Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Second Farmers Market

The Seymour Farmers' Market grows as the season progresses and there is more produce.  Today there were fifteen vendors. As there are more vendors, more buyers come by to see what is going on.

A big draw is always the bake sale, an innovation I suggested back when we started the market five or six years ago.  All baked and canned goods have to be done in certified kitchens with one exception:  church bake sales which were exempt from state laws.  I suggested that we have one church bake sale a week, with a different denomination each week. It started slowly but in time it became the most popular part of the market. Besides being a moneymaker for a church, it brought the church members to the market.  It was the best advertising ever. Today it was Seymour's Emmanuel Lutheran Church. I came home with cinnamon muffins. I got biscotti and kohlrabi from Francine at Sissy's stand, asparagus and sugar snap peas from Hmong vendors.

There was a new addition, a kettle corn and smoothie stand.  I got pineapple, mango and strawberry smoothies for Susan Manzke and me.

Susan sat with me for part of the day to sell her books, too. Later Colette brought her books as well. Our understanding is that for each book sold, I will get one dollar to put toward the cost of our spot at the market.

We talked to people all day.  Friends stopped by, too.  I brought extra chairs so that people could come and sit with us to talk about writing.

One ongoing problem is wind which tries to whip our screen tent around.  I thought I had the problem solved but midway through the afternoon, a sudden gust threw a corner of the tent toward the next vendor.  I grabbed it just in time.  Next week Gary will have to devise something better.

In the end Susan, sold one book, I sold four. I could have sold another copy of Yesterday's Secrets, Tomorrow's Promises, but just in time I found out the buyer was a writer of Christian romances...and I warned her about the four sex scenes in the book. I want happy customers.

I've already had Wade order more copies of Black Coffee Fiction and tomorrow will have to order more of Decades of Love and Other Disasters.   

We'll have our Local Writers' Tent at the market again next week, then come back in August when I return from my Canadian tour.








No comments:

Post a Comment