Something else we'd never done before

...would be a wholesale tradeshow.
We've always talked about doing something, but avoided it because it seemed a little out of our league.
It felt a bit like kismet to be invited to participate in a smallish tradeshow that caters to "our" crowd, in a venue we never even knew existed!
So for 2 days we talked about my sister's products and her wholesale policies and specials. It was really a lot of fun and not nearly as exhausting as retail sales (isn't that always the case when discussing wholesale vs. retail?).
Here is the display we put together. It is simple and utilitarian. We didn't want to spend a lot of money when we didn't know what we were getting into, and although it looks a little sparse in this photo, it worked very well at the show. We handed out tons of samples and got some nice new wholesale accounts. The orders are nearly all filled, packed, and ready to ship! Bottom line? We can do wholesale tradeshows :-).
Another cool thing about attending any show is the people you meet. On one side of us was Mark Highland of

Organic Mechanic Soil. Mark was a very pleasant neighbor, but more than that he was interesting to talk to. He is very passionate about what he does, in fact he is quite possibly the only person I've ever heard say, "I've always loved compost."
Beyond that, he filled me in on the problem of worms changing the soil composition of the old forests in MN, and I listened to him explaining his product to customers. He's an impressive guy who walks the walk - even bringing his own mug along for the beverages provided by our hosts. I'm hoping that he'll provide the readers of The Essential Herbal with an article on composting this spring!