The Four Eggs

You must meet Mia, my favorite 11 year old entrepreneur.

She melted my heart at the farmers market telling me the story of her chickens and how each one has a personality of their own. She and her mom have chickens on an 8 acre farm 20 minutes west of Lakeland where they also care for sheep and a vineyard full of Florida varietals.

I saw that she was carrying eggs to deliver to one of her customers one day at the farmers market and wanted to get my hands on those sought after free-range chicken eggs.  I showed my interest in her product but I knew that they were a precious commodity because they can only produce enough for their family needs with a small surplus.  I needed something of value to them that they’d be willing to trade for the eggs.

Bingo, fresh artisan organic bread that Adrian’s (a.k.a. #thebreadpedlar) crafts himself and gourmet lettuces from the garden.

Finally something we could agree upon as a fair trade!

When our fresh, organic, free-range eggs arrive they come carefully packed with Mia’s business cards from The Four Eggs.  On the back of each business card she hand-writes a story about her chickens from the week; what they’ve been up to, what career they want when they grow up, what they ate for dinner.  It truly is the best marketing I’ve seen in a very long time, giving each customer her personal touch.

I look forward to see where life will take this young entrepreneur and nature lover!  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we all started trading our wares locally.  To see a community successfully trading goods with their neighbors find NEIGHBOR-TRADER D.C. on twitter @neighbortrader.  If anyone knows of any in the Central Florida area please message us with details.