I believe there are many people reading this who have stories to share about farming, about farmers’ markets, about cooking with fresh produce, and some who may even have some fabulous recipes filled with seasonal produce varieties available only at your local Farmers Markets.

If you have related archive stories, but still relate to today, those may have a place here, too.  I’m offering extra editorial coverage, a first published piece for some, but unfortunately no compensation.  I have had this site online since 1995, and have always used my own money to keep it that way.  I hope to change that, soon, in a very reasonable and fair manner, so at least the site’s expenses are covered.

Ideas, questions, comments … please click on Field Office.  I would certainly appreciate it.

Get it?

The following states have successfully made the transformation to the new Farmers Market State list. Even if you are not a resident, please check them out …

Alaska

California

Georgia

West Virginia

Wyoming

NOW SEARCHABLE

When you get any new state page, you will see a search box on the top, right. Keep in mind that it doesn’t only search what’s on that particular page, it searches the entire database … and it’s fast.

Whatever you enter in the search field will be checked against every word in the database. It is not case-sensitive, nor do you need to type entire words, such as city names. Actually, you are better off not typing exactly what you’re looking for. For example, let’s say you want to pull up all farmers’ markets in San Francisco. You could simply enter: cisco — and within seconds, it will display all the results that include San Francisco. Too cool.

The results page of a search abbreviates the listings it finds (for now, at least), meaning you will not see the entire market listing. To obtain more infromation about a particular market in the listing, simply click on the title (the city and state above the listing) to expand that individual market listing and see it in its entirely. The, to see another in detail, use the BACK button on your browser to take you back to the results listing.

This new format will offer both the market manager and the market shopper many other benefits. But so as not to be overwhelming, I’ll release more of the new features in the coming days and weeks.

Most Beta Testing is Complete

Since I am deep in building the new Farmers’ Market Listing, Wyoming just became the first state to make the complete transfer and be fully listed in the new format.

Searchable!  Yay, it’s about time. This is very cool … all listings in the new format will be fully searchable.  From a simple, single search field (which you will see on the states pages), you can search on anything … yes, I did say anything.  Any word at all, including a zip code.

Each of the market listings is now upgradeable by the market manager, so they will be able to provide much more information.  We will have multiple levels, and each one starts at the free level.  As of right now, all of Wyomings are shown at the free level, but probably not for long.  We have some very unique ideas in store, but our primary goal was to keep the costs within the range of everyone.

Very Economical

My target was that a year’s worth of promotion could stay within the realm of lunch money … lunch money, that is, that you might spend in a day or two!  Extreme affordability is very important to me.  I’ve owned this site since 1995, and I’ve personally covered ever single expense since then.  So to hire a person (or two) to truly manage the site, well, most people don’t work at my rates, except maybe life-long interns.

With pride, I present: Wyoming

Aug 22 Update: As of now, Wyoming will be changed again. Finalizing the details for the upgrade options has allowed me to add more information to the free listing. But wait til you see the the upgrades I’ll be presenting, and one particular feature that will be only on the Gold Member version. At this point, we will have the customary Bronze, Silver and Gold upgrade packages, all falling into the category I like to refer to as “spare change pricing.” But remember, the introductory pricing will be temporary … use it or lose it.

Thank you for your great suggestions!

Dateline: June 2007 — We listened, received, sorted, assimilated, iterated, and finally, drew from a hat. Now we in the process of putting your ideas into action.

Please use the menu options above (or on the right) while we rearrange all the little pixels behind this new home page. If you can slide your screen just slightly to the side, you’ll see what I mean … and yes, that’s me waving.

Good things are coming. Thanks again for sticking with us!