1. ONLINE INTERACTIVE GUIDE

Find outdoor farmers' markets by location or day of the week, check who's selling what at the Saturday Dane County Farmers' Market, search for recipes using market goods and watch a video of a chef preparing something special from market produce — all this and more in the guide we're debuting at www.madison.com/wsj. It will be updated as the season continues with vendor changes, new videos and users' additions to the recipe database. Send feedback to skallio@madison.com.

2. OPENING DAY

In Dane County, two markets open Saturday: The Dane County Farmers' Market on the Square from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Westside Community Market in the parking lot at Sheboygan Avenue and Segoe Road just south of University Avenue 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. When all the Dane County outdoor markets are back in sessions, Monday will be the only day without a market.

3. SATURDAY SHOPPING

Expect more plants, cut flowers and foods other than fresh produce at the first Dane County Farmers' Market, although some vendors will have salad greens, spinach, hydroponic tomatoes, mushrooms and maybe watercress, sprouts and fresh herbs. Shoppers can count on finding items such as bedding plants, hanging baskets, nursery stock, honey, eggs, cheese, meats, fish, pasta, bakery, nuts, pesto and other specialty items.

4. MARKET GROWTH

The "2008 Southern Wisconsin Farm Fresh Atlas," which will be available at the Downtown market information booth at the top of State Street and at www.reapfoodgroup.org, lists 41 farmers' markets, in contrast to 26 in the first such atlas in 2003. That includes twice as many in the city of Madison, where the Dane County Farmers' Market, Hilldale and the Eastside market were the only 2003 sites.

5. NEW MARKETS:

Among the markets added this year are those in Belleville and Paoli, both opening May 3. Paoli's is actually resurrected rather than brand new. Manager-by-default Ken Ruegsegger contrasts Paoli's market with those opening in Madison this week: "This is a little country market — not like Downtown or Westside." Owner of Paoli Local Foods across the street from the market, he says the store and market will offer coupons shoppers can use in the other venue, adding, "Hopefully, we can get people going back and forth."

6. CONSTRUCTION SEASON

Spring marks the start of sidewalk construction around half the Square — from West Washington Avenue to State Street to Wisconsin Avenue. Construction on the other half follows in summer. But the market marches on, with vendors and shoppers displaced to the street.

7. SQUARE NEWCOMERS

Construction on the Square may mean a little less space for vendors, so the Dane County Farmers' Market has invited only about half as many new vendors as usual, says market manager Larry Johnson. Among the eight newcomers are two bakeries — LMN O'Pies and The Silly Yak — as well as additional vendors selling bedding plants, morels and vegetables. Shoppers can expect a total of about 100 vendors for the first market and 150 to 160 during the height of the season.

8. GREENER PASTURES

Considering differences in packaging and food miles alone, farmers' market offerings generally seem like green alternatives to grocery store foods. The Dane County Farmers' Market expects more of its vendors and shoppers this year, starting with a BYOB (bring your own bag) promotion and encouragement to use recycling containers the city has agreed to provide around the Square. (Note: The stand on the Square selling Madison Farmers' Market bags is a private business, not affiliated with the Dane County Farmers' Market. The Friends of the Dane County Farmers' Market sell a canvas bag for $10; for details, visit www.dcfm.org and click on the friends' link.)

9. MARKETING MARKETS

While traditional market shoppers may blend pesto from fresh basil, freeze jams made with fresh berries and can sauce from boxes of tomatoes, markets need shoppers looking for products other than whole foods, too. Scott Lynch, who with his wife, Jen, writes a newsletter for the Westside Community Market, says, "You still see a lot of whole chickens in the farmers' market. People don't know how to cut one up or cook it — even if they work in a restaurant." He encourages vendors: "Think about who's going to eat this product in what circumstances and what can I do to make this convenient for them."

Jim Schroeder, a Dane County Farmers' Market vendor from year one, has been selling his Summer Kitchen preserves for decades. Newer examples of value-added products, at least at the Westside Community Market, include Potter's Crackers, Kindly Kraut and Sugar River, which packages yogurt in single serving cups in addition to larger containers.

"Realistically, when you go to a farmers' market, the competition is not the guy in the next stall over," Scott Lynch says. "The competition is Sam's Club, Woodman's. It's the people who treat food as a commodity. The guy in the next stall is your colleague."

10. LOCAL VS. ORGANIC

Only a handful of vendors at the Dane County Farmers' Market are certified organic growers. More are following organic standards but not certified, and most do not make claims beyond being local businesses. The same likely is true at smaller markets, and that's not an issue for farmers' market supporters like Jen and Scott Lynch. Known for their August 2007 100-mile diet project (virtually every food item grown or raised 100 miles or less from their Madison home), they are still "Eating in Place" and once again blogging about the benefits to consumers and producers of local foods, which they say trumps organic from afar. At vidalocal.blogspot.com, they explain their choice to eat locally grown food "because we can ask about HOW it is grown and choose to support farmers who are thinking sustainably about their land, products and animals." For example, they write, "Even before we had our own chickens we sought out pastured eggs. I want to buy eggs from farmers who let their chickens roam free, able to eat the delicious worms and weeds and run around in the wind, protected from predators and loved by their keepers."