Wish I where there to see the booths at Maple Ridge My son is out there in Victoria right now Beautiful B.C.

I've looked into CT's requirements a lot lately, since the new law concerning acidified food went into effect. I'll find out more next week, but agree that you need to check your state's requirements, probably not worth canning, just sell refrigerated, but I wanted to add that at least here in CT, to sell any processed food at all (and even a cut tomato or watermelon is considered processed), you need a commercial kitchen. About the only things in a container you can sell without a hassle are jams, jellies, and maple syrup. You could look into a co-packer but unless you grow lots of tomatoes (and they may not use your recipe, or require you get your recipe tested and approved), it's probably not worth going that route. Farmer's markets also have fees, waiting lists (at least around here), liability insurance requirements, some are producer-only (which means you have to grow the produce/ingredients, except for things like sugar and pectin LOL), some aren't but require that you take food stamps (which means more state inspections). Overall, probably not worth the hassle. Just make it for friends and family and enjoy.

Nothing NEW, but from the last couple of years experience at a small-town market, 30+ vendors, that gets a customer mix of local farmers/ex-farmers, "townies" and cottagers from the city, here are some of basic twists that have worked well for me: * fresh carrots w/ tops right through the season: not baby but picked quite young 5"-6". These go at way higher prices for a 1lb bunch, competing with quarter-bushel baskets of regular big mature topped carrots all around me, and they sell out. * fresh basil: sells well at a good price, and is great for the smell, which everyone notices walking by * heirloom tomatoes: Ours is not a trendy high-end market, there's a good mix of people as noted above, and heirlooms (as in big, "oddly" colored and shaped, sometimes "ugly", always tasty) still attract attention, and definitely get repeat customers from taste (and I guess the novelty helps). A basic like Brandywine is fine, and I had a several varieties last year with different looks and tastes (Green Zebra was a distinctive favorite), which helped even more. Curious people try one or two and keep coming back for more(!), and they were going for $1.50-2.00 a pop (12-16oz) - I just made up the price, since no one else had 'em at the market. *snap peas (edible pod): I was amazed by how many people didn't know these even existed! I'd go, "You can eat the pod" and hand 'em one and they'd automatically start shelling it. "No, you can eat the whole thing!" Wow! Child-like amazement :) They're also great to maximize the pea growing and picking effort because you can use 'em young as a snow pea, or mature, which gives more overall useful harvest time. You can maybe premium price 'em, but they're also good just for the word-of-mouth. *mesclun: I'm not sure what my various customers each think they're buying, the idea of mesclun has kinda trickled down to a real mainstream thing from a trendy idea. I sell a couple of mixes, one that's only lettuce (around nine lettuces), which I'll explain to anyone who wants to know, and of the various regular customers who buy a bag (1lb) a week, I don't think any of them really cared about the exact ingredients, they just like colorful, baby leaf salad mix, for their own individual reasons. At $5 a bag, a heavy seller. *spinach: This is probably more specific to our market, where there are several quite big local family farm growers that all concentrate on the basic carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peas, etc, (easier handling/storage), but not on the fresh greens. So this depends a lot on the other vendors, but here, mounds of spinach is a good thing to have (and other greens, like lettuces, chard, etc, are quick and easy and add to the selection). *radish that's out of the typical early season is quick and easy to grow, and attracts a surprising number of people when no-one else has 'em. *miscellaneous specialty stuff: I plant small quantities of tons of things and bring some in. They're all good for novelty and attracting attention, but (for me in this specific situation...), none most alone don't do much for the bottom line. Stuff like: Eight Ball zucchini (lots of comments), Lemon cukes (comments and some regulars), white icicle type radish, rainbow chard (like, Bright Lights), purple snap beans (comments, but people mainly like the green and the yellow...), and so on, I even sold a few daikon radishes... All fun to grow and present but no magic. Half the fun seems to be trying new things without getting buried in a lot of odd and unusual ;) stuff... The general strategy of growing out of season really does work. This is practical if you're small. Having the earliest stuff is great, and just having it when no-one else does to me is just as much of an advantage. Superfreshness is also great, and probably most easily done when you're small. I mean, extreme freshness: stuff cut/picked the afternoon/evening before, salad greens the morning of... People really notice that: "hey, I forgot your mesclun in the fridge for TEN DAYS and it was still fine..." Also, if you grow natural, even if not certified organic, all kinds of people you mightn't expect to respond to that... Hope that's useful stuff in their! (I've got lots to learn, but passing on the little I have noticed already is always FUN!!)

I have been reading the market forum and will continue to do so. Gobs of info there! Good to have my guesses confirmed as far as tomatoes being the main draw. There will be others with tomatoes there but I bet I'll have the widest variety with a rainbow of colors. Those and my sourdoughs will likely be my "signature" items. At the vendors meeting the other night, they said that sweet corn, tomatoes, and green beans are the biggest sellers so I'll put up with the pain of picking beans. Besides, I have free slave labor at my disposal. ;-) All of the other stuff will be to flesh out the table during the slow part of the season and likely won't be huge sellers so I won't plant huge amounts of them. I do expect my honey to be a big seller but I won't have that for a while yet. Okra and southern peas are not popular here at all. I'm thinking, though, that I'll plant a few okra just as a curiosity on the table and maybe I'll get a few converts. It seems like a "foodie" sort of thing. One thing about this market is that it's in a touristy historic downtown area with hundreds of tourists each summer day. So I'll have to think of some things to gear towards that. Dawn, good to know about the hab gold jelly. I'll pick up some starts next time I'm in town. Thanks, everyone! Sorry I haven't been around but I've been running in circles trying to get everything lined up for this and other things. I'm hoping I'll hit a rhythm soon and not be so frantic! Diane