Sunday Morning market at Sungai Penchala

Fresh vegetables

 Fresh herbs

One of my personal goals is to be able to contribute towards providing healthy, affordable food to the regular people.  So often, vegetables that are labelled as organic are priced out of affordable range for regular people.  As the production levels are only able to meet the once-a-week sales supply, I opted to do the Pasar Pagi at Sungai Penchala.  The produce for sale are what is produced at the farm and vegetables available from the surrounding area.  The decision to do the market once a week is due to philosophy of selling what is obtained fresh from source (i.e. the farm and surrounding area) that is chemical pesticide free.  Basically, what I would eat is what I will sell.
I enjoy selling at this market - it is almost a social event.  I have regular customers who often chide us if we are a bit late.  Mind you, late for them is if we arrive at 7.15am.  As it is a morning market, we usually arrive between 6.30-6.45 allowing us a few minutes to set up before being ready to sell.  This means that our day starts at 4 am, loading the items, driving from the farm to Sg. Penchala, which takes about 1 hour.  It is fun listening to their chit-chat, as they tend to exchange news and joke with each other while waiting for us to get ready or while selecting the produce they want.
Every once in a while, we get customers who insists that they should be sold produce at half-price on claims that everyone else is selling at that price.  With the maxim that the customer is always right, I take the line that maybe they are better buying at that place, of course said in a light banter.  Some opt to go and perform a circuit at the market and return to buy whilst they are others who complain that the other places don't have what we sell or have smaller "bundles" or are less fresh.  To the latter, sometimes I wish I can say, "Well, Duh!!!!".
I also once in while, get customers who are "arm-chair quarterbacks" who have tell us that they can do better.  These people, I tend to engage in conversation.  9 times out of 10, they have never done the practical and only the theory.  The 10th person is someone who works for a place that has unlimited resources such as a research institute or a government agency. What I do, I just smile :).  

Smiling faces of my customers at 7.33am

On the other side of the coin, I have some great customers who say things like "I love the freshness of your produce", "The bananas are the best-tasting that I have had", "I had never eaten that vegetable before but I got it from you last week, and it tastes good".  The best satisfaction is seeing people who come and buy week after week.
I learn a lot from these experiences - patience being the key - and take joy in the human interaction.  For all these, Alhamdulillah and SubhanAllah.