Never sold at a Farmers Market, but brought at plenty, and found that the easiest ploy a trader could do, was to offer samples, and recipy cards, that incorporate the produce they sold, as unfortunatly it is human nature, you see the beautiful and/or strange produce, then the price, and then think, I would love to try it, but they are expensive compared to the supermarket, I might not like it! what do I do with it? and people feel foolish buying 1 tomato, 1 oz of cheese! I once tried to bypast a stand with cheeses on it as they looked amazing, but three time the price of plasticy supermarket stuff, but wasn't sure it would be 3 times better? and couldn't bring myself to ask for 1 oz of cheese to buy and anyway which one?, anyway one of my children who was about a year old started screaming, "cheese" and the storeholder Tom, said "Mum do you and your children want to try my cheese?" he had about 10 different types and only fed my children 3 of them as the others where unpasturized. WOW! way better than 3 times! and from that moment I was hooked, I learnt that yes, it was expensive!, but I used a lot less of the cheese as it actually tasted of something! so worked out comparible with the rubbish I had been using, and the same rule applies to meat, on veggies I have tried a bite size of say tomato's cut up and brought them, because they where sublime, but I had never eaten a tomato that wasn't red! so wouldn't have done otherwise. Another crowd pleaser and has made me buy stuff, is the vendor, making soups, or casaroles and giving taster cups using their produce and a recipy card or baked potatoes of different varieties, say an 1/8 of each. Top tip, make a batch for each hour of the market, once it's gone its gone, and tell people come back at x o'clock if they want to try, when each batch has run out, 1 because it keeps people in the market longer to try it (well I stay?) 2) in order to secure your free stuff, I and many others I noticed, start hanging round a good 5 minutes before x o'clock and end up chatting to the store holder, and buying stuff, cos I feel stupid! and 3 you don't want to fed a whole bunch of strummy stuff in the first hour, to people, who are gone in an hour and a half! you want a steady supply, to get people to come and buy. One place the lady gave up selling her produce, and went over wholy to soups, for people to drink whilst walking round the market, as she could charge more! I think? that its called "added value" or something? Another market open 5 days a week has a resturant attached which used meat, fish, veg, fruit ect, from the vendors, and creates menu's based on the seasonal produce available, and because they create it there, you can ask what is in the food and who sells it, I often felt they should create a list on a board, but I suppose that would have been difficult as the menu changed almost daily depending on what was available. I was really lucky in Kent I had 4 farm shops and another one which was their own meat only, within 2 miles of my house. The one I linked and wrote about above was 9 mls but away but I worked in the city, it is a market of several different farms, bakery, cider/wine producers represented, and veg/ fruit farms changed depending on their season, Oh! I miss them all, anybody know of anything like this in CT?. Hope this helps, I am not a marketing person, I am just relaying the stuff that has worked on me. and I got to the point, I only visited a supermarket once a month for dry goods, cleaning and hygine stuff! Here is a link that might be useful: here the place, sorry Uk but may help!

I know this is a bit late, but people obvuously still have access to it & thought it was super important for everyone to know... When you find a hummingbird that seemingly appears dead - double check to MAKE SURE IT'S NOT JUST SLEEPING!!! There's plenty of sources out there that explain SLEEPING HUMMINGBIRDS that APPEAR DEAD but are actually in a PSEUDO-HIBERNATION STATE alled TURPOR! You may even find them UPSIDE DOWN, as their death grip o lm a tiny branch may have also slipped them into that position - BUT NOTE - THEY ARE NOT DEAD! While in the sleeping state of TURPOR, everything slows down so extremely slow in order to survive colder night temps, that it is often mistaken (I've found them that way myself)... and they are oblivious to ANYTHING, including human touch - since it may take them anywhete between 20 MINUTES TO AN HOUR TO WAKE UP OUT OF A TURPOR STATE.... EASILY MISTAKING THEM FOR BEING DEAD! As I have found them upside down & appearing dead, not to mention how INCREDIBLY LONG IT TAKES THEM TO WAKE UP - I had no idea of/ ever hears of TURPOR at the time! As such, all these years later - I am now wondering if I had actually buried a perfectly fine, living, slow breathing Hummer all those years ago... and the thought sickens me! I try thinking back to my having it in a box for some time before that & double checking several times - but the fact that it takes them anywhere from 20 minutes to AN HOUR TO WAKE UP... I just want people to KNOW TO REALLY WAIT & DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE CHECK BEFORE BURYING OR DISPOSING OF WHAT THEY PERCEIVE TO BE A DEAD HUMMER - AS IT MAY ONLY REALLY BE SLEEPING!

I am trying to attract insect eaters too. I started growing mountain mint (not a mint but a native) and New Jersey tea. Next year hope to add sweet cicily. These plants are recommended in making an insectivary (attracts a lot of insects). THe plants were recommended for attracting beneficial insects but they should also attract hoards of bugs in general and hopefully bring in the warblers.

It's nice to see warbler shots again! I've not heard or seen any yet this spring - but I've had zero time with the birds so it could be that I'm just missing them :^(