Zinnias make people happy, they can be sold as cut flowers, and are easy to grow.
We still have random Zinnias coming up in our yard now, but they are a welcome "weed".
In the spring, the crops were lettuce and other greens, garlic scapes and shallots.
A table full of a huge variety of spring things, but not much of each out on display. See the regular garlic, elephant garlic, baby squash, beets, lettuce and parsley, with one of the big coolers in the background.
We would give away cherry tomato samples to kids (or anybody) and it was so much fun to watch their eyes light up and say "oh... that's goooood". The cut samples in the dish and the dark, scalloped ones on the table are "Purple Calabash" which I think have the most "smokey" flavor of all the purple/black tomatoes. However, they are not the most productive plants.
We also had the occasional harvest of experimental things like Yellow Wax beans.
Anything that did not sell we just took home and ate (or preserved).
More tomatoes, more garlic, shallots, and cucumbers, and the peak of the sweet pepper season. By the way, if you've never had it, fresh garlic is amazing, and super easy to grow! Our favorite variety was one called "Music".
I also tried my hand at some crafty things like bamboo vases. They were very unique and surprisingly popular. They would be better if they were preserved somehow after being properly cured. Most of mine were sold "green" with a linseed oil shine and would change color over the next few months.
Most customers came for tomatoes and we had a few loyal ones who always came early to get the first pick. Those big green ones are ripe: they are called "Aunt Ruby's German Green".
Here is the indoor WIC market which required everything to be in fixed price packages so they could be bought with coupons. This is a real good price for homegrown, organic, heirloom tomatoes. I hope the people who got them appreciated them, since you could not buy anything like that in the grocery store.
We are very happy for those times and don't regret living on savings and naively thinking that if we just brought as much stuff as we could to the market and worked hard, that it would have to at least pay for itself. Lack of profit, although reason enough, was not the overwhelming force in our decision to change tracks and live a more "normal" life. We started thinking of long term sustainability and personal fulfillment. This experience cemented our partnership and helped us clarify what life we wanted to create in our place on the earth.
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