In case you didn’t know, I sell my soaps and such at the local farmer’s market every Saturday morning starting in May, and going through the second week in October. We’ve had some very unusual weather this summer in Kansas. The last three Saturdays – that would be the end of July and today is the 1st of August, I have literally worn jeans and a jacket (last Saturday I didn’t have my jacket, but I wished I did!). I saw the weather report last night which said we had a 60% chance for thunderstorms starting at 3am, and it looked like it could rain until 9am. So I asked my friends on Facebook to pray that the rain would stop at 6am when it was time for me to leave for the market this morning. Guess what. My Jesus, He loves me! The rain stopped almost exactly at 6am. One of my Facebook friends, who is also a soaper, requested that I take pictures of my display. I did this at the beginning of the season, but I’ve added a few things since then, so here’s another look:

The Olathe Farmer’s Market was re-located this year about a mile from the original location in downtown Olathe. We are now in the parking lot of a brand new building called Mahaffie Historic Center, which is next to the Mahaffie farmstead and original stagecoach stop. I really believed this would be a good move for us – better visibility, more open area, easier access from the east side of town – but it’s also had its setbacks. Less parking for customers, those who used to walk to the downtown location can no longer do so, and there are customers every week who tell us they just found us. The vendors are saying they aren’t selling as much in the new location, but it’s hard to say whether it’s due to the move or the poor economy. People used to start lining up for the produce before we opened at the other location. We haven’t seen that as much this year. The crowds are noticably smaller. Personally, I’m averaging nearly the same in sales as I did last year, which I count as a blessing!!

How about you? Are any of you selling at farmer’s markets? Have you noticed a change in your sales from last year to this year?