We always try to make a strong case for visiting your local farmers' market to find fresh produce and artisan goods that are locally produced in your area. However you may read our stories about farmers' markets and and let out a sigh of frustration if you aren't fortunate enough to have one close to where you live.

Well sigh no more, because now is your chance to be proactive and part of the solution. Starting your own farmers' market may seem like a lot of work (it is!), but it's also not nearly as complicated as you might believe. The University of Florida has a few points to consider before you begin:

- Get the whole neighborhood involved, including your local government and retailers and make sure you have their support. A farmers' market thrives on such relationships and needs them in order to be successful.

- Location is key with many points to consider. A few things to consider are: a spot with a reasonable volume of traffic, adequate parking and covered areas for inclement weather.

- Finding vendors may be your biggest challenge in the beginning. Try to contact some local farmers about participating and make sure you have your sales pitch planned out so you can demonstrate how their involvement would be beneficial to them and well worth their time.

- Sell, sell, sell. No, not goods at the market (not yet anyway). You'll need to first sell the idea to the public and utilize free or inexpensive marketing tools to get the word out. Use neighborhood  and school newspapers, as well as public radio.

Additionally, the folks over at organic-growers.com, have a few more suggestions:

- Consider if there will be adequate parking for families. Also be aware of safety issues such as how close to a busy road the market will be set up.

- Make sure you think about ways to make (and keep!) shoppers happy: adequate washrooms and places where they can get a hot or cold drink depending on the weather are small things that will make customers' that much more likely to return in the future.

Some local governments even offer financial grants within their local communities to start up a farmer's market. Contact your local government to find out if such a program exists and if not, suggest one be implemented.

These are of course not all of the aspects involved in planning a new farmers' market, but hopefully give you some ideas of the questions you'll need to ask as you consider starting one in your own neighborhood.

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