A farmer setting up a table beside his field. One of the oldest forms of commerce if you ignore the fact that most of the owners hold cell phones. Leading up to the stand are handpainted signs with uneaven letters that are scrunched up on the right side where the painter must have run out of room. The signs also don an image of a smiling fruit of choice with big white eyes and arched eyebrows "come on in!" says the image.

Buying from these guys is a great way to avoid paying several middle men in the grocery store channel. Right? Well, sometimes the farmer acts as a middle man. While driving back from the city one day, I stopped at a fruit stand and saw some suspiciously perfect strawberries. I spied into the back and saw a man taking them from a box marked "California Fresh" (this is in Canada) and repackaging them. Damn! I asked the farmer and found out that the only local fruit were fresh Cranberries (blechh). I guess this primitive form of commerce still has all the regular trappings of the business world: misleading logo, overdiversification, bending the truth etc.