One day, Jim Sears spotted a double-door oven on the side of the road. So he pulled over, took the oven home and started making dog biscuits.

“I know (those ovens) are very expensive,” Sears said. “It was in front of a business. Somebody was going to throw it away.”

Sears peddled his homemade dog treats Saturday at this season’s first Southern Kentucky Regional Farmers Market. The market, set up in the parking lot of The Medical Center, has about 44 vendors signed up for this year. On Saturday, about 20 vendors lined the parking lot, selling items from plants and vegetables to jams and cakes to artwork and pottery. Several fruit and vegetable producers will come later after their crops are harvested.

Another farmers market, the Original Farmers Market, opened April 3 in front of Hobby Lobby.

“It’s just fresh and it’s spring and you’re tired of cabbage,” said Kim Early, of Allen County, as she lugged two bags full of basil plants and lettuce. “I love to support it because it’s locally grown.”

Hundreds of people scattered throughout the market Saturday, inspecting plants, walking dogs, chatting with vendors and visiting friends.

Several, like Early, are regulars. They’ve ventured to the market for years. For some, it’s a tradition, and others are searching for something specific. Early looks for asparagus, but on Saturday she was too late – it was sold out when she got there.

“We just look forward to asparagus so much,” she said. “We just love it.”

Stephen Mayer, of Alvaton, has been selling products for Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheeses at the SKY Farmers Market since it first opened, and he has formed relationships with regular customers over the years.

“People today want to know where their food’s coming from and who’s producing it,” Mayer said.

The business, which began 11 years ago producing dairy and making cheese in Austin, sells its products at farmers markets across the state. Mayer travels to 12 or 14 farmers markets a week, showcasing cheeses for the local business (its biggest seller is the tomato basil cheese).

One of the biggest farmers markets Mayer travels to is the Bardstown market, where sales are doubled compared to the Bowling Green markets. But sales here have remained steady, he said.

For Thelma Groce, a Glasgow resident who travels to four markets selling produce with her husband, the SKY Farmers Market attracts the most customers. She also sells items at two Glasgow markets and this year will sell in Cave City.

Groce and her husband sell greenery, vegetables and flowers. They started producing those plants about nine years ago after visiting an Amish greenhouse. The Groces were inspired to open their own greenhouse – now they operate one large greenhouse and two smaller ones.

“And it just grows,” she said.

Groce is a full-time nurse and her husband is a full-time farmer, raising plants in the greenhouse as well as tobacco and cattle on about 35 acres of land.

“It’s all he’s ever done,” she said.

Groce said she enjoys selling products at a producer-only market – the SKY Farmers Market allows only Kentucky-produced items to be sold; officials inspect farmers beforehand to make sure they’re truly growing their own products. It’s a good feeling to offer someone a product that has not been sitting on a store shelf, she said.

Business has been good over the past few years and, this year, the weather seems to be cooperating, Groce said.

“Last spring, it was wet,” she said. “This is a really nice spring. It’s starting out good.”

But not everyone sold plants.

Bowling Green residents Sarah Fricks and Carly Carey have been painting together for five years. On Saturday, they displayed their pieces under a tent at the market.

Colorful paintings of owls, birdcages, ice cream, a Moon Pie and Central Park were propped against painted chairs – one yellow chair was dotted with red flowers and a quote from Albert Einstein. The women showcased their decorative boards, with expression such as “Fried ’n’ True” and “Espresso Yourself.”

But the biggest customer demand is for their painted windows. The women find old windows and splash them with bold colors and funky images.

“We get them from all over,” Fricks said. We get “some off the road sometimes.”

One window pane was painted pink with blue letters spelling out “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” On the glass, a banjo, with the shape of the state of Kentucky in the background, was painted. Another window showed the life cycle of frog – in the first pane, a frog egg was painted. The other panes showed tadpoles and pollywogs with the “Big Daddy” frog painted on the sixth pane.

“We just like little clever, quirky kind of things,” Carey said. “Whatever we think of in our heads at the moment.”

The duo also paints children’s faces at the market – a task that can be harder than it seems.

“They’ll come in and sit down,” Fricks said, “and they want a mural on their face.”

The two women, who are lifelong friends and neighbors, have a studio in Fricks’ house. They both began painting when they were teenagers and eventually decided to market their items. They’ve been at the farmers market for the past three years, and business has grown, Fricks said.

Business also has picked up for Sears since he started making natural dog treats about five years ago. When Sears isn’t working at the University Bookstore, he’s dropping ingredients into his mixer and placing them on a baking sheet. So far, he’s made more than 1,000 dog biscuits, which range from oat to banana flavored. “I am known as dog biscuit boy,” he said. “The (biggest) part of town, they don’t know my name. I’m dog biscuit boy.”

— The SKY Farmers Market is open from 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays and from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays. The Original Farmers Market is open from 6 a.m. until sellout on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.