Down Mulberry Lane

Yesterday's Market...

Yesterday was a day I would have rather skipped.  LOL. 

We went to Farmer's Market and it was windy.  So windy we did not put the canopy up.  So windy we had trouble keeping cookies on the table.  So windy we had to tie knots in our tablecloth to keep it on.  I'm glad I put my hair up in a bun yesterday! 

Sales were slow.  Half of our vendors did not come because of the wind and possibility of rain.  So, when there are less vendors... less people stop by.  However, I did sell $53 worth of stuff yesterday... so that was $53 I didn't have before.  I had to go grocery shopping and I needed the cash to stock up on goods for the market.  I just hate shopping everytime I go into town cuz we're out of something for the market... Need more jars, more pectin, more lemon extract, more flour, etc. 

This year I brought a metal shelf from the basement up and decided to stock up on market staples.  I can see what a tremendous help it will be and it will reduce time shopping as well.  I have 10 (5 pound) bags of sugar (same price as the 25 pound bag... and frankly the 5 pounders are easier to handle!) 10 (5 pound) bags of flour, 12 bags of powdered sugar, 12 bags of brown sugar, a box of marshmallows, a shelf of rice krispies and cheerios for our cereal bars... and so on.  I can see at a glance when I am getting low and I'll be able to pick up the next case of whatever it is. 

Anyways the worst part of the market was suddenly seeing dark clouds and I called my dh to ask if it was going to rain on the radar and he said... there's nothing on the radar... so we "hoped" that these clouds would blow over.  Well, it hit all us vendors just like that... no sooner had I hung up than we were getting poured on... no warning.  Someone's canopy collapsed and another vendor was able to fix it enough to get it closed up, but it will need repairs.  All of our stuff got soaked.  We just packed up and went home.  The bread was fine, in the plastic sacks... but no one would want to buy a soggy bag of bread.  We realized that and did our shopping and went home.  Some of my jelly jar labels came off, so I'll need to relabel them as well.  We were lucky however... we lost some paper signs... but not a big loss... we had intended to make nicer signs as the season went along.  When something is new... we do paper... if we decide to put it into the rotation, then we laminate the sign. 

Other vendors because of the quick pressure change, lost alot of food.  Covers were popping off the plastic containers and the rolls and cookies were getting sopped.  My kids ran to help the vendors that had more problems... we just let our stuff sit in the rain until the wind passed... it was still raining while we packed up... we were drenched... completely soaked.  The other vendors laughed that we were all swimming together.  One gal who had come to the aid of the ones who's tent collapsed realized afterwards her car windows were down.  But she laughed. 

Oh well, that's what market is for... making memories.  I think we found the best thing about market last year were the friendships that were made.   We've got a good start this year, again... a nice crew of vendors... very friendly and kind hearted people. 

Warmly, Melissa