On Saturday the first Maple Valley Farmers Market opened with ring of a cowbell as people poured onto the grounds of Rock Creek Elementary School to check out the market.

The smell of kettle corn wafted through the air as the sounds of the Maple Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra played while hundreds of shoppers picked up items ranging from cookies to earrings to shrimp gumbo to cherries to asparagus to flowers to wine and much more. Parking was overflowing at Rock Creek to the point that folks parked along Maple Valley Highway.