What is direct marketing?
Farmers sell their products directly to consumers by several means, including: sales from the farmhouse or another farm building; pick-your-own operations; roadside stands or farmer's market; public or community farmers' markets located in or near urban centers; house-to-house delivery; and sales from a truck or other vehicle parked along roadsides or other places with potential consumer traffic (sometimes called "tailgating").
Direct farmer-to-consumer marketing is most likely to be successful for:
•relatively high value farm products -- fresh fruits and vegetables, floral and nursery products, Christmas trees, firewood, and meats for home freezers and frozen food lockers;
•small and part-time farmers within 20 miles of urban population centers;
•complementary enterprises on larger farms with under-utilized resources; and
•auxiliary markets for commercial fruit and vegetable producers (for that part of their production not suitable for conventional wholesale and retail market outlets).

Direct markets do succeed when producers focus on the consumer. Making consumers aware of the products or services provided by the specific direct marketing activity may require promotion and advertising of the direct market.
 

What is promotion and advertising?
Few individuals in the world today have not heard of Coke, so why does Coca-Cola spend nearly $100 million annually on advertising? Because they want consumers to buy their products, and not the competition's. Similarly, a better mousetrap will sell. But first, the consumer must know two things: that the mousetrap is indeed better, and that the mousetrap is available. Consumers generally learn these two pieces of information through advertising.
Direct marketing is a retail business which sells products directly to consumers, so the emphasis here is on factors that encourage the consumer to purchase goods. As a direct marketer you should consider: image; logo or name recognition and association; signs (such as those on site referencing the business, roadside markings, traffic flow and parking directions, point-of-purchase or display signage, billboards); media advertising (newsprint, radio, television, flyers and leaflets, newsletters); and seasonal or special promotions (such as Mother's Day, Halloween, strawberry season, a local apple festival).
A variety of media exist for the direct marketer to use separately or in combination, including:
•Word-of-mouth
•Signs
•Direct mailing
•Newspapers and magazines
•Buyers' or consumers' guides
•Yellow pages
•Radio
•Television
•Point-of-purchase material
•Festivals and fairs
•Labels
•Exhibits
•Window displays
•Bulletin boards
•Specialties

Through these media, a good practitioner of advertising can convince a logical prospect to try a product one time. No more, no less. The word "convince" is the key: it requires a rational appeal to another person's intelligence. Do not try to badger, cajole, intimidate, or fool.
The word "try" instead of "buy" is also important. Although it is true that, in most cases, a prospect will have to buy a product in order to try it, a trier is a tester while a "buyer" is usually a steady customer.
The best that your advertising can hope for is to get a one-time trier. From then on, your products are on their own. Either the one-time trier will like your produce better than the produce from his current source (in which case, you've made a new customer); or he won't like it better and will revert to his old source of supply (perhaps the local grocer). In that case, you've lost him until such time as a new variety, a new experience, or a new set of reasons is developed together with advertising that convinces him to give it another try. But your advertising has done its job: it convinced someone to try. Advertising does not make customers. Only products make customers.
Rather than state what advertising might do, let's summarize what advertising cannot do. Advertising cannot sell a product to someone who has no basic need for it, who is out of the market for it, or who can't afford it. Advertising can't make a satisfied customer. And advertising can't save a bad product.
The best that advertising can do is cause reasonable prospects to try. Once. Now that the ground rules have been established, the rest--creating an advertising campaign, the ads, and specific promotions -- is relatively easy.

Planning for success in direct marketing
If you want your advertising to succeed, you must first plan your strategy. Your advertising should answer these key questions: who, what, where, when, and why. Who is the business or direct market? What is available from the direct market? Where is the direct market located? When is the direct market open for business and when are specific commodities available for purchase? And most important for the consumer, why should the consumer buy from your direct market?
Your advertising will have to be read, seen, or heard by a prospective buyer for your message to be conveyed. That means that the reasonable prospect is special and must be targeted; not every individual is a reasonable prospect. So a good first step is for you to get a feel for the market potential at the direct market.
Evaluating market potential involves determining: the potential sales volume; the size and cost of facilities needed (fixed or overhead costs); the operating or variable costs; and a breakeven sales volume (that is, the dollar volume of sales the market will need to generate before it begins to turn a profit).
Market potential analysis focuses on the customer. Usually the results are in demographic terms: customer age, income, residence, gender, tastes and preferences. Some time invested in an analysis of market potential could well save your market from financial disaster down the road. Or it might tell you to plan for a higher income than had been anticipated. Either way, the analysis pays.
Total sales are the result of the number of customers who patronize your direct market and the amount that each customer spends. You can increase sales either by advertising and promotional efforts to encourage more customers to come to your market, or by inducing customers to buy more.
When your aim is to increase sales per customer, never treat large-order customers as nuisances. And since customers are so important, you might want to compile some information about them, including keeping a record of daily customer count. The customer count for one week compared with the count for the next week, or for the same week the previous year, can give you a good indication of how your advertising is working, or what your customers think of the present operation.
Dollar sales per customer are also very important. Keep a record of it; see what you can do to improve it. If the figure slips, determine why, and what can be done to turn it around.
Pay attention to customer behavior. Do your customers need to be slowed down physically and calmed down psychologically? Or are your customers deliberate shoppers who can't buy anything unless it's on a list? Although many grocery store customers use a shopping list, most direct market customers do not. The layout of the market can help customers think about what their families would like to eat for appetizers, main course, desserts, school lunches, snacks, parties, breakfasts, and so on.
Customers often say that they don't shop more frequently at direct markets because of their "inconvenience." Successful direct marketers solve this problem by having the market emphasize the customer. For example, you could put similar merchandise in the same general area (this is called departmentalizing). This helps your customer compare and consider items more easily.
In addition, you should group related items (salad dressing with salad greens; popcorn or doughnuts with apple cider; country ham with green beans or southern peas) and impulse items (candies, jams, jellies, flowers, crafts, gifts) for convenient sale. Be sure, however, that each type of item is located in its own recognizable spot in the layout.
Decor and style are two of the "fun" things about a market. They help set the mood for both the customers as well as the clerks and other workers. Although decor and style are important, they should not hamstring the market's operational efficiency. Items to consider are the use of mood music, white noise, or other noise control terms to help set the mood for buying; and careful use of colors, which have definite effects on customers, clerks, and also on the way the produce looks.
The overall style of the market can range from ultra-modern to colonial to rustic. What sort of image do you want your market to project? You are probably thinking along the lines of clean, rustic, simple, and well organized, but not extravagant, expensive or ostentatious. To achieve your goals, pay special attention to two areas of decor: the entrance, because this is the customer's first impression of the market; and the floor, because customers look at floors more than ceilings (a dirty floor can turn off a customer faster than cobwebs in the rafters).

Name Recognition
Having a catchy business name or slogan is not all that important. What is important is that the customer retains a pleasant recollection of the direct market, as well as immediate association of where and what the market is. This is where an appropriate name and/or logo becomes relevant. The following are some suggestions about naming your direct market and developing its logo:
•Focus on the personal and socially enjoyable aspects of the direct market in both its name and logo design. Customers relate to an individual better than to an inanimate object like the direct market itself. For example, "Martha's Berry Farm" has a more personal ring than "The Garden Patch." The name says that the berry farm belongs to a real person named Martha; it implies that Martha surely has pride and personal interest in the marketing of her berries.
•Use a recognizable site at the direct market to help establish the theme. Doing so makes it easier for customers to realize that your direct market is indeed the one they want to patronize; it also makes it easier for first-time visitors to sense continuity and wholesomeness with the direct market.
•Regardless of the name or logo you select, keep it simple. Logos with lots of details can easily distract a customer and cause him to miss the real message or theme that you are trying to convey. Also, simpler logos are easier to reproduce in advertising. And more recognizable and shorter business names are easier to put in advertising. Use as few colors as possible--each additional color adds more cost than marketing benefit.

Pros and cons of media choices in direct marketing
Newspaper
Advantages: reaches a larger number of people; relatively inexpensive for the number of people reached; easily and quickly changed; can be placed in a particular section of the paper to reach and appeal to a selected audience (foods or family section instead of classified section); available in various sizes and formats; can be personalized with artwork and even photographs.
Disadvantages: a relatively short life-span; a large wasted circulation among non-clientele readers; difficult to purchase or use color.

Direct mail
Advantages: can reach a specific audience; full color can be used effectively; lengthy copy can be presented; very easy to personalize; offers a large variety of formats, such as letters, flyers, coupons, or recipe cards.
Disadvantages: must use an accurate, up-to-date mailing list; may be treated as junk mail; is expensive for the number of people reached.

Outdoor advertising (such as billboards)
Advantages: usually exposed over a long period of time; color is inexpensive to use; commercially produced billboard designs are readily available.
Disadvantages: limited amount of information can be presented; difficult to purchase or cancel on a short notice; billboards are governed by local ordinances; and billboard are often in short supply.

Radio
Advantages: usually local; can be changed frequently; can be tied into a specific program or time of airing to hit a selective audience; can be purchased or canceled on relatively short notice; permits the use of music and sound.
Disadvantages: relatively expensive; limited to brief, general material; often difficult to get and hold an audience, even for short 30-second slots; must be repeated frequently, because of the short exposure time.

Television
Advantages: reaches a large, mostly urban audience; permits the use of motion; can be purchased with a high degree of selectivity by area.
Disadvantages: does not reach a selected audience; most costly of all media; not suited for detailed information; must be produced by professionals.

Advertising specialties
Advantages: likely to have relatively long-term use and visibility; decorative and/or useful; offer a great variety of formats (such as t-shirts, balloons, calendars, stickers, caps, cups, frisbees, pencils); reaches a specific audience.
Disadvantages: message must be kept short; relatively expensive.

How much advertising is enough?
Advertising is an investment and therefore shouldn't be rushed into. You should carefully plan each move. The first phase is deciding how many dollars you can spend -- in other words, you have to set your advertising budget. The budget must be allocated among the various forms of advertising you wish to pursue; you must decide which forms of advertising to use as well as how much to spend on each form.
Determining the market potential is one part of your advertising activity. Other factors are the types and costs of the advertising media. Equal dollars allocated to specific advertising activities do not have identical paybacks. In designing the ads and advertising campaigns, don't forget the image objective.
Ads should answer four questions: who should buy the product?, what are you selling? when is the offer valid? and where are you located? Ads should be seasonal, stressing those produce items or services that are specific to the month or week that the advertisement is read, seen, or heard.
To create advertising that packs the customers in, target an individual product and not the whole market. In this way you won't confuse the customer. Make the offer an honest deal -- don't exaggerate. Also, look at all your ads together to see if continuity and the right image are being conveyed.
Good advertisements use the element of repetition. Repeating the name of your direct market is important to ingrain it into the customer's buying psychic. Have your ads emphasize benefits, not features. Your aim is to have the consumer buy your items to solve problems that have multiple solutions; the benefits (the extra gratuities gained by having purchased from a particular market) are important in the buying decision.

Roadside advertising
Because three out of four shoppers become aware of direct market outlets by just passing by and seeing what is for sale, it is important to have a clean and attractive market. Word-of-mouth recommendations account for about one customer in five, indicating that courteous treatment pays dividends in good will. Word-of-mouth also shows how important appropriate roadside advertising is to guide the shoppers to your direct market.
Roadside signs are important to let your customers know you are in business. Signs are governed by federal law, state statute, and local ordinance. Before you have a sign constructed and put in place, first contact local authorities, such as the County Planning and Zoning Committee or County Transportation Office, for information on zoning restrictions, sign setback distances, and other regulations.
Some signs are exempt from federal law, such as ones relating only to merchandise sold and/or produced on the premises, posted within 100 feet of a place of business, and located on land owned or leased by the businessman. As an agricultural producer, you may put up signs that advertise merchandise and/or services sold, produced, processed, or furnished on your farm, if the signs are on your own land or land you lease.
However, restrictions may apply about the size of the signs as well as the distance from the right-of-way boundary. State or local ordinance requirements may exceed the federal laws, so check compliance codes for your site. This is especially true when direct markets are located in more urban areas.
Most of your potential customers will be driving when they spot your sign. Will they be able to read and understand it? Will they see it in time to stop? Various color combinations have been tested to see how visible they are from a moving car. The following twenty combinations, listed below in order of desirability and readability, are the most effective:
1. black on yellow
2. black on orange
3. yellow-orange on navy blue
4. bottle green on white
5. scarlet red on white
6. black on white
7. navy blue on white
8. white on navy blue
9. yellow-orange on black
10. white on yellow
11. white on bottle green
12. white on scarlet red
13. white on purple
14. purple on white
15. navy blue on yellow
16. navy blue on orange
17. yellow on black
18. scarlet red on yellow
19. yellow on navy blue
20. purple on yellow

Since your goal is to get your message to the passing motorist, you should also consider the relationship among letter size, vehicle speed, and the distance of legibility. Letters should be at least one-fifth as wide as they are high. The following chart gives suggestions for letter height and width at various speeds, with distance of legibility.

Distance of legibility (feet)	Letter width (inches)	Letter height (inches)	Number of words read at various mph speeds
			30	40	50	60
50	3/8	1-3/4	4	2	1	0
100	3/4	3-1/2	8	5	4	3
200	1-3/8	7	15	11	8	6
300	2	11	22	16	13	10
400	2-3/16	14	30	22	17	14
500	3-1/2	17-1/2	38	28	22	18

Use posted speed limits as guides to the speed that motorists travel. The recommended distance from the first sign to the market entrance or driveway is:

Speed Limit (mph)	Distance From Initial Sign to Market (mile*)
30	0.20
40	0.25
50	0.30
60	0.40

*Based on a decision time of 20 seconds plus reaction time and good braking distance of a car in good condition on a dry, paved highway.

Sizzling signs say sales
Signs of all kinds can be incorporated into successful direct marketing. Here are a few hints to achieve that goal:
•use a large, highly visible, banner-type sign to announce something special (such as strawberry season or fresh squeezed cider)
•tie in media promotional campaigns with in-store signage
•use signs to make sure customers know about everything you carry
•use employees as "signs"
•use brightly colored "SALE" or "SPECIAL" header cards to attract attention to a promotion
•make sure the backs of signs are blank or contain a decorative graphic (your logo)
•remember that motion attracts attention
•make effective use of neat, hand-printed signs
•use your signs to acquaint customers with new items, new varieties, or new uses
•encourage customers to have a sensory experience--handle, smell, see, even sample.

Print advertising
Print advertising includes far more than newspaper advertisements. Examples include postcards, newsletters, flyers, trade magazine ads, caps or visors, aprons, jackets, signs, billboards, direct mailers, recipe cards, window advertisements, bulletin board announcements, price cards and information (commodity availability, hours and days of operation, customer service) or directions (here's all you do, check out procedures, traffic flow). All of these items rely on continuity of theme and message, which further emphasizes the need for simple, yet meaningful names and logos for businesses.
The most common form of newsprint advertising is "slicks," which are eye-catching informational messages about your direct market and the produce you sell. This publication includes examples of advertising slicks. Use them as guidelines or adopt them for your own use as you prepare newspaper advertisements.
Here are some hints on how to get the best return on your print advertising dollar:
•Shop around -- get the best price quotes or bids for the quantities of things you need. And get only those items that are worth the expense (items that have multiple purposes, items that will be used frequently and seen frequently by the customer, and items that do not detract from the image or style that you are trying to maintain).
•"Toot your own horn" -- make the local newspaper (especially its foods editor and its farm editor), the County Extension Office, community service organizations, and appropriate trade associations aware of your direct marketing activities. Have a pre-season open house and sampling session, and then invite these special guests back when customers are busy buying your produce; this will show them the fun and excitement they and other potential customers are missing.
•Target your audience -- if more than one newspaper serves your market area, ask them for the demographic analysis of who their readers are. Then invest your advertising dollars in the newspaper advertisement that will get to your target audience or potential customers. The key performance measure of a newspaper advertisement is the number of customer contacts who have been induced by the ad to at least visit the direct market outlet. (Recall the earlier discussion on what advertising can and cannot do.)

Elements of a good print advertisement
Media advertising consultants agree that the following list contains the key elements of a good advertisement:
•Make the ad easily recognizable through the use of a type style, illustration or artwork that is distinctly yours (that is, the logo).
•Use a simple layout with a dominant element that makes it easy to read. Don't overuse attention-getting devices; they distract, and distraction kills potential sales.
•Have one primary goal; focus on one prime appeal and keep repeating it.
•Write clearly, so that your message is immediately understood. Use short words, short sentences, short paragraphs. Give the main message in the first sentence. And keep the whole message brief. Readers have too many other demands on their time to search for hidden information.
•Use benefit copy ("you will get...").
•Use command copy. Start subtly and be more obvious at the end.
•Sell specifics, if you can. "Save $4" is better than "save money."
•Put your offer up front in a prominent benefit headline. Five times as many people read the headline as read the rest of the advertisement.
•Put the reader in the picture.
•Be believable; cut the puffery and be honest.
•Let white space work for you; just because you paid for it, you don't have to fill it with ink or clutter.
•Include your address, phone number, and business hours.
•End by encouraging the reader to act now.

Broadcast advertising
If readers are too busy to search out hidden messages, so are listeners. Listening is not usually their primary activity, and they are often distracted by other activities going on simultaneously. So in radio advertising, time is of the essence. Within the first 20 seconds, a radio advertisement must: create a need among the listeners; tell them how to solve that need (which just a minute ago they didn't realize they had) by shopping at your direct market; provide specific information about your direct market (name, location, hours, and product availability); and finally, convince the listeners to take action. Some of the key information has to be repeated so that the consumer's mind retains it; this includes the name of your market and your special attractions.
Enclosed are some sample radio texts to use in advertising various commodities and types of direct markets. Your first step is to create your message. Then contact the sales staff of your local radio station. Working closely with their radio technicians will ensure that you produce a quality, highly recognizable tape that will steer customers toward your direct market.

Promotion advertising
Festivals, seasonal special events, fairs, and tie-ins are promotional activities that rely on advertising strategies and techniques. However, these events don't focus on buying a commodity; instead, they are a "happening" or "experience." The event just coincidentally occurs at your direct market--the only place that this occurs.
Usually festivals and other promotional events draw large numbers of people. As a direct marketer you can use the event to gain additional advertising through news stories. Some marketers conduct a festival once a year while others attempt to do one each month or identifiable season. And still others use a mixture: they may hold a few of their own events, and at other times of the year they may "piggyback" onto established county or area events by operating a booth every year in the same location.
Your imagination is the only limit to this approach, but be sure to plan well and be prepared to handle very large crowds. Festivals, for instance, can center around a commodity such as sweet corn, strawberries, pumpkins, or apples; they can have a seasonal focus, or focus on events such as blossom time or fall colors, or holidays. When you draw in groups for one purpose, don't forget all of your other marketing goals (continue to keep your market clean and well-stocked with your regular items, for example).
Finally, another form of promotion advertising you might want to consider is sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. They have available logos and stickers that proclaim "Pride of Kentucky/Produced by Kentuckians" for use on agricultural commodities produced in Kentucky. The Division of Markets at the Department of Agriculture in Frankfort is responsible for registration of farmers and marketers, and overseeing the program.

Conclusion
Successful advertising and promotion are based on good management and planning, and an understanding of the goals of marketing. Following a few basic guidelines will help you use the media properly as tools for advertising and promotion. In addition, your sucesss as a director marketer also depends on establishing and maintaining your image, and having a good operation with well-informed and courteous staff.

Advertising checklist
The following checklist will help you determine if your commercial communications follow the fundamentals of effective advertising.
Does your advertising arouse interest?
You can answer this question by considering the part of your advertising which is seen and/or heard "at first glance."
PRINT: The overall layout or "flavor" of the ad; headline wording; major artwork; use of white space; style, content and typography
BROADCAST: The inflection as well as the meaning of the first few words; the spirit of the first few bars of music; the mood as well as the content of the first few seconds of video.

Now ask yourself these additional questions:
•Do all "first impressions" of your advertising start from where most people are in relation to the subject? (They do, for example) when you present direct marketed produce as the freshest and most economical fruits and vegetables your family can eat).
•Or do all "first impressions" start from where most people always are? (They do when all elements work to offer something most people always want, such as a genuine cost savings or personal service).
•From start to finish, does the advertising continually serve an interest of the people at whom it is directed? Do all parts of it continue to treat the subject in a way people are interested in, or does the advertising continue to provide something people always want?
•Is it effortless to follow the logic or "message" of the advertising, and does it "make sense"? The logic or message may not be single thought or sequence of thoughts; it may be an impression or image.
•Is the advertisement proportionate in length to how much people want of what it offers? In both print (which can be physically long or short) and broadcast (which is a specific length of time) the advertising becomes too long the instant it ceases to interest.

Does your advertising know how to persuade?
Does the advertising make it quickly and easily clear that people will serve a self-interst by doing what it urges? (Serving a self-interest does not necessarily relate to health, wealth, or wisdom, but can be satisfaction of ego, experiencing perceived pleasure, or anything people want.)

How does your advertising measure up?
Do all "first impressions" make it immediately apparent that the reader/listener/viewer has a self-interest in pausing? Does the layout have a "flavor" and typography give an impression people can easily understand? Is the headline easy to read? Is the art or video portion easy to intrepret?

Does your advertising hold attention?
Is it easy to follow what the advertising says and shows? (Your ads must require absolutely no effort of the reader or listener.) Is the copy written in plain English and set in a readable typeface? Are the words conversational? Is any secondary art after the opening easy to understand and follow?

Sample Radio slicks
Roadside Market -- Summer
Gentle rains and warm sunshine bring you tender green beans, sugary sweet corn, and crisp bell peppers. They're ready to pick at Grovers Farms on Rt. 4, south of Independence.
Grovers Farms is 10 miles from the city, where the air is fresh and the only noise you'll hear is the chirping of birds. Grovers Farms lets you enjoy a time when things were simpler.
Follow Route 4, 10 miles south from Independence. You'll see the Grovers Farm sign after crossing the Pokey River; 555-111.

Roadside Market -- Summer
I'm Bill Brown, and I'm inviting you out to our family's farm market. We have some of the best tasting Zenith supersweet corn and vine ripened tomatoes that you can buy. Our green beans are picked daily, and our cantaloupes--well, they don't come any better.
We're located at the intersection of Route 22 and Possum Creek Road, just North of Nicholasville. Our hours are 8 to 8 Monday through Saturday.
Give us a call at 223-1742 to find out what's fresh picked. When you've tried our Zenith supersweet corn and had butter dripping off your elbows, I guarantee you'll want more.
Again, our phone number is 223-1742.

Pick-Your-Own -- Fall
I'm Bill Hirtog at Hirtogs Farm Market on Old River Road. We're picking our apples, pumpkins, winter squash, and Indian corn right now, or you can pick the perfect pumpkin from our fields.
Feel that snap when you bite into our apples. You haven't tasted apple cider until you've tried our fresh squeezed Hirtog cider.
Hirtogs Farm Market is on Old River Road, 2 miles south of the Liberty Road intersection.
Come for hayrides on Saturday. We'll be waiting for you.

Pick-Your-Own -- Strawberries
We have what you're looking for at Nolan Farms. I'm talking about fresh sweet strawberries picked at the peak of perfection. Our strawberries are grown right here on the farm; they make a strawberry short-cake that will have you scraping the bottom of your plate and looking for more.
You can select your own berries in our field, or purchase them pre-picked. Nolan Farms is located on Newtown Pike, just south of the Freemont intersection. We're open for picking from 8 to 8, seven days a week.
Give us a call on our Nolan Farms picking hot line, 123-4567, for the latest report on field conditions.

Pick-Your-Own -- Thornless Blackberries
I'm Bill Clinton and it's blackberry picking time at Clinton's Farms, on South US 27. We have some of the largest, juiciest, thornless blackberries that you've ever seen. That's right -- ours are thornless and chiggerless.
This year our plants are loaded with berries. Picking doesn't get any better than this.
Clinton Farms, located 2 miles south of Nicholasvile on US 27, is the place to stock up on Clinton Farms thornless blackberries for jams, jellies, and piping hot cobblers.

Farmers Market -- Spring
Spring has sprung and the farmers at the Elizabethtown Farmers Market are harvesting the first fruits and vegetables of the year. They have a fine selection of plump red strawberries, sweet asparagus, tender bibb lettuce, crisp spinach, and crunchy radishes. If you get there early you might even find some of those sugar snap peas.
The Elizabethtown Farmers Market is located in the lot at the intersection of Pinecrest and Hamilton, close to downtown. It's open on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 8 to 2.
Come on down and have a look around.

Farmers Market -- Summer
All of the growers at the Lexington Farmers Market would like you to come visit and look over their wide range of farm fresh produce. They have plump vine ripened tomatoes; Silver Queen corn and many of the new supersweet and sugary enhanced sweet corn varieties; watermelons and cantaloupes picked at their peak of flavor; tender select beets; bell and banana peppers; and choice sweet blackberries.
The Lexington Farmers Market is located on the corner of Broadway and Maxwell on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and downtown on Vine Street on Saturdays.
Take a short noontime stroll downtown or stop by on your way home from work. We're open from 8 to 6.

Farmers Market -- Fall
Our trucks at the Ashland Farmers Market, on the corner of Main and Franklin, are bulging with an abundance of fruits and vegetables. This has been a good season. We have apples that snap when you bite them, sweet potatoes, choice red beets, kale and collard greens, and plump white potatoes, as well as pumpkins, Indian corn and gourds for decorating. You won't find fresher, crisper broccoli and cauliflower anywhere.
The Ashland Farmers Market is open from 8 to noon on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. We have senior citizen discounts on Tuesday.
Remember, we're on the corner of Main and Franklin in downtown Ashland.

(These ads are ready for you to take to your local newspaper. Just add your business name, address, and phone number in the extra space.)

(Strawberry Ad 1)	(Strawberry Ad 2)	(Strawberry Ad 3)	(Strawberry Ad 4)
(Grape Ad 1)	(Grape Ad 2)	(Grape Ad 3)
(Corn Ad 1)	(Corn Ad 2)	(Corn Ad 3)	(Corn Ad 4)
(Tomato Ad 1)	(Tomato Ad 2)	(Tomato Ad 3)

(Cantaloupe Ad 1)(Cantaloupe Ad 2)

(Blackberry Ad 1)(Blackberry Ad 2)

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(Blueberry Ad 1)(Blueberry Ad 2)