Early Saturday morning. Puffy white clouds skip across a bright blue sky as hatchbacks and trucks move into position in the parking lot. People help one another assemble tables and tents for their booths at the Olathe Farmers Market.
Smells of freshly baked bread fill the air as Nancy Osborne artfully arranges her loaves on a white oilcloth printed with clusters of delicate yellow and red daisies.

"I wrap each loaf carefully" Osborne said. "My customers have to see that everything is fresh and clean, since they can't wash a loaf of bread when they get it home!"

Vendors hurry into position before 8:00, when customers can begin shopping. When Dennis Gibbs, the market manager, rings his bell, customers swarm in.

This scene is repeated around the county, as Johnson County has many bustling farmers markets, including in Overland Park, Merriam, Shawnee, Prairie Village, and Gardner. There's a strong trend for customers to know where their food comes from and to be able to look the grower or chef in the eye.

Osborne, a 65-year-old Overland Park resident, sensed this eight years ago when she built a commercial kitchen and started The Little Bakery brand.

"I use only the best ingredients," she explained. "I buy my flour from Soaring Eagle Farms in Edgerton, and I won't even make my green onion bread without Steve's green onions. When they're cut, the aroma fills the room."

Here are some other growing-local trends:

Community gardens. There is a renewed interest in community gardens. Karin and Ken Capron have a plot at St. Pius X Church, 56th and Woodson in Mission.

Ken, a 65-year-old retired Overland Park police officer, and Karin, a 62-year-old retired EPA chemist, have tended gardens for 30 years and never lost the priceless knowledge passed down to them.

"We've thought of giving lessons, since lots of people don't know how to can produce," Karin said.

The land, a former school playground, is divided into 54 plots, each 10 feet by 10 feet. The plots are available for rent at $15 per season, and require using only organic gardening techniques—but there is a waiting list.

Canning and preserving. Johnson County K-State Research and Extension offers classes on canning, and other classes are given at the Whole Foods Market, which carries many locally sourced foods.

The Culinary Center in old downtown Overland Park offers classes in preparing fresh foods, preserving, and urban gardening. Canning classes are taught by executive chef Matt Chatfield, who takes the subject to the cuisine level, demonstrating his homemade sauces and pickled red and green chili peppers. They are so beautiful in the jars that they could be art.

Instructor Dorothy Conner, a 69-year-old Leawood resident, teaches children's classes. She takes her students across the street to the farmers market, where each child spends one dollar buying fresh produce. She helps them make their purchases into a tasty treat so they'll understand that food doesn't start at the supermarket.

Grocers. The groundswell of interest in fresh food has made it all the way to the grocers, where many involve local growers. The most compre-hensive program is at Hen House, which offers a community supported agriculture (CSA) subscription extending from May through September. Customers pay $25 for an annual membership, then another $25 per week for a sack containing a large variety of local farm-fresh products—vegetables, fruits, eggs, cheese, meat. The farms benefit from having dependable sales, creating a healthy community partnership built on trust. Hen House advertises the CSA as "thousands of miles fresher."

Other grower/vendors. Because of growth in Johnson County, with attendant high land prices and zoning changes, many farms have been pushed to the county's edge or just across the county line. Pendleton's Greenhouse Market, outside Eudora, belongs to the CSA group, and nearly 75 percent of its customers live in Johnson County.

But large numbers of small vendors fill their trucks with what's fresh that week and go to farmers markets, shopping center parking lots, or other locations that may be close to your home.

On a recent Saturday, Gloria Meyers was at the corner of 74th and Metcalf with her truck, where ears of fresh sweet corn spilled out and a table was piled with ripe tomatoes. It was obvious that most of her customers were regulars. The Meyers family used to farm 40 acres at 103rd and Antioch.

Meat, milk, cheese, and eggs. Besides grocers and natural food stores, probably the best places to look for locally raised meat, milk, cheese, and eggs are farmers markets. Some farmers sell directly out of a freezer at their booths, others take orders and deliver to a central location later in the week.

Also look for local growers' groups on the Internet, where small farms, ranches, and dairies network and advertise. You can find a variety of common meats like beef, pork, chicken, and turkey, as well as less ordinary lamb, goat, quail, and even emu.

Restaurants. Some Johnson County restaurants buy from local producers. The Tumbleweed Bar and Grill in downtown Gardner, for example, has served meals made from local tomatoes, onions, and corn since 1981. That's when Herbie Meyer started this gathering spot, and his children and grandchildren carry on the tradition.

Gardening and canning supplies. Hardware stores and kitchen shops have shelves full of gardening supplies and canning pots in case you've misplaced yours. You can find help about how to use them at some of the sources listed below, at the library, and on the Internet.

Home gardens. Many local residents are planting vegetables in their yards. Some are using efficient techniques your grandparents would have liked to know about, such as raised beds, intensive gardening (also called square-foot gardening), vertical gardening for vining plants, and an old American Indian technique, straw bale gardening.

Bob and Bonita Siemens live on a beautiful hilltop acre in Shawnee, where they've built a 40-foot by 40-foot raised garden surrounded by a plank fence to keep out the deer. Bob, a 71-year-old retired science teacher, uses compost he makes from sheep manure, grass clippings, and dried leaves. He "lasagna-layers" it into place with newspaper.

"I build the beds—the macho work—and Bonita takes care of the garden," he smiled. "It's good exercise and it's nice to share it. It's good for our relationship."

Bonita, a 70-year-old retired Sears human resources director, said, "We feed 20 people in our family, then regularly take some to our church food pantry."

Their church, Village Presbyterian in Prairie Village, has a volunteer community garden project slated for spring 2011 at its 99th and Mission Road campus to help supply the food pantry.

Many locals are involved in providing top-quality foods, but perhaps the most memorable is Flat Ann, the "scaregirl" in the Siemens' garden. Though slightly cross-eyed, she has a real sense of style, dressed in overalls with a jaunty straw hat and bright red yarn braids.

The scarecrow is attached to a hanger and is perched on a piece of plastic tubing. All her clothes are Bonita's castoffs, and recently their granddaughters dressed her in a long purple skirt.

"You should see her in a storm," Bonita said. "I put weights in her gloves and, when the wind blows, she sways and her arms swing around like she's really alive."

For questions or suggestions about this series, e-mail anniewithers1@aol.com.