I gotta agree with trianglejohn, in our little rural FarmerÂs Market more people buy my pies and cinnamon rolls than mine or anybody elseÂs produce. For the most part the difference is in the age group of the customers. In the morning we get most of our customers who are elderly. They are price conscious to the extreme and very picky about looks. In the late afternoon we get the younger working folks who seem more inclined to organic and local. However, I havenÂt found anybody at the market that thought our local stuff tasted much better or different than store-brought even when I offer samples. In fact, I have MANY people refuse to taste free samples of heirloom tomatoes because they didnÂt look like store-brought. The only thing southern Minnesotans are taste-conscious about is sweet corn. Probably because so much of it is grown here they know the difference. In fact I have even had debates with people who insist that commercial carrots from the mega-farms in California taste better than carrots grown locally. I do agree with others that educating the shoppers helps, especially in large urban areas. I find the news media in those areas do a better job at running human interest stories about farmerÂs markets and organic produce in general. I can always tell when an article runs about CSAs up in the Twin Cities because I start getting emails about joining. The big stories in our local, rural newspapers are about high school sports scores and property taxes  end of story. Despite the fact that I have offered to write stories and have written to the editors, very little is covered about food in the local media. What people see and hear in the media does have a big effect on what they choose to buy! So a story in the local newspaper describing how importing garlic from China is flooding the market forcing good ole US of A farmers out of business probably would be the best avenue to take.

diane, cumberland is one way. i thought i could do the same thing, but i couldn't. i turned right onto huntington and left onto gaul and then left onto cumberland. the place is huge, still a work in progress, but then again, whose yard isn't? i spoke briefly with one of the owners. she said this is their 8th season. i'm surprised i never heard of it. what a great thing to do with what had been waste land. there's a sign stating they are going to start a market stand soon. they are open wendesday through sunday. plants all looked nice and healthy and there was a good variety. real nice variety of herbs and everything looked so healthy. i went only for a look-see, not ready to buy yet, as i still want to see what my seeds will do. i'll tell you one thing, their hanging baskets were absolutely gorgeous. i mentioned to her i saw this posting on garden web - something she had never heard of, but was glad to be getting the pitch.

"but I would repay with after-tax dollars, and again pay taxes on that money when I eventually withdraw it." If instead of borrowing from your 401k you took out a bank loan, you'd still be paying it with after tax dollars, wouldn't you? The money you left in the 401k would hopefully grow in value. When you eventually withdraw it, you're still going to have to pay taxes on the money it made you, aren't you? But don't forget, you 401K money isn't guaranteed to make a profit. It might go down in value, maybe even drastically, as in 2000. If you had loaned yourself 50K in early 2000 and repayed it to yourself over five years at a reasonable interest rate, you'd be way ahead of where you would have been if you instead had left the 50K in the 401K, only to watch it to dwindling away, all the time makinge payments to the bank and letting them profit on the interest. The stock market's been doing well lately, so borrowing from the 401K isn't such an attractive option right now. But to rule it out automatically no matter what the current financial environment might because of pat statemnts like "you put it in with pretax dollars and have to pay it back with after-tax dollars" isn't making an informed decision. People should compare the various ways of borrowing money and see where they come out best.

Don't worry about names, just put up a simple stand and see what happens. The veggie buying public comes in two flavors, those that travel to farm markets, etc. and those that grab going through produce at the local market. If youy're successful, then you can worry about permits, zoning, formal name, etc. Name is irrelevant, unless your stand is on wheels and you travel, repeat customers will come to your location and probably don't care what you call it. If you get big enough to worry about market recognition, that's another situation. Good luck,