Update

In the Beginning

May of 2012: I want to eat more organic fruits and vegetables, but health food stores are so expensive. I know it is better to pay for the cost of health food now, instead of paying medical bills down the road. But being unemployed makes it very hard to buy organic with so little income to work with. I was basically kicking myself for not starting a garden sooner...

So I go online and look for garden groups/clubs I could join to get more info... then I think to myself, wouldn't it be neat if I could join a group where everyone were to share or barter their garden goods?

I used the power of the internet to look for a free garden barter group and stumbled upon Food Swap Network. Great what I was thinking existed! So I typed in my zip code, and had two responses to inquiry. Long Beach, CA and South Pasadena, CA. The Long Beach one did not have a swap event listed in the near future, but South Pasadena did.

I made the necessary arraignments to contact the group leader, and let them know I would be attending, and got the directs and so forth.

Step 1: Attending a Swap

June 4th, 2012: I woke up early to drive the 41 miles. Even on a Saturday I knew there would be traffic, most of the time to go to LA is over an hour, so to go to Pasadena, I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. My online map app sent me to another part of Pasadena, not where I wanted to be. Plus I also got stuck in two traffic jams. When I finally got there is was nearly an hour and half after it was supposed to start. I believe it was from 10 am to noon, and I there at 11:30 (even though I had left at 8 am) and did not leave until after 2pm. (I was not about to leave at noon after spending all morning driving there, and lucky the home owner let people stick around and chit chat eat lunch (pot luck style) and even let other people clean up their yard. So after using the restroom I left with my mind brimming with ideas.

Why couldn't I start a group in Orange County? Yes, Orange County is a large area, but people could open up their homes and use my group as a hub to give gardening tips, and talk about their swap. So just barely after I got home, I was already online creating a group - not a fan page, on Facebook. (For questions about why to start a group verses a fan page, do you own research). I already knew a few people in my area that had trees, and I knew they would want to join the group. And before I knew it I was up to 10 members.

Step 2: Getting people to attend

Now this has proven to be the most difficult of all. People think it's a great idea, but everyone's schedule is do different that I truly cannot compete with everyone, and plus I have to work around my schedule for the swaps that I host. Like I mentioned before Orange County is a lot of area to cover, and I'm not looking for people in North Orange County to drive to my house every week. So they come to my house once, see how it works, and then they start hosting swaps at their house, and involve their neighbors, post on my group and on the Food Swap Network and in the end we all win!

From doing direct sales for over 12 years I know one thing about being consistent. I would hold monthly Open Houses for my clients / customers to come over eat some food and see "What's New?". I would hold it the same day each month, first Wednesday evening of the month. I put out my emails, and made sure my newsletter mentioned it and then just waited for people to show. Some month's I would have 10 people show up and that would start my month off good, and other months, no one showed up. Later when I stopped doing the monthly Open House due to my schedule changing and did not want to confuse people by giving them a new Open House day I just opted to stop instead. For many months afterwards people would tell me that in their brains the first Wednesday of each month was my Open House and they knew it and they would make sure they would come or not. So I feel the same with the swaps I do personally at my home. Every Wednesday from 3-6 (or 3-5 during the winter months). I put the word out, and people know that if they are going to stop by or call me on Wednesday between 3-6 my front yard is where I'll be.

It has come up with perhaps doing a swap on a weekend, and let me tell you folks the weekends are hard. There is kid activities, and kid birthdays, and kid BBQ's, plus errands to be done by parents who work all week and don't have time for errands, or they didn't get everything done on the weekdays, then there is chores or yard work, home projects and DIY projects done on the weekend, people go out of town, visit family and a hundred other things on the weekend. I already have given up a few Saturdays for the swap, and people's lives trump my food swap. I'm not trying to sound sassy, but for the swaps at my home, I am giving up my time to be home and be there if anyone wants to come by and swap. If anyone else would like to have a swap in their front or backyard on a weekend, I will do what I can to support it by going.

I want the food swaps to be a lot like farmers markets, where it happens every week/month at the same time in about 10 or so locations in Orange County. People bring their garden and homemade goods set up on a table or blanket and swap barter goodies.