Can you also sell perennials and biennials (markets permitting) for transplanting out ... again, sell things that the big box stores don't sell, like native plants and less common varieties. After you get your spring seedlings out, start the penstemons, yarrows and other things that are best planted in late summer and fall for next year's blooms. Let your customers know they are "in the oven" and take pre-orders with a deposit (non-refundable) if they want a lot. Get a FaceBook page and let your customers know about it on your business cards - update it when you know what's coming in well. A grower here does some okra and one post on Facebook that it's in season has people waiting for her truck on Saturday ... she sells lots of the stuff at $5 a pound because it doesn't ship worth a darn. Ask customers what they have been looking for they haven't seen - and see if you can grow it profitably.

Joe, I did spray for them, hung lures and sticky traps and they still kept coming. I felt I would kill 100 and 200 would come in an replace them. When you walked through the patch, they would fly off and around and you could see the air "move". They were terrible. They are still around, just not as think. I am kinda happy and depressed about it. I really miss making pickles with the extras, but I don't miss picking the little picklers every day. I guess I got into and out of the market when the prices were high and supply was low. It also allowed me to test market cut sunflowers and zinnias. They are growing nice. It is an experiment with my girls. I am riding the tomato high. Several guys got hailed out earlier this spring and I am picking their customers. Every market is better than the one before. Other have tomatoes, charging less for them and I am still selling more. Sold about 250 pounds tonight and 51 pint baskets of cherry tomatoes. People keep coming back for more. They tell me I have the best looking and tasting tomatoes of the whole market. They come up and proclaim this to me each week. Green Beans are sketchy, I have alot, sold most and will can or freeze the rest. It never bothers me to bring them home. Sold around 25 pounds tonight too. Potato sales are picking up which is strange for late summer. Melons aren't in yet, but mine are later. I have been growing melons for 3 years now. Not tons, just enough to have a good selection to sell. I try to miss the early rush of early melons. I try to have melons later, when the early rush runs out. I also try to grow yellow, orange, and small varieties of watermelons. It is much easier to sell a 5-10 pound melon than a 25-30 pound one. I am hoping they will be ready for late August. They are loaded. We had another couple inches of rain today. 101 tomorrow and 115 heat index. Gonna be a scorcher! Jay

As usual thanks a lot for posting this article violet. I try to buy local crops when i can and feel it's more important now than it was last year even, because of tainted food showing up.(its olives now) I'm hoping Clarksville, AR will sell more things this year too,they've been sold out by noon before. vickie

These photos make me so envious. Our farmers market is in the middle of a shopping mall. Better than nothing, though. Am I missing something with the maple syrup photo? Do you have to get it yourself out of the tree? Hehe.