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 don't know much about different brands because most of my appliance purchases have been made at Sears. That has come to an abrupt end. The last two have needed service calls right away. My washer was one of them and I didn't know I was buying a washer that was "sort of" an HE. I have no control over the amount of water. I have learned to wash my large loads in the "bulky" cycle because the tub fills completely on both wash and rinse. My washer cleans on a low water cycle but doesn't rinse well AND I am not using to much soap. The jean will practically stand a lone when dry because there is soap left in them and they irritated my skin. I started using the 2nd rinse and they are soft again. While I was at Lowes a couple of days ago I checked out the washers. I did find a couple that allowed you to set the water level.

Thanks everyone for the comments and advice. I have been out shopping this morning at 3 different furniture stores. One was a chain type store, Levin...junk, junk and more junk (and thanks to all the info I am gleaning from here I could tell the junk), another mid-grade local place (think Broyhill, Flexsteel and Lane)...a lot of junk and a few decent pieces and then a more high end, family owned and ran local store. That place had a couple options that were within budget and were better quality than the other places. One piece in particular had all hardwood frame, 8-way hand tied coils, top grain leather, nail head trim and nice simple but classic rolled arms...I can't stand these awful poofy pillowed arms that so much furniture has now. The salesman said it was from the "South Pacific" but wasn't sure which country that meant...maybe Malaysia, maybe Indonesia. I will never get my DH to agree to used furniture...it's a losing battle that I'm not willing to take on. He has issues with other people's "garbage" so I know that's not gonna happen. Thanks again for all your advice and suggestions. Hopefully your collective knowledge will help me select something that will last longer than our current piece of crap!!! Just for reference, this is sort of the style I'm going for And this is what I hate... So if anyone knows of something in particular that you think is a good quality choice within my budge, please let me know!!! Thanks again!

We got our appliances on an employee discount also. We decided to get everything from Thermador. We've been using them for about 3 weeks now. Here are my reactions: Dishwasher DWHD650GPR Very nice - dishes are very clean and I adore the top third rack. However, my old Bosch had a much shorter cycle which I miss (it was called Optimizer - I didn't even investigate Bosch this time around and maybe I should have....) The discount is so good though that it was cheaper for me to have a panel made than to get the stainless steel. Thermador columns - with panels, and water/ice in the door. These are amazing - I LOVE them - the shallow fridge shelves are great - nothing gets lost, the milk can be on the door, it just feels spacious. However.... the panels were a huge headache to design (and they are being rebuilt as we speak), and installing the units is expensive and difficult - everybody hates to install them, so if you go this route call around to get a few opinions on the best installer. This is also the worst discount - you'll get a great price, but it's not as much of a discount. If you decide to get custom panels, please feel free to get in touch and I'll share my new knowledge. Stove -SGSX365FS I really like the stove - ours is a gas cooktop and this was the best discount - about 45% off of the appliance store price. It's easy to clean and super powerful. I'm still learning not to burn things like pancakes. Ovens -ME302EP we got double ovens w/ True convection on the top and no convection on the bottom - they are well laid out - I don't yet have an opinion on their functionality, but there are a ton of options and reading the instructions is necessary. The discount is better with the Masterpiece handle than it is with the professional handle, but the professional went better with our hardware. Microwave - MCES We also got the surround for the built in microwave and I really hate it - it's huge! The discount is good and it works fine, but it's not very pretty. Ours is under the counter so it's less of an issue, but I don't know if I would buy it again even with the great discount. I called the customer service line a couple of times to make sure I was ordering the correct parts so I could feel really confident when I ordered and everything came in just fine (and very quickly). Good luck!