Casa Sorelle made our farmer’s market debut!
After a chance meeting through a colleague we signed up for seven weeks selling our family olive oil at a new space in the financial district of Toronto. It was a bit of a snap decision having never sold our product at a market before. There was a mad scramble to condense everything we have accomplished in a 183 cm (6′) space. There was a lot to do and we went into “craftiness” overdrive. We only had a week to get ourselves organised and had to address a whole flood of design questions. For example if we are going to get signs printed, what should they say?, what font do we use?, what colours? If we were to offer samples – do we offer bread? if so what kind of bread? How do we cart everything to and from market?
Luckily, Steffanie has a super power. Want to move something? Feeling disorganised? She is your gal. We had our boxes of oil sorted, photos of our Italian paradise ordered and hand soap, hand napkins, tooth picks and cutting board bagged and ready to go. As for me, I booked time off as vacation from my office and we were both crowing with excitement about finally going “live.”
The early morning start was a bit jarring but even with a set up time of 6:00 am nothing could dampen the sense of being on a mission. We were “on it” although bleary eyed. One of our crafty, last minute solutions was figuring out what to hold the signs up with. As a long time addict to Pintrest, I searched DIY card holders and after looking around my apartment found my version of a crafty solution. For one holder I used a rock and the other an old tile sample both bound with a few strands of copper wire. As any television addict from a certain era would say I “Macgyvered” it!
The opening day was a success, we got a lot of support from friends who took the time to drop by the stall. This gave us a public setting and a public reminder to remember we have a lot to be proud of! Admittedly, there have been moments in the past two years when we thought we were stuck on hold however, seeing the enthusiastic faces on strangers gave us a true sense of accomplishment! Sometimes it is hard to see the distance we have traveled and how much our outlook and lives have changed since we took on this project. It has been a bumpy, life changing journey. While we still have our city lives in Toronto, our destination and our path is leading towards the shores of Tyrrhenian sea and a lush mountains of Calabria.
Laura Hamilton
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