Supporting Local Farmer's Markets - thank you!

You know who you are.

You were the faithful markets customers who were there bright and early while we were still setting up our tents. You came each week inquiring about new products. You sampled, you chatted, you shared and you got to know me as well as my products. You wore shorts or skirts in the heat of the summer and donned your rain slickers on the miserable rainy day. You wished me luck and you became my customers. Each and every one of you made the following worth it.

Carrying heavy boxes of jars up and down the stairs from storage. (I should also thank you for the exercise you provided me without even knowing I was exercising. The best kind, really).

Loading up my small car, packing each and every crevace of my tiny hatchback with tables, chairs, tent, handwashing station, samples, products, plates, jars, knives, handtowel, price signs, signage, paper towel, plastic bags, etc.

Getting to the market and greeting the other vendors and market managers that I am so happy I got the opportunity to meet.

Unloading my car, lugging product out, setting up my tent and table.

And finally, setting out the product that I spent hours in the kitchen making and then hours once the product cooled - labelling (perhaps my least favourite step in the process).

Then at the end of the market, when the last happy customer has gone home with their bags of fresh produce, fresh baked bread, preserves, honey, maple syrup, ice cream sandwiches, amazing fish and meat, etc...it is time to do it all over again.

Over the winter I will develop new recipes, teach preserving classes, continue to supply the retailers who carry my product so that you don't have to be without Manning Canning all winter, fulfill my online orders and recharge my batteries for next year's market season.

Until then - thank you so much for supporting me, my business and your local farmer's market.