Farmers' Market
Madison, WI

What the kids wrote about
VENDORS & PRODUCTS

ALL ABOUT THE FARMERS MARKET
INTERVIEWING AND NOTE-TAKING

Martin | Emily | Mark | Anna | Brett | Mark | Erika | Anna | Mark
Anna | Juan Pablo | Anna | Alice | Emma | Zoë
Rodrigo | Jenny | Pao | Alice | Thomas | Gabby
Thomas | Martin | Delia | Gabby | Marcus | Dylan | Brett

We found my piano teacher selling things for a farm at the very end of the market. She sold lots of broccoli to a young man who was a chef at the Opera House restaurant who bought the broccoli for cream of broccoli soup. -- Martin

There are many bakeries and I hope to give you information on them all. Stella's Bakery first. They have an excellent assortment of bakery items. They have delicious muffins and rich, gooey brownies.

Sugar River is my personal favorite. They have delicious bars and
mouth-watering scones. (Scones are triangular biscuits with different flavors.) -- Emily

Mark David's Bakery. Mark David came from 30 miles away. He sells: cookies, muffins, loaves of bread, and scones. Mark David was doing this for 30 years. This is his business and he is always busy.
-- Mark

Mark David also comes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He runs Mark David's Cafe Bakery. They bake in a French brick oven. He says there's someone in the bakery 24 hours a day. They take shifts. They bake most of their bread in the morning then go to the Farmers' Market. Besides bread they sell scones, muffins, and cookies. -- Anna

There was also a place that sold different kinds of homemade jam. I bought some raspberry jam. I haven't tasted it yet. She put this weird wax stuff on the top of the jam. Somebody at the bus stop said it helps preserve it. -- Brett

Cut-N-Dried. These are the things they sell: cactus, wheat, bouquets, lamb's ears, silver dollar, broom corn, pampas grass, peacock feathers, catnip, potpourri, sweet Annie. They have been selling at the market since 1990. They liked flowers a lot when the people were kids.
-- Mark

Mary Ellen Gillingham from Cut and Dried keeps peacocks because they are pretty. She started in 1989. Her daughter gave her the idea. She has a drying shed to dry her flowers. In the spring she sells fresh plants. In the summer she sells fresh flowers. But in the fall she sells dried flowers. She loves her work and said, "It's a lot of competition on Saturday so people know us for the weirdness." -- Erika

Mary Ellen Gillingham sells dried flowers, peacock feathers, cactus, small gourds and large dried gourds that make good birdhouses, and other crafts. In the summer she sells fresh and dried flowers and does not sell peacock feathers until after mating season.
-- Anna

Lancour's Greenhouse Produce from Friendship, Wisconsin. The guy is selling: squash, small or big pumpkins, and gourds. Gourds change colors. The guy has been working for 25 years. Friendship is 85 miles away. -- Mark

Stella's Bakery is known for its hot and spicy bread but they also sell a lot of other things like cookies, Napoleons, cream puffs, brownies, carrot cake, muffins, cupcakes and much more. Stella's is also an ethnic bakery. They sell a lot of Spanish foods. -- Anna

We went to Stella's Bakery. They sell empanadas, spicy hot cheese bread, M 'n M cookies, normal cookies, and there was apple bread. We also went into this place that sells bread and cookies and this guy gave us a really good cookie for free. --Juan Pablo

"The Bee Charmer" as she's called. She used to work for the government who showed her how to keep bees. They make clover honey and black locust.
-- Anna

Marsden's Pure Honey. First she collects the hives with the honey, then she spins the hives to get the honey out, then she bottles the honey, takes it to the Farmers' Market to sell. She also sells pumpkins and won't go home until they're all sold. She used to work for the government providing bees and decided she could make a living out of it. She said this job is full time. -- Alice

One of the coolest things that I saw was a license plate that said
"BKEYPR" (Beekeeper). -- Emma

The single employee/vendor from Marston's Pure Honey harvests the honey herself. She says the honey in the plastic bear container sells better, even though it's the same honey and 4 ounces less. -- Zoë

We also drew pictures and I drew one called the Hedge. I don't remember what it does, it kills bugs. It is a chemical for bugs. It doesn't kill them, but they just hate the smell. -- Rodrigo

I saw a place that sells flowers and she said her shop was called by her last name. On her tables it looks like an apple. She said it kills bugs like spiders. She said that the smell of it kills bugs and some more stuff and there was a sign that said "Do not eat it." -- Jenny


The man from Hampton's Greenhouse grows squash at Beaver Dam. He also grow beans, spinach and a lot of other vegetables. He also grows sunflowers. He starts planting in February. He likes to become friends with customers. He likes to be outdoors.
-- Pao

Hampton's Greenhouse has been at the Farmers' Market since the first one. They used to bring their kids to the Farmers' Market. They'd come at twelve midnight and park across from the square and sit there until five in the morning and then they'd go across the street and set up.
-- Alice

Sugar River Country Bakery. One of the things on the menu was the coconut joy bar. It has oatmeal streusel on the bottom. The top is made of fudge and in the middle there is a coconut sauce. It probably tastes really good. -- Thomas

The Sugar River Bakery is a very good bakery. The people who sold the food drove 28.5 miles to get to the Farmers' Market. The reason the person at the stand came to the Farmers' Market to sell their items is because they don't have a lot of people where they live to sell the items to. -- Gabby

Acker's Country Kitchen. When I went there POW! I bet there were 200 bottles of jam/jelly. There were also pickles, some with dill and garlic, others just plain. The way they make the pickles is that they soak cucumbers in salt-water (they shrink a whole lot). Then they put the seasoning on it, bottle them (with tons of water so they stay fresh) then label them with their name, then price and sell. The way they learned to make jam/jelly: Their mom made them but the lady there pretty much taught herself how to make them and yes, they do raise the cherries, raspberries, strawberries and fruit, etc. It must be a lot of work to raise, cut (pick), wash and make the fruit into jam/jelly. -- Thomas


Acker's makes lots of jellys and jams. They have tomato and ground cherry jam. EEUCH! -- Martin

Most of the prices are very inexpensive. For example, there was a stand that sold 5 gourds or baby pumpkins for $1.00. I liked that deal so I picked out 2 pumpkins and 3 gourds. Do you want to know something funny? I named them! -- Delia

Frey is a very, very good flower stand. The reason that the person at the stand comes here is because she takes care of her kids and her 90 year old mother so she needs to make money for her family. The person liked the Saturday market better because there are more venders and more people. -- Gabby

My favorite place was the Bread Barn because they had very, very, very, very good brownies. They were the best brownies I have ever tasted. -- Marcus

I liked seeing the squash and the other stuff. It was fun drawing the
plants. I drew a flower that looked like [it] had an eyeball. -- Marcus

There was a flower stand called Cut 'n Dried. We interviewed a woman there who grew the flowers. She also had some very beautiful peacock feathers. -- Dylan

We also interviewed a Hmong vender that sold vegetables. Pakou had to speak Hmong to this particular vendor so the vender could understand what we were saying. -- Dylan

The Little Elf Bakery has two big ovens, and they can bake 60 cookies in each one. There was this one kind of cookie that was a rainbow with a cloud on each side. There was also one that was in an oval shape with all different colors.
-- Brett