We have been talking with vendors at our market to get to know them better. We talked with the Herb Garden recently. Q: You sell herb and vegetable plants. Why plants?Patricia: From the beginning, I have grown plants that interest me. I was fascinated with plants offering us culinary, medicinal, cosmetic, etc, uses to enhance our lives. As word spread of my rare & unusual plant collecting passion, others wanted to grow some also. So in 1989, I started The Herb Garden. I thought I would help pay for my ' growing habit', and water bill. Q: Have you seen plant trends over the years? Patricia: I was one of the first in Spokane to offer Heirloom Vegetables. They were very slow to catch on. Now they are one of the most popular segments across the nation for the home gardener. The trend I see now- more people want to grow their own food & herbs. They want to have healthy food- and to know what is in it. Also financially it makes sense as household budgets are getting crunched. Some folks are already putting in Victory type gardens. We are in the process of re-doing our yard into an 'Edibles & Usefuls Landscape'. Many plants are showy, and will also give you a payoff for the kitchen. Q: You have been with the Liberty Lake Farmers market from the beginning. Having done other markets why take a chance on an up and coming market. Patricia: We had done 2 other farmers markets in downtown Spokane prior to the LLFM. The first was geared more for tourism than the farmer/grower. The second geared directly for the farmer/grower but location and organizing pains frustrated me. The positives that drew me to take a chance on LLFM- it was in a neighborhood & family oriented community, Jim Franks had a strong vision & experience, which made it a market I wanted to be part of, and I thought Liberty Lake would like my more unusual products. Q: Where do you see the market in five years? Patricia: I believe the LLFM will continue to be a popular Saturday morning mainstay with the community. Even if the location changes for construction or a move to accommodate more vendors and larger market happens down the rode. Liberty Lake has a farmers market that many other community's dream of, and the LLFM has community support that other farmers markets envy. |
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People Of the Market | Patricia Mattsonposted Jul 8, 2012, 6:09 PM by Unknown user [ updated Jul 8, 2012, 6:14 PM ] |
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