Hi Greg: Well we did it. We went to two Farmer's Markets this last weekend. It went better than we expected. We were nervous because it was our first time and we knew the inspector was coming also. But...good news...it was so easy and we had a ball. There were two markets, one Friday evening and one Saturday morning. We were very tired but very pleased and no more nerves.
Because we went in on a shoestring I am sending you some pictures of our do-it-yourself features. In our area we are in-between 4 sink requirements. We needed one hand wash sink with "hands free" warm running water. So we found a little plastic sink online and cut a hole in a regular 6' table. The waste water drains down into a bucket through tubing. Since it had to be warm we and hands free we found a 5 gallon insulated container. The problem was we could only find one large thermos and it had a push button faucet. Since it needed to be hands free Richard replaced the faucet with a new handle and fittings. The other three sinks only had to be 5 gallon buckets which contained soap water, rinse water, and bleach disinfectant water. Easy enough. We filled them at home...held the tops on with bungi cords and they were there when the inspector came: never used them but they were there. Ta-da....perfect. Then we were concerned about the wind here so we needed to be able to hold the tent in place. We decided on four small buckets of cement and pvc pipe. (I think that is what it is called). We got an easy up tent from Costco and painted our name on all four sides. We actually had customers tell us they saw kettle korn while driving past and came in just for it. It worked perfect. We did not want to use the plastic tent walls that came with the tent as it is so hot here so we found some netting walls and we were ready to go. Regulations here are all four walls...totally enclosed. I am not sure if they are really strict with the kettle korn booth but we were told that we had to follow the same food code that others food vendors had to follow.
Oh I was going nuts because we kept getting quotes from insurance agents ranging from $1,500 to $1000 per year. Yiks.... We finally called Timothy Bildsoe at Wells Fargo Bank 1-(866) 647-6199 and got $1,000,000 Liability insurance for only $250.00. (Tim said I could give you his information in case you wanted to pass it along. He was great to work with.) We decided we did not need property insurance.
That's about it. We are ready for next weekend and we are waiting for a couple large events we have already gotten into. Oh, thanks so much for the information in your kettle korn book regarding the non-profit organizations and how to deal with them. We have already used it and would never have thought of it had I not read about it.
Thanks again for being so wonderful to work with Greg. I know I called you way too many times but you were great each time I called and so willing to help no matter what I needed.
Keep looking up - you can bet someone will be looking back.
Just A Thought from Judy Odell
www.justathought.net