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!

Zyperis--This is my third go 'round with Double Delight. And I'm reminded once again why the nice lady at my favorite nursery always calls it "Double Disappointment." With you 100% on Bolero and Lady Emma, though. Flaura--Maybe she's better in your part of the country, but here in southern California, Nicole Carole Miller has taken her "rightful" place as another in that looooong line of disappointing mauves. Don't shoot yourself in the Submit button--avoid the problem and just say no. Did you have any better luck with Barbra Streisand or Lagerfeld? Ingrid--There are folks who swear by Yves Piaget. I just swore at him. A disease-riddled one cane wonder, I gave him three seasons before giving up on him. He sleeps with the shovels. And Papa Meilland is probably going to join him this fall. What a supremely homely shrub, and so very stingy with blooms! My stars(in addition to Lady Emma and Bolero): Betty White, Firefighter, Sugar Moon, Francis Dubreuil, and Julia Child. Firefighter was slow to take off, but now that it has, wowsers. Kay

Glad you're back, Mags. That subway sign OA did for you is absolutely wonderful. She is definitely Amazing! Thank you for your kind words about my Dad. So many of us share the same feelings, which I think is wonderful. I am doing better this week, and I KNOW my Dad close to by and keeping an eye on me. He sort of let me know that the past two days, tho that probably sounds odd. hugs, Karen

wow, txpepper - that's a lot of samples! I bought 3 for the cabinets and 3 for the walls, and the sw ones come in quart sizes, so I feel like I have so much stored away in my basement....I've decided I'm going to repaint my closet this year in a fun color since I have all of this, maybe stripes. I'll have to do a bigger sample. Before I had painted on a posterboard and moved it around; this was the first time I actually did a sample on the walls. And I couldn't find big chill on line or on my sherwin williams color deck (we were in there so much when we moved here that they threw one in). I had originally looked at much brighter aqua colors, and thank goodness for seeing samples and advice online....I was surprised that both rainwashed and sea salt are in the "neutral" section. I will have to call my fabricator to find out what's up with the spots. I think that could possibly be the adhesive, b/c I just think that I would have noticed the 2 spots the day of installation, when the counters were actually all bare and clean. Remodelfla - Every room I've seen with rainwashed is just so lovely! My dream, if I pull the room together, is that the walls will look a warm subtle aqua color, and then I'll use pops of red as an accent. lavender lass - thanks! It's hard to take a pic of my kitchen without one of my kids wandering into the shot! fori - my stone was called valley white, but I think it's the same or similar to white river and white spring. I was thinking I'd get jet mist, but I just fell in love with this stone at the granite yard! stacey, I'm going with the cheap lowes subway tile. I have it already, and it feels a good match with both the cabinets (sw alabaster) and the granite. I would love to lay it in a herringbone pattern, but I think I'm just going to stick with subway as that's challenging enough for me. I've been playing with the tiles on a template, and it feels like a game of jenga I've rearranged them so much!