And after a very busy week of preparation, Hannah and I are all packed and ready for the opening day of the market season. Whew! I am tired and ready for bed. 4:45 am is going to come awfully fast...
It is pouring rain right now, so I am praying that it will all come and go in the night, and the morning will be dry and sunny.
~Sarah
Parking Spot 22 looks a little empty in this photo, doesn't it? Every Saturday morning this empty spot gets filled with tables, tents, and all the girls' market wares.
After market morning is over, Spot 22 looks just like this again! Empty! It's amazing to think of all the conversations, sales, and enjoyment this little piece of pavement gives.
I've written many times on the blog about market setup, and here's a review of what Spot 22 looks like once everything is in place for customers: But have I ever told you about Saturday morning breakdown? Now, that's a lot of work, too!
All the soap must be put back into the designated boxes to keep the fragrances separated and then loaded back into the van: Everything off the tables first and then tablecloths folded:
Recently Uncle Steve (Tom's brother) came to visit us from Connecticut, so we put him to work, too:
Legs must be unscrewed from the display shelving and packed away. Everyone tries to grab something to make the job go faster:
Sometimes when you put two heads together it helps solve the problem:
Okay, all set with the tables. Now it's time to take down the tent:
All the market vendors know the routine well. What goes up, must come down.
Sarah's mini-fridge and cart (on the left of the photo) is the last to get unplugged and packed away. She pays for electricity each week and plugs into the city's power to keep her cheesecakes cold: And back in the bag the tent goes until next week when all the setup and breakdown will begin all over again:
There are two remaining Saturday markets for this year, as market season closes the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
Temps for this Friday night are predicted to be 22 degrees. It will be a very COLD Saturday morning market. [Edited to add...the temperature Saturday morning actually was 13 degrees downtown!! Brr!]
If you're local, come out and see the girls...right here at Spot 22: ~Deb
Saturday morning market time came earlier than I'm used to on Saturdays, for sure! And the girls do this every week?
Tom and Hannah put the tent up just as the rain was beginning...so the sides and back flaps went up in addition to prevent blowing rain on all the soaps.
I actually didn't have much to sell since Sarah wasn't home to do all her baking. As you can see from the blackboard right by me, the pumpkin pie fudge, mocha fudge, cookies and cream fudge, marshmallows, and cashew brittle were the only food items we brought to sell for her:Hannah switched the setup around a bit to give her side more space to spread out. She had lots of free soap samples this week to give out to folks:
The vendor right beside us (Country Rhodes) has a beautiful double booth and sells tons of baked breads and granola every market day. Her pumpkins, gourds, and broom corn displays made everything seem so much like fall. As you can see, this photo was taken early, early morning before the customers showed up:
Here's another fall display. I actually like the white pumpkins...and even the pumpkins with all the warts:
The customers were few and far between as the rain came down, pouring at times:
My favorite, favorite part of the morning was visiting with friends! A blog reader drove over the mountain from Richmond to visit her aunt and uncle for the weekend and decided to come by market.
You originally met Bobbi on the blog 4 years ago in this post,"I Met a Lurker and Survived!" I really enjoyed getting to see and visit with her again...thank you, Bobbi, for stopping by and brightening a rainy day!Well, I already knew about Bobbi possibly stopping by market...but I was totally surprised! when this friend showed up at market!
You originally heard about her in this post, "Lunch With a Lurker." (Am I detecting a theme here??)My friend had read on the last post that I'd be taking Sarah's place at market and decided to drive over the mountain and surprise me! She did!
We've gotten together a few other times this year since we met in January, and I've enjoyed developing our friendship. Thank you so much, friend, for the time and effort it took to drive that distance just to see and surprise me! Market ended up being a fun day! Thankfully, Sarah has returned and will be busy this week restocking for this coming Saturday's market!
~Deb
Wow, a whole month has passed since farmers' market started back up again! We've been getting settled back into the routine of preparations during the week and getting up early every Saturday morning to set up downtown.
The first day of market was beautiful, though still a bit chilly, as you can see from my coat. :) Some friends from church blessed us by driving over to see our booth and encourage us on our first day.
One of the girls put together a beautiful bouquet that Hannah used to decorate her table the rest of the morning, and they also brought a snack for us to enjoy halfway through our time.
Our second week coincided with the Redbud Festival that Mom talked about in this post, so I enjoyed having Jonathan helping out with Hannah's soap that morning.
I brought a small decorated carrot cake, hoping to sell it, of course, but also to advertise my cakes in case anybody wanted to special order one for Easter the following week. That little plan failed, but I tried. ;)
Whenever I bring a little cake, though, there are numerous customers who comment on it and take my card. So perhaps it will lead to a future order for birthdays or other occasions after all.
The third week was Easter weekend. All holiday weekends tend to be busy with good sales, so we were hoping for that trend to continue. The weather was beautiful again, and there were lots of people out and about.
Usually every other week, the market has live music from 9-11, and on this week a co-worker of Jonathan's was one of the musicians.
One of the vendors down a couple spaces from us is an older couple who came over to America from the Bohemia area, and Willy came over to play a special Bohemian song on his accordion just for them.
Since it's been quite the cold spring so far, not a lot of vendors have vegetables yet, but there are a few greens and beets out.
Also adding some color to the booths are plenty of flowers! A couple of weeks ago, a customer of mine mistakenly left some pretty pink flowers on my table and left before I could catch her. We really enjoyed them, and they lasted until just a couple of days ago.
This past Saturday was also a very busy day, as there were other events going on downtown that drew a crowd to the area. There was a dance troupe performing that was very....interesting. You can see some pictures on this newspaper article. They had plenty of observers, who then made their way down our row - yay! I was also asked for the first time this year if we were Amish, heheh. That's a question that has been asked multiple times over the past couple of years....I don't think people know what Amish people look like. ;)
All in all, it's been a busy and productive month. I've enjoyed reconnecting with my regular customers and meeting new ones. Come on by and visit sometime!
~Sarah
How was your beautiful spring weekend? Ours was a busy but fun blur of activity! We were so thankful for the delightful weather that made our excursions enjoyable.
Early Saturday morning Jonathan and Sarah left for the downtown farmers' market with two loaded vehicles full of baked goods and soaps. Jonathan was in charge this weekend of setup and selling soap for Hannah since she would be elsewhere selling. Meanwhile, Tom, Granny, Hannah, and I made our way to Dayton's Redbud Festival with two loaded vehicles full of baskets, soaps, a big tent, tables, chairs, signs...and all the "stuff" that goes along with setting up a booth for a craft show!
Here's Granny awaiting her first customers. Isn't she beautiful at almost 86 years old? One of my favorites of her baskets was the yellow-handled potato masher basket on the second shelf of the baker's rack.
The potato masher baskets were quite popular, and six of the eight she brought sold!I don't know what we'd do without Tom helping with the heavy tents and all the unloading and organizing. In fact, we couldn't do the show without him and his toolbox! Here he is hanging some of the baskets for display:
Here's what early morning on College Street in Dayton before the festival begins looks like...lots of white vendor tents. 100 vendors were scheduled to be at this event--much smaller than the fall festival:
Here's Hannah getting her side of the tent ready with her soap. She was very pleased with some contacts she made--customers who came by asking if she could customize bridal shower favors using the small bars she sells--Yes!:
Here's another view of the main setup before the festival started. Vendors often stop by each other's booth before the customers arrive because it's hard to get away once the day gets going:
This lady thought Granny was a real salesman! It worked! She bought a basket!
I'm not much of a salesman at all! I'm mostly there to take their money and bag up their purchases:
Hannah and Granny--two entrepreneurs extraordinaire:
The breeze was blowing just enough to direct the wonderful scent of Hannah's soaps toward the customers. These friends below stopped by to sniff her wares:
And the folks were there as you can see below...although we've found that the Fall Market does much better with sales since customers are thinking ahead for Christmas gifts:
Would you like a chance to win one of Granny's potato masher baskets, two bars of soap, and notecards and photo cards made by Hannah?
Steve over at Taste of Southern is having an Easter giveaway and delighted us by asking us to furnish his giveaway items.
If Taste of Southern is a new-to-you blog, head over and check out some of Steve's great southern recipes and enter his giveaway at the same time.
The giveaway is open until Sunday at midnight on April 20.
Comments for the giveaway should be left at Taste of Southern. Tell Steve that Mountain Musings sent you over!
~Deb
In our area of the Valley the first Saturday in October is filled with so many activities that it's hard for folks to choose which to attend!
Sarah counted at least 8 events going on this past weekend...it's her way of determining how much baking she should bring to farmers' market based on whether customers might go someplace other than the downtown weekly market.
And out of all those events, where were we, you ask...at Dayton Days, of course! The streets are closed to traffic, and tents are set up as far as you can see down two streets. Take a look at this crowd! Bright and early Saturday morning we loaded up all the soap and baskets here at home and traveled to Dayton to claim our assigned spot.
It takes a lot of work to set up tents, tables, and displays...and Tom was our willing and able helper doing everything for us! He was great! Here's our booth ready and waiting for the customers to arrive: Here's Granny with one of her first browsers...a lady she met just recently and who is the owner of The Crow's Nook in Verona. This lady said she came especially to check out Granny's Baskets!
Here's a view below of both Hannah's side for her soap and Granny's side for her baskets. We were located near an alleyway which needed to be kept open for emergencies...a perfect spot for a little extra room for our booth:
Granny and Hannah anticipated a good day of sales:
Below: Here's Granny all set up on her stool and ready to greet her customers, while Hannah is in the background adjusting her display. My station all day was behind the tables with the money box and calculator:
Hannah manned her booth below and answered questions. Notice the lady taking a sniff of one of the soaps? Everyone who came by said they could smell the wonderful aromas wafting down the street before they even got to our booth, and everyone had to give her soaps lots of sniffs!
Some of our friends stopped by to see us to buy soap and baskets; these girls were good customers! They came to see us at last year's Dayton Days show, too!
Here are the cupcake vendors...the line was really long waiting to buy at 10:00 in the morning! They usually sell out quickly....even with cupcakes that are $29 a dozen! No, Sarah's are not that expensive!
But this booth was my favorite and the blackberry pies were delicious:
Granny had a good sales day and many folks left with beautiful handmade baskets! But...we brought some baskets home with us, too. They're all unloaded now and put back in the basket shed ready for future orders...Granny ships her baskets all over the country.
Remember the Turning a Failure into a Success post? FYI: The bread basket sold; the tissue basket did not! Life is funny! And while we were busy in Dayton, Jonathan and Sarah were holding down their booth at the downtown farmers' market from 7 until noon. Jonathan took Hannah's place with a smaller inventory than she normally takes to market. He always does a good job when she needs his help:
Jonathan even arranged the whole display and organized her soaps. Looks pretty good! Below you'll see a basket of her soaps and a couple of her newest body balm scents...Frosted Woods and Apple Rose:
Needless to say, we were all quite tired at the end of the day and glad to get home! But we were very thankful for the sales and especially the beautiful--though hot 85-degree--weather.
The girls have 7 more weeks of farmers' market dates left until the end of the season, finishing up the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Then I think they'll enjoy some much deserved rest over the winter season.
~Deb
"Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold."
Last weekend I was treated to a very special visit from a long-time friend who came to see us for my birthday! I loved having Chris here in our home! (Remember when I visited her for the quilt festival back in February of this year?)She had been wanting to come to the Farmers' Market this summer and check out the girls' booth in person after seeing so many market pictures on the blog!! So she drove 3+ hours to make it happen!
We strolled around the other vendors' booths and bought some of the first peaches of the season; she bought some of Hannah's soap; and we watched Sarah interacting with her customers: After we left the Market, we ate lunch downtown, and then I took her to some little shops along the street. I especially wanted to take her to Appalachian Piecework down at the Wharf. I've posted about this shop before but never tire of taking guests there:
I was glad to see the owner's daughter in the shop that day. She explained to Chris how she made the scarves and dresses using the Shibori Method.
That tube she is showing us has the specially dyed fabric wound around it and will be an over-dress when she cuts it off the tube. There's a lot more to it than that, but that's all I remember. A customer out West was having it custom made and mailed to her:Below: the dress after it's been cut off the tube and unwound. Here's the shop owner checking out the results:
I love wandering around the shop and seeing the weaving taking place. Mostly I just look...because mostly it's expensive!
I especially loved viewing all the vintage quilts around the shop which the owner has collected. Below is a sign about vintage quilts - I loved her wording:
The plaque says, "I have collected quilts for the last 30 years. I am drawn to them. I repair them, launder them, and enjoy them. Many families have passed quilts down from generation to generation. The ones in my shop have come from different regions of the country. Many of them from the Shenandoah Valley, Pennsylvania, and Maine. Ask for assistance if you would like to open them up."
Appalachian Piecework also carries Hannah's soap in their shop. Here's one of the washbowl displays: After a quick visit to the quilt shop next door and the book store, we called it a day and headed back home and sat down to a delicious meal of Spicy Chicken over noodles, salad, homemade bread, and Sarah's cheesecake. Thanks, girls!
The next day Chris attended church with us before she drove back home to her family. What a good weekend!!
One last picture together after church: Thanks so much, Chris, for making my birthday special by your presence! And thank you to your family for letting you come! Let's do it again!~Deb
Hello! Hello! With all that's been going on with Granny's back surgery last week, I'm finally getting a chance to blog about what's been happening around Mountain Musings!
By the way, thank you for all your prayers for Granny while she was in the hospital and also for the emails I received asking about her. She's still recuperating a bit more, but we think the surgery was a success with the three compression fractures being repaired. She still needs to be very careful getting around!
Two weekends ago Hannah and I set up her soap display and Granny's basket display at the Redbud Festival in Dayton.This was a first-year craft show so we had no idea if it would be well attended.
The day was absolutely lovely, the vendor area so roomy and grassy, and we were blessed with Tom's help in setting up our new 15-foot tent--what a heavy monster--nice, but we never could have managed it alone!
Here's Hannah getting her side of the tent ready with all of her products for sale: Hannah's display always looks nice with the antique scale holding soaps, colorful lip balms, and her two wooden cabinets full of the goats' milk soaps she makes:
Normally Hannah would be setting up each week at our local Farmers' Market, but because of this craft show, she just sent one small basket of soap with Sarah to their booth there. Jonathan became "Hannah for the day" and sold soap for her and helped Sarah set up and break down her tent and display.
All ready and waiting for the customers--some showed up but unfortunately a lot didn't!As the day got underway, free wagon rides brought folks all around the town and put them off at stragetic spots--right across the street from our tent being one of the stops:
One of Hannah's first customers was a co-worker of Jonathan's, so I took his and his friend's picture:
Here are some of the other tents. We were set up right alongside a highway...which was quite different:
And did I mention that I met a blogger in real life? I've read Cindi's blog (Cindi's Sewing) for quite a few years. She's a Virginia blogger and only two hours from me, but until the craft show we had never met. Here we are getting acquainted when she stopped by after bringing her daughter to a local college orientation:
And did I mention that Granny couldn't be at the craft show? Well...after Sarah finished for the morning at Farmers' Market, she drove Granny to the show just for a while so she could see the setup and how things were going. Here she is a couple of days before entering the hospital for surgery. I think she looks pretty good even getting around in her wheelchair:
Okay, fast forward to this past Saturday ... Hannah took the morning off from Farmers' Market again to head with Jonathan to the Lexington River Road Races. That meant this week I became "Hannah for the day" and tried my hand at selling her soap!
You know what...I've come to the conclusion that I did not take after Granny in the sales department! But I enjoyed the day and had a fun time being with Sarah!
Let's check out Sarah's chalkboard to see what she's selling today: Mini Key Lime Pie, Black Forest Fudge, Blueberry Lemon Muffins, Turtle Cheesecake, and a new favorite Key Lime Fudge--and those are just the ones she wanted to call attention to:In this post I'll feature one of the plant vendors that's at market--Weird Dude's Plant Zoo is set up right next to our vendor spot and features very nice perennials:
And here's a final view of Saturday's customers. Many regulars and newcomers frequent the market each weekend. Why not plan a trip to the Farmers' Market and come see us this summer? Who knows...I might be there behind the counter trying to sell you something!
Another prayer request...Granny's only living sibling passed away on Friday, and I'll be taking her to the funeral Tuesday in my hometown of South Boston. Please pray for strength and encouragement for her for the day's events and traveling safety as I drive us. Thank you!
~ Deb
This past Saturday was the first Farmers' Market for this season. Alarms were going off at dark o'thirty to rouse the girls and Tom up and out the door to set up their tent and displays. The early morning's 30-degree temperature was quite cold when you're just standing around waiting for customers to arrive! As time drew closer for the start of market, the day brightened and vendors were in their assigned spots and eager for the first customers to arrive. As you can see below, the girls' shared booth looks about the same as last year because that design seemed to work well--soaps on one side and sweets on the other.
Hannah introduced a new exfoliating Salt Soap this season, and Sarah introduced Sarah's Sweets' Cinnabun Fudge. Since I had some sleeping-in to do and then errands about town, I didn't show up at market until after 11, so most of the crowds had come and gone. The shot below is looking down one row of tents, and you can tell the customers at this point are sparse:
There's a new vendor at the market this year...Gloria's Pupuseria. I have to admit that I've never heard that word in my life! What is it? Well...the girls bought three pupusas and saved me a bite of one (check the link to see what's inside a pupusa). Mine wasn't hot off the grill like theirs, but the taste was still really delicious!
And Gloria SOLD OUT by 10 a.m.!! I think she'll do a great business here on Saturdays:The market is a place where everyone brings their dogs to mingle with the other dogs, listen to the music, and eat a variety of foods. This couple brought their three dogs and seem to be having a great time:
There was a rush at the girls' booth just before closing, and after all was said and done and even though the day seemed slower...they ended up with great sales for opening day and were quite pleased!
One interesting side note...earlier in the morning a lady walked up and asked Hannah and Sarah if their mom was there. Since the girls didn't know her, they wondered how she knew us. It turns out she drove over the mountain from Charlottesville and is a regular blog reader...actually, she said she was a lurker! :) I wish I had come earlier to meet her! Hi Joreen!
Okay, first Saturday market down....33 more weeks to go.
~Deb
Well...while the cat was away, the mice definitely played and had fun for sure!
We had a wonderful past few days...especially since Sarah and I invited our friend, Anna, to stay a couple of overnights and help with Saturday market while Hannah was at the conference.
We arrived at the Farmers' Market parking lot soon after 5:30 a.m. and began setup. Not only was it very dark, but the light drizzle called for putting the tent sides up to protect Hannah's soap and Sarah's baked goods.
We anticipated a slow market with the dreary day...wrong! Sales soared! We're wondering if the new chalkboard that Anna prepared caught customers' eyes, or could it have been all the folks downtown mid-morning for the seasonal parade? There's the chalkboard above with the Featured Today items listed. Hannah has new round shaving soaps and shampoo soaps available now, and the shaving soaps were all sold out! The seasonal scents like Country Christmas sold well, too.
And as much as we love for Sarah's baked goods to sell on Saturday mornings...we surely were hoping that the Turtle Cheesecake slices would come home with us...all sold out!
We are so thankful for Anna's help with loading, setup, and unloading--all the behind-the-scene things that go into making the booth look nice and ready for customers--plus all the excellent selling during market. Thank you, Anna!
Now, we're hunkering down for Hurricane Sandy this week and are praying that Tom (who just got back from the conference--by the way, they had a great time!) won't get shipped someplace that might need his help with power outages more than here in our area of Virginia. Stay safe!
~Deb
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