Cheryl Plouff buys so much from the Saline Farmers Market that she brings a cart to help her carry everything home.

The cart is attached to a big black dog named Bandit, who is about half the size of Plouff.

“I came to the market one morning and I was huffing and puffing carrying groceries home. And I looked down and he was doing fine. So I gave him a job,” she explained.

Bandit, with big floppy ears and a happily wagging tail, didn’t seem to mind the cart, which was already half full shortly after the market opened at 8 a.m. on a recent Saturday.

The Saline Farmers Market has developed over 10 years into a healthy mix of locally grown fruits, vegetables, flowers, breads, cheeses and even some crafts, with friendly and helpful vendors to match. Its carefully cultivated mix of vendors provides the variety of products of a large market, but the convenience and closeness of a small market.

Plouff said the food from the market keeps longer because it hasn’t traveled very far. All of the vendors drive less than an hour to Saline, so customers know the food is local.

“And if I forgot something Saturday, we can come back Tuesday,” Plouff added. “Or if something was really good at one market we can go again and get some more.”

From May to October, the market is held every Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon in downtown Saline, on South Ann Arbor Street just south of Michigan Avenue. This year, a Tuesday market has been added as well, from 4 to 8 p.m., at the Saline District Library parking lot.

Nancy Crisp, the woman who has managed the market since it started in 2000, said customers kept asking for a mid-week market in addition to the Saturday market.

The Saturday market started as three-week experiment with six vendors. Now it has 18 vendors, and a waiting list, Crisp said. She plans to try out the Tuesday farmer’s market during the months of June, July and August, when farmers bring the most produce.

The Tuesday market only has five vendors so far, but Crisp said it takes time to grow the size and popularity of a market. She has patience for the Tuesday market, and high hopes. “We want it to grow fast enough that we can continue it through next year,” she said. “That’s my goal.”

Crisp said the Saturday market has been a success story. “One of the reasons it works so well is because of the variety,” Crisp said. There’s not too much overlap in the products offered, so vendors don’t need to feel competitive. She hopes to bring the same variety to the Tuesday market.

Although the Tuesday market is new, customers and vendors seem to appreciate it as much as the Saturday market.

Jennifer Schwartz sells silver jewelry at both markets in Saline. She said response to the Tuesday market has been very promising so far.

“It’s going really well. There’s a lot of people who can’t get out on Saturday mornings, for whatever reason, so they can run by after work or in the afternoon [on Tuesday],” she said.

Patrick Little has been going to the Saline market since 2000. He likes the market because the vendors are knowledgeable about their produce, and always happy to talk about it.

“You can even ask these guys, how do you cook these? And they’ll have three, four ways you can do it,” Little said.

On a recent Saturday, Debbie Marks of Marks Farms explained how to cook kohlrabi, a type of cabbage that looks like a large brussel sprout with a stem and huge leaves, to a customer, while her daughter, Kia, returned change to another customer.

Sometimes Marks brings Kia, 7, and Keaton, 11, to the market, even though they aren’t the greatest salespeople.

When asked how they entice customers to buy the broccoli, summer squash and zucchini, Keaton said, “Well I don’t really like any of these on the table. I’m not a vegetable person.”

Kia agreed. “But we do like shining them,” she said. “Shining” is keeping the vegetables wet, so they don’t dry out, Keaton explained. “So they’ll be fresh and nice,” Kia added.

Fresh and nice: Two words to sum up the produce and the people at the Saline Farmers Market. Even if the kids don’t like the vegetables.