I was reading the Spokesman Review this morning and I noticed an ad that the City of Liberty Lake, WA was looking for some vendors for their up and coming farmers market. If any of you are interested, send me an email and I can reply with a phone number for you to contact. Unfortunately, I woun't be able to participate this year but maybe next! Liberty Lake is located on I-90 just west of the WA/Idaho border. Has a lot of middle-upper class families in the area, could be a good incom

-- Joy in Eastern WA (jparkes@spfarm.com), April 14, 2002

Answers

Joy, I'm in Chattaroy (about 45 minutes from Liberty Lake). I don't have anything to sell yet, but I am at the stage where I want to investigate the market to see what I might want to provide.

There is one thing I could sell now: potted cat tails, potted wild strawberry, potted wild strawberry, potted cinqefoil, potted lupine. These things are all pretty much weeds here, but I hear that folks will pay actual money if you stick it in a pot and take it down to the farmers market.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@richsoil.com), April 15, 2002.

Hi Paul - I was thinking about investigating it myself to see what the time schedule is and what kind of fees they have for participating. It's going to be a bad gardening year for me since I have other priorities that will keep me away from devoting the time that it needs. I hope it goes well in Liberty Lake because it will be something I'll be interested in next year.

-- Joy in Eastern WA (jparkes@spfarm.com), April 15, 2002.

You gotta be kiddin' Paul, "potted cat tails"? How do you pot them and are your customers going to come looking for you when they go to seed in their house?

Really, I'm kinda curious about all of your potted goods, been doing it long? Do you have a pretty good survival rate taming your wild plants?

-- Tis I (really_tis_i@yahoo.com), April 15, 2002.

LOL!!! I'm just imagining a pot big enough to hold the rest of the CAT!! (and the tail waving to and fro....)

Now, if I'd seen "potted cattails"....I wouldn't have had such a nice such a good laugh! Thanks!

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), April 15, 2002.

Actually, the idea came from my B-I-L who lives in .... Liberty Lake! He made a little backyard pond and went to the store and bought three pots of cat tails for fifteen bucks each!

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@richsoil.com), April 15, 2002.

There's a guy at our Farmer's Market that does that - he digs up wild roses, snow berries & so forth & puts them in pots. He said city people will pay for them. I'm not surprised, lots of wild things are prettier & more hardy than their domestic cousins.

My mother is always digging up stuff when she visits. Her suburban yard with bushes & flowers is prettier than the neighbor's plain grass.

-- Bonnie (stichart@plix.com), April 17, 2002.