Ag inspection for Certified Farmers Market

[heirloomtomaguy]

So i bit the bullet so to speak and called our local Department of Agriculture to get certified to sell at farmers markets in Los Angeles County. Anyone been through the process here or anywhere else? The inspector is coming to look at my plants to make sure im growing what im selling. Any suggestions/comments?

[BigVanVader]

Mine was quick and painless. I know some FM's want to see receipts of seed purchases etc but others just look at your GH and say ok looks good.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Seed reciepts what are those? Most of what i grow are from trades.

[Uncle Doss]

wow, really? seed receipts?
I like the way it works here, if you want to sell at the local farmers market, you set up a booth and sell. no permits from state or county needed. actually, the farmers market in my town, you don't even have to pay a fee to have a booth

[tash11]

Originally Posted by Uncle Doss

wow, really? seed receipts?
I like the way it works here, if you want to sell at the local farmers market, you set up a booth and sell. no permits from state or county needed. actually, the farmers market in my town, you don't even have to pay a fee to have a booth

yeah. I was surprised to see you needed an inspection. Here there are two basic varieties-anything goes, and make/grow what you sell. There is no checking if you do grow it from what I have heard, but it weeds out the avon people. The anything goes closest to me has avon, scentsy, homemade jam, and middle man who gets produce from the Amish. ug. (maybe it's changed since the last time I went, IDK, no reason to return).

Anyway as far as your actual question, I would think that the inspector will want to just look at the plants and get out. So you should have nothing to worry about. Maybe just make sure there is nothing he can trip over.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

Seed reciepts what are those? Most of what i grow are from trades.

So what's the problem since you know several here at Tville who are very computer savvy,not me, but maybe even you, who could print out some receipts for you and probably at no cost to you.

Typically one Tville member helping another.And all you'd have to do is to provide the variety names and seed amounts such as

Neves Azorean Red, 1000 seeds fromTGS
Druzba, 500 seeds from Delectation of Tomatoes
Whatever from Heritage Seed,think up an amount
Whatever from Terry at Secret Seed Cartel

You've got it covered,you just didn't realize it.

Carolyn

[Worth1]

I am not surprised at all about the inspection.
If I were to join the one we have here (they), not the state would want to see that I was really growing the stuff and not buying whole sale and passing it off as home grown.
It is a small little place not like some sort of big city circus like they have in Austin.
As for the state wanting to look in CA I am not surprised at all.
This is CA and not to say anything bad they are a little over the top when it comes to certain things.
Not that over the top is a bad thing, I have looked at a lot of their codes on stuff.
Mostly plumbing.

Worth

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

So what's the problem since you know several here at Tville who are very computer savvy,not me, but maybe even you, who could print out some receipts for you and probably at no cost to you.

Typically one Tville member helping another.And all you'd have to do is to provide the variety names and seed amounts such as

Neves Azorean Red, 1000 seeds fromTGS
Druzba, 500 seeds from Delectation of Tomatoes
Whatever from Heritage Seed,think up an amount
Whatever from Terry at Secret Seed Cartel

You've got it covered,you just didn't realize it.

Carolyn

You have a good point I think i should be fine without them as the inspector and the website made no mention of seed receipts. If he asks i will have to tell him i can bring them down to him once i find them.

[heirloomtomaguy]

Originally Posted by Worth1

I am not surprised at all about the inspection.
If I were to join the one we have here (they), not the state would want to see that I was really growing the stuff and not buying whole sale and passing it off as home grown.
It is a small little place not like some sort of big city circus like they have in Austin.
As for the state wanting to look in CA I am not surprised at all.
This is CA and not to say anything bad they are a little over the top when it comes to certain things.
Not that over the top is a bad thing, I have looked at a lot of their codes on stuff.
Mostly plumbing.

Worth

Your on the money with California....especiailly Los Angeles County. This state and county regulates everything to the maximum which is why we are considering moving to greener pastures elsewhere. Anyway i kind of appreciate it as far as the inspection goes. It helps assure that the produce people sell at farmers markets here is actually grown by them. Living in California with as many farms that are here as well as being so close to massive farms in Mexico makes it easy for a fake farmer to sell non home grown goods he could buy in downtown Los Angeles for pennies on the dollar from the produce district. Plus is a way for the county to squeeze another 63 dollar fee out of us poor Californians.

[My Foot Smells]

As far as I know, you pay a fee for a 10'x10' rental space and you are good to go (25$). There was a bunch of noise about only selling local produce from the state, but never happened. There are several in town, but this one is the guideline for the river market.

I'm sure there is more to it, but here is their statement on produce:

Produce:

Vendors are allowed to sell produce that is not native to Arkansas, such as high quality fruits and vegetables.

As always, we expect very high quality produce; any substandard produce will be barred from the Market. No vendors

shall sell produce, which is unsound or unwholesome, or which fails to meet the standards or requirements of federal,

state, and local laws. All vendors will observe sanitation, or other legal requirements. In no instance will produce that

contains a total of more than 10% decay, shriveling, and/or blemishes be offered for sale. If you have unfit produce and

must weed it out at the Market you must pack it and take it back home with you – no spoiled produce can be left at the

Market. Vendors who sell unfit produce will be asked to remove it from their display. No vendor shall use a ‘false

pack’, which means the topping or facing containers with the best produce exposed and poor produce concealed

underneath. All produce must be graded before it is brought to the Market to minimize the amount of spoilage. If your

product is found unfit to sell at the Market Management will ask you to discontinue sales of this item immediately.

Vendors who repeatedly try to sell unfit produce will be asked to leave the Market.

[JLJ_]

I think what Worth mentioned is pretty common -- and a good thing as long as it keeps real local growers from having to price-compete with imported grocery store tomatoes in disguise.

That works fine as long as everyone realizes that such inspectors are nearly always going to find everything fine, as problem sellers are deterred by the knowledge that whether products are really locally grown is checked.

Problem develops when someone decides that inspectors not finding problems must not be doing their jobs, so inspectors begin looking for things to complain about and effectively exclude small producers who don't have time to deal with the hassle.

Happens (in my view) with many sorts of inspections that begin for good reasons, but eventually grow and morph into mostly being mostly-pointless obstacles to individual initiative.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by Uncle Doss

wow, really? seed receipts?
I like the way it works here, if you want to sell at the local farmers market, you set up a booth and sell. no permits from state or county needed. actually, the farmers market in my town, you don't even have to pay a fee to have a booth

Only one around here that requires them but it is the biggest city nearby and there is so much competition that many of the rules are there to rid any re-sellers from coming. I may try that market in a few years just b/c they have around 2k people come through on avg every Saturday. The one I am at now just requires nursery certification and a 2 farm visits per year.

[heirloomtomaguy]

It went really well. The inspector was a super nice guy. He glanced at all my plants and trees and said they looked good. We sat down and went over how many plants of what plants i had and how many estimated lbs per plant for each variety. He appreciated i had all my varieties printed out in alphabetical order. I paid the 63 bucks and in 2 to 3 weeks it will be official so i can sell at farmers market. Woohoo.

[Worth1]

Great news glad to hear it.
I was scared to death one time in Austin for an inspection.
The guys foot came out of the car and said the electrical passed.
I had made sure all of the ditches I dug with a back hoe for the conduit were about 6 inches deeper than required.
(Most) of the time if you have your ducks in a row inspections come out fine.'
I have been on both ends of this I have inspected and been inspected.
There are a very few that just want to find something wrong.
Worth

[BigVanVader]

Sweet, good luck and post some pics