The definitive guide to farmers' markets is here! Whether you're part of a large, successful, urban farmers' market or you are a beginning farmer who wants to start a market in your small town... or you are somewhere in between... The New Farmers' Market is the one book you need.

For over 10 years, Vance Corum was a direct marketing specialist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and for 12 more was a consultant, helping start over 65 communities establish new markets. He has developed publicity campaigns, tasting events, TV shows, magazine articles, seminars and more on every aspect of market development. He has visited markets in the United States, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe, Central and South America and Asia.

Marcie Rosenzweig is the author of Market Farm Forms--a farmer-friendly book and spreadsheet combination--which she developed during the 12 years that she and her husband owned and operated Full Circle Organic Farm in Auburn, California. Because of "a change in my health," Rosenzweig is no longer farming but is writing and presenting workshops based on what she learned while farming.

Eric Gibson is well known to growers for his earlier in-depth and practical book, Sell What You Sow! Supported in part by a USDA Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant, he has co-authored The New Farmers' Market with two equally thorough and knowledgeable experts.

The New Farmers' Market is divided into three parts: Selling at the Market; Starting, Managing & Promoting the Market; and The New Farmers' Market. In Part I, the authors talk about why and how to sell at a farmers' market, what to sell, and how to combine farmers' markets with other outlets. They give harvesting tips, useful references (about cooling produce, for example), talk about record keeping, dealing with customers, hiring and training good help, and pricing. They discuss the physical setup the vehicle you take to market and of your market stand--such as the benefits and drawbacks of U-shaped, V-shaped, inverted U-shaped stands and more--how to make change at the market, and how to prevent theft.

Part I also deals with merchandising, telling growers, for example, that the eye is drawn to the color yellow first; that if they provide gift bags and tissue paper, customers can buy their products and create instant gifts; that photo albums of your farm can help gain customer loyalty. They discuss pre-bagged versus bulk sales. They suggest ways to make signs more interesting and more easily changed. Consider small, erasable slate boards, for instance, and use adjectives such as 'tangy,' 'sweet,' or 'tart. '

Suggestions get specific. You'll learn, for instance, that you can make garlic pesto from the leaves and flowerscapes of garlic plants; that growing and selling flowers can attract beneficial insects to your fields and customers to your stand; that garlic may sell for $1 a bunch, but add some dried herb flowers and two cayenne peppers, "and it sells for $10 a bunch!" Likewise, you can "Plant the 'too small' cloves of your seed garlic in 4-inch pots and sell them for snipping." If you have extra basil at the end of the year, dry the woody stalks and "bundle them to sell for smoking wood to barbecue enthusiasts the following year." Orchardists may do the same with prunings.

Advice is inspiring. The authors say: "Grow what you love in all its splendor, package it for the market of today, and display it in a way that stops traffic in the marketplace--that's how you'll make your niche." The give an example of one farm, which grew tomatoes, eggplant, beans and greens. Rather than grow more crops, the farmers decided to concentrate within those crops, because "a new crop complicates your life... Diversity within a crop is easy to achieve." The farm is now known for its 25 varieties of tomatoes, five of eggplant, six of beans and 15 kinds of greens.

The second part of The New Farmers' Market begins its discussion of sales and promotion by profiling the Davis (Calif.) Farmer' Market--its beginning, issues it has addressed, and its growth to the current 85 vendors. The authors then talk about every aspect imaginable of starting a market: location, name, attracting vendors, parking, sponsors, advertising, rules and regulations, fees, insurance, and much more. Subsequent chapters discuss managing the market (including ways to differentiate it from supermarkets) and promoting it (market newsletters, market calendars, and, again, much more). One specific suggestion is to download "Chef at Market" recipes from the American Farmland Trust website (www.farmland.org). Maine's Food and Farm website is also mentioned (www.mainefoodandfarms.com).

The third section of the book, 'Embracing the Community,' talks about educating the community about the value of fresh, local foods and farmers' markets and about how farmers' markets can serve the community--by helping homeless people and hunger-fighting programs, for example; and by promoting community food security. One of my favorite ideas in this section was the "fresh farmers' market salad bar" that one market set up at local schools--and the fantastic response from young students.

Put it all together and you've got a complete guide to farmers' markets, more in-depth and practical than any college course I know of, and highly readable.