This was our first attendance at this event and we were part of the new Makers on West Main grouping. It was created to “celebrate the importance of small makers of exceptional products in New York State”. This is a direct quote from the their brochure. We were happy to attend as we are all about buying from local businesses. Even more so now that we are one of those businesses.    And I am always fascinated by the talent and skill that these people have and show us with the products they sell.

Little Falls, NY is just over an hour from Sherrill so we were heading out early for our 7 am arrival time.  We had loaded the trailer Friday night and the last minute things were stuffed into the car and Transit and we were on the road, on schedule at 6 am.  Of course,  I did have to run back in at last minute for my tea.  As I spent years driving to and from Herkimer, this was a familiar drive for me.  Our arrival was little disorganized as we had to temporarily park on the street, unload everything and then move our cars. Then it was a brisk walk back to our sites and time to get set up.  We paid for a double site as we have learned the hard way that more space always comes in handy.  After our last event, when Josi and I both got sun scorched, we decided that more shade was needed.

Being me, I wanted to obtain this by the most frugal of methods.  So buying an umbrella or awning for our tent was certainly out.  We did have a shade cloth that I bought last year to use when working in our field.  Another place where we deal with lots of sun and no shade.  We tossed the whole thing over our tent frame and started brain storming.  A bit of trial and error and we came up with plan.  Ron cut in it half and I sewed two large pockets, one on each end.  Turned out Ron is not that good at measuring and he had to send me back to the sewing machine to make one side shorter.  We had to keep the length just  under five feet for each side in order to stay within the  20 foot size limit.   A trip out to get PVC pipe and assorted pieces to hold them all together and we were set with two sides, safely shaded.  We were excited to try it out on the Cheese Festival.  Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

And it worked a treat.  One side for our logs and the other for me and my products.    As a bonus, the rust color goes well with dark green tent.   By the time Josi arrived to help again; God Bless, great friends, only the last minute things needed to be done.  You will be shocked to hear that we did not forget anything this time.  I even had a tube of sunscreen ready for use.  Josi brought some too.  We were not going to risk more sunburn this time. Oh, wait.  I did forget to bring fingernail clippers.  A pair of those need to be added to our business/emergency supply bin.  Ron broke two nails during set up and I had a hang nail that bugged me every space minute I had.  It is always the little things, isn’t it?

Just as Ron was getting the samples started we had a surprise visit from Ron’s friend, Shelly.  She has been involved with THF since the beginning and has attended numerous work sessions.  It was nice to see her again and made a happy start to the day.   And then the day took off.   Not only with the number of people, but the heat too.   We were set up on the actual road which reflected heat back up into the tent.  With Ron cooking on the stove, he was taking the brunt of it.   Every so often we got a slight breeze which was a welcome relief.  One of the vendors few tents down from us had brought their own fans and a generator.  Serious thoughts of swiping them had to be tamped down.

With Ron cooking the shiitakes, Jo assembling the samples and Josi offering them to potential customers, I was on the other side of our tent offering my own samples of lip balm, lotion bars and body cream.  This time I had a batch of soap that I added lavender to and I was offering my own version of stuffed mushrooms.

I used wool felt, some old buttons and milkweed fluff to make them.  They were a relaxing project that I worked on while watching TV or talking with Ron.  I  suggested them to people telling them they are cuter and will last longer than the shiitakes Ron was hawking, but they would not taste as good.   People thought they were cute, loved the idea of the milkweed fluff and I even managed to sell a few.

The festival ended at 5 pm and we were more than ready for it.  Hot, sticky, exhausted and hungry but pleased  with the day.  Now all we had to do was break down everything, load it all back into the cars, drive home, unload what we absolutely had to and collapse inside the house.  Though first, I again had to drag Ron away from the other vendors.  He was fully burned out, but he really wanted to spend more time talking with them.  Showers, food and alcoholic beverages for all.  Ron and I had Sunday off, but Jo had to work the early shift.

Sunday morning; this should have been a day of semi-relaxation. That is really a joke, of course as we not only had to finish unloading everything, but we also had to check out THF.  Friday evening we had seen that there was serious pinning on our logs and knew more mushrooms were coming.  No way we were going to pick any Saturday night, but Ron and I headed out there at 8 in the morning.  After we finished harvesting, drove home, cleaned and bagged them we had 24 one pound bags in the frig.

Timing really is everything, isn’t it?  Maybe I need to invent a time machine or a special status chamber for our shiitakes.  That way we can pick them when they are ready and still have them fresh when needed.  Hmmm.  Something to think about.

This was our fourth event as a vendor and we learn more and get better at it every time we do one.  But I really do not understand how anyone can do this over a weekend or three days.  It is simply exhausting.  I guess if you are selling only non perishable products it is a bit easier but still there is so much work involved.  And so much heart too, that you put into your products.  The real fun part is talking with other vendors, when you have a space second and talking with all the people who stop by your booth.  Sharing your knowledge and learning something from those you talk with, that makes the day so worth while.