Eat Your Honey!

Summer is officially over when we stop using our EZ-Ups at Farmer's Market.  The "new, improved" Farmer's Market location lacks protection from the blazing summer sun.  Shade is necessary for survival here, so we protect ourselves with pop-up shelters.  Our spot is 30 feet long, and setting up three EZ-Ups, as well as four umbrellas to keep the early morning sun from cooking our product (it gets seriously hot in New Mexico) is a serious chore every week.  And then we have to take it all down at the end of Market.  The end of summer (usually early October) offers a respite from all this.  Temperatures are much lower now, and the shade from a nearby tree has finally reached our location.  We're looking forward to 6 months of full exposure to the sky.  This will allow our customers to see us better.  We've been in this spot for a year now, and people still come up to us and ask us where we've been all this time.  "Right here, right in front of the Music Box," we always tell them, gesturing to the landmark behind us.

By the way, all this EZ-Up nonsense is an example of America's devolution from take-it-for-granted socialism (a canopy for all) to capitalism at its most primitive (now it's every vendor for himself).

A little bit later we unfurled the umbrellas.  We only brought three this week, and next week will bring only one.  Soon we won't need any umbrellas, and will be grateful to bask in the feeble winter sun.

We've given considerable thought to creating an attractive, eye-catching display.  Our entire display -- the serapes covering the tables, the  umbrellas, and the honey labels -- are all brightly colored to attract the eye and lure customers into our entrepreneural spiderweb.  Farmer's Market is a competitive visual environment, and we do our best to compete.  (Yellow highlighting courtesy of Blogger's malfunctioning software.)

A customer gave us this idea a year or so ago.  Eat your honey, indeed!  Both Laura and I immediately appreciated the humor.  About six months ago we had signs made expressing this noble sentiment, and so far we've had very little response.  Once, a customer took cell phone pictures of the signs.  Another time, a customer offered to buy them from us.  But other than that, no apparent recognition, or at least no acknowledgement.

Here's the other sign, with cute little bees.  Laura demonstrates what it must be like to eat your honey.