Eight counties | 36 cities | one region

ST. JAMES—Are you planning to sell produce at a farmers’ market this summer? Naturally Meramec will be hosting a Retail Farm Market School Feb. 7 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to help prepare you for just this. The workshop, taught by the University of Missouri Extension, will provide market vendors with valuable knowledge about produce marketing.

Workshop content includes: produce handling, produce quality, produce merchandising, customer service, sanitation and Tax and Liability Issues.

This program is free for Naturally Meramec Consortium members. Membership in the organization is currently free also. More information on membership may be found at www.naturallymeramec.org. Cost of the program and lunch for non-members is $33 per participant or $28 per participant if two or more come from the same business and share handouts. Steve Lyber with the Missouri Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures Division will be at the workshop to test and certify scales for the 2017 market season for an additional $15 fee.

RSVP by Feb. 1 to Linda Carroll at MRPC at 573-265-2993 or lcarroll@meramecregion.org.

The Naturally Meramec Consortium was developed by the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) to enable businesses to work together, sell and highlight local products with marketing tools such as brochures and interactive websites. The Naturally Meramec website showcases area agri-tourism business and enables travelers to pre-plan visits to the region with local consortium businesses as destinations. For more information, please contact Connie Willman at 573-265-2993 or cwillman@meramecregion.org.

Formed in 1969, MRPC is a voluntary council of governments serving Crawford, Dent, Gasconade, Maries, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski and Washington counties and their respective cities. A professional staff of 25, directed by the MRPC board, offers technical assistance and services, such as grant preparation and administration, housing assistance, transportation planning, environmental planning, ordinance codification, business loans and other services to member communities.

Show-Me Local: Naturally Meramec information may be found at www.naturallymeramec.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/naturallymeramec.

To keep up with the latest MRPC news and events, visit the MRPC website at www.meramecregion.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/meramecregion/.