How’s everyone doing today? I thought that I would talk just a bit about Vermont’s many farmers markets and roadside stands, or vegetable stands. With so many farms producing so many different kinds of products, you can find many farmers roadside stands all over the state. Most are on rural or secondary roads, so it’s easy for people to pull off on the side of the road or in the driveway of the farm.

Now there is a difference between a farmer market and a farmers roadside vegetable stand. A roadside stand can be just a table put out in a farmers front yard with produce, or as elaborate as a small open building on the farmers property that people can stop in and browse around. They also can be places that people drive their pickup or van to.

Vermont’s rural roads have a lot of turnoffs, little places you can get off the road to take a break. So some people drive to those and set up a little tarp or something and sell produce out of the back of their van or pickup. But most roadside stands are places right on a farm where they sell produce. Now a farmer market is much bigger.

Those are more like a community flea market, only for produce. Often they are held on weekends. It’s a big place lots of different farmers can rent a table or space and sell their produce along with everyone else. Often it’s a big mix of both produce and handmade items for sale. Like candles, dolls, pictures and all kinds of stuff.

If you visit Vermont and take a ride along most any rural roads your bound to come across a few farmers roadside vegetable stands. So what can you find at a Vermont roadside stand or farmers market? Well, quite a bit! You can find your normal vegetables like carrots, cabbage, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, apples and so on.

But you also can find produce like cheese, ice cream, honey, goat milk, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, pies, eggs and of course lots of different kinds of pure Vermont maple syrup! Often you can get maple candy, maple cream, maple sugar and several different grades of maple syrup.

In the farmers markets you find everything but the kitchen sink! Vermonters make all kinds of items from wood, vines and many other things. So besides the produce you can find wreaths, candle holders, nic nacs, picture frames, jewelry boxes, wooden toys and games and hundreds more.

Of course there also are maple sugar houses that are open year round also all over. They don’t just sell Vermont maple syrup. They most often have all kinds of produce and country store type of stuff. So it’s worth stopping into one and seeing what they have. Of course that’s a great time to pick up a gallon or two of that great pure Vermont maple syrup!