Saturday, Oct. 9, marks the 2010 swan song for the Maple Valley Farmers Market. The final opportunity to wander from stall to stall admiring the fall harvest, the delicate jewelry, the mouth-watering marinated asparagus, fresh goat cheese and gooey cookies. It’s the end of the second season, the end of seventeen weeks filled with local produce and honey, prepared foods, fresh flowers, organic beef, lavender products, spicy rubs and delicious treats. It’s the final Saturday to enjoy local entertainment, provided by the band RJ and Company, known for their accordion and saxophone music “with a beat for dancing feet.”  It’s the final Saturday to chat outdoors with friends and neighbors seen too seldom, and to enjoy some warm and crunchy Kettle Corn.

The market is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Rock Creek Elementary, 25700 Maple Valley-Black Diamond Road SE, then perhaps the lure of donut art and free apple cider will draw them out.

George’s Bakery of North Bend, the popular new market vendor known for plate-sized donuts, fresh fruit pies, and other exquisite delicacies is donating eighty donuts, icing, and sprinkles for donut Art, certainly a type of art that even the talent-free can enjoy. Rockridge Cider of Enumclaw has also donated cases of apple cider in support of Maple Valley Farmers’ Market.

The Covington Quilt Guild will have a booth at the Market this final week, and the Emergency Preparedness Fair will take place in the Rock Creek Gym from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors can get all of the information they need to prepare for and cope with the aftermath of this region’s inevitable power outages, windstorms and earthquakes. Vendors will offer emergency management kits, ready-made foods, emergency communication kits, three-day food kits and more.

It will be eight months until the 2011 Farmers Market season premiers in Maple Valley, so residents should make sure not to miss the grand finale of the “Saturday morning place to be.”