like the honey and chat about the bees that it would be a shame to stop selling it just for the odd "bad apple".
We just put £10 worth of coins in the same box as the honey so that people can take any change they need, and they leave their payment in the box once they've taken what they want to buy.
We don't put it out over the winter as it would be too wet / cold ... but locals knock at the house when they want some so it still sells. We'll never be rich ... but it helps to meet some of the costs of keeping the bees.
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
Plenty of people make money out of their hobbies and yours is bee keeping - so why not pass on the excess if people are willing to pay for it then all the better! I used to make greeting cards which I sold to help pay for all the accessories that I needed to buy. Now I sell plants and produce although I have always dabbled in that area.