Since the weather has been unusually cool around here lately, I have more of an idea of what people like for autumn. I made muffins to sell on Friday, and people especially wanted to try the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip variety, since it felt like October weather. I plan to try new varieties soon, and hope to build up a customer base. I haven't yet devised a way to keep them warm, but most people are buying them to take home or to work, anyway. I can't add any more ideas to the hoophouse and cold weather crops, but there is something which I noticed at a neighboring town's "trade day" market, and that was fresh fried pork skins. The vendor had a deep fryer hooked up to propane and two big clear popcorn machines where he put the cooked skins. They were warm and fresh and good, and I don't usually like pork skins. Plus, I think people were buying them because (I believe) they can be eaten on the low-carb diets. The vendor sold paper popcorn bags of warm skins for $1.25 and full size prepackaged bags for $2.50, and he was doing a BOOMING business. Just an idea. The coffee idea sounds fantastic, and that brings to mind hot chocolate or hot tea on cold days. Ooooh, and warm cinnamon rolls! Good luck, Shawna

Market was extremely disappointing today. It was Santa day and generally that is well attended. I think it was a little bit less popular this year but the main problem was so many people not even glancing at the market booths. It seems to me there are 3 steps to sales: 1. getting customers into the building 2. getting customers to look at your stuff 3. getting customers to buy something Maybe that sounds simple but it really isn't. Step 2 was a real problem today with the whole line of vendors. It wasn't that the families were in a hurry because many stayed to get free face painting. It was that they didn't even consider looking at our products. The face painting was very popular and she must have painted 40-50 kids. She told me she got $31 in tips! which she spent at market. I asked if she thought some was stolen and she was sure it wasn't. People were just too cheap to even tip a buck per child. This market is usually better. Knowing what kind of customers would be there today I made a bunch of cheap baked goods aimed at kids and a lot of stuff for gifts. I had snowmen decorated cupcakes made with homegrown pumpkin cake for $1.50 and 2 packs of snowmen decorated snickerdoodles for $1.50. That was pretty cheap but I was going for volume. I sold one cookie pack to a hungry vendor and that was it! After 2 hours I dropped the prices to $1 to see if they would sell. They did not. I couldn't get anyone to even look at them. The Santa pics thing also had some free candy and crafts to make plus there was the free face painting. I think after all that the kids weren't begging for stuff as I hoped they would. But even the parents weren't looking at anything. Plus the 'regulars' aren't showing up in any numbers. I think next month I will have samples and get pushy with them but I don't think there is anything going on at the community center that day so I expect it to be worse.

I just happened to see your post by accident. This may be a little late. I live in Hickory and this is what I know about buying furniture. You can save $ at the HFM after market sales. I thought the sales were only on the market samples but a friend of mine at the market told me that a lot of items are marked down just to be able to compete. If you know exactly what you want, you can call and order your furniture using the style numbers. There are several stores that sell at cost plus. I am not sure if I can post specific store names here or not. Let me know if that is allowed and I will provide you with some suggestions

Elisa: The roots just go back in the walk in cooler and sweet potatoes into the storage room. That is why I grow them, they have great shelf life. I sell at 4 markets a week and usually don't have too much left over. We farm on 1.25 acres with the high tunnels included. I put together bundles of produce and have been trying to sell them for $20 on Facebook classified and several other sources. So far we have sold 14 bundles. Can probably do another 15-20. The bundles include the following 1 head of lettuce(will vary), 1/2 pound spinach, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard,1 bunch of cilantro, 1 bunch of radishes, 1 pound of carrots, 3 colored bell peppers(colors will vary), 5 jalapeños, 3 pounds of root vegetables(turnips, watermelon radish, black radish, green meat, purple meat, and white daikon radish). It is a little less than what people would pay if they bought it at the market, but I am just happy to move the greens. Anything else, I will just eat ourselves or have to toss. We have more growing. This is the spinach we have growing. I picked none of it, I still have two more 32 foot beds of spinach outside and another 75 foot bed in a low tunnel (much smaller). The weather this fall has been perfect for good growth.