Chick treasures

They’re baaaaack.

After a yearlong hiatus, Teri Edwards and Serena Thompson – a.k.a., The Farm Chicks – are set again to host their popular antique show Saturday and Sunday.

Some things haven’t changed, including the wide selection of timeworn treasures and the farm-inspired food.

But some major features are completely different, starting with the show’s location. What began in a single barn in 2002 quickly grew to an event that took over almost the entire town of Fairfield, 30 miles southeast of Spokane. With about 115 vendors now – an increase of 35 vendors over the last show in 2006 – this weekend’s event will be held at the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, a venue the organizers say will be easier to manage and will give attendees more breathing room.

“Anybody who has been to the Fairfield show will understand why we made the move,” Edwards says. “There wasn’t a lot of room to shop and take your time.”

Farm Chicks fans say they’re happy to see the show’s return – no matter where it’s located.

“We were saddened to hear that the 2007 show was canceled,” says Stephanie Larson, who has traveled with a friend to the show from Everett since 2005. “Knowing that it was a temporary break made it easier, though.”

Larson has bought several treasures over the years, including antique game boards she uses to decorate her home. She says her biggest regret was passing up a vintage potty-training toilet that she would have planted with flowers and placed in her garden had she nabbed it.

Colbert resident Cheryl Wagner’s best find was an old business sign that read “Valley Answering Service.”

Wagner was eyeing the sign with her sister, who had traveled from Pendleton, Ore., to attend the show one year, wondering out loud if it could have been from the company where their mother worked in Valley, Wash. Thompson, who at the time still sold vintage goods at the show, overheard the sisters’ conversation and told them she’d purchased it at a yard sale in Valley.

“Sure enough, it was the sign from where my mother worked,” a realization that prompted tears and laughter, Wagner says. “Now it’s hanging in my house.”

Tears. Laughter. Warmth. Friendship. Those might not be words that describe all antique shows, but they’re mentioned freely among Farm Chicks devotees.

Thompson and Edwards have fostered that sense over the years, partly through their careful selection of vendors. The products sold generally share a similar look – part farm charm, part shabby chic, part playful and colorful. The Farm Chicks also resist inviting two or more businesses that sell the same types of products, such as handmade soaps.

The event will occupy the fairground’s main plaza and biggest bay, but it could take over the entire site if the partners accepted all the vendors who apply to take part.

“That’s one of the negative parts of this,” Edwards says. “It’s really hard to tell someone (their products aren’t) a good fit for our show. Not that they don’t do amazing stuff and not that they wouldn’t be successful somewhere else.”

The show used to feature strictly antiques, but Edwards says customers will see more vendors selling handmade products this year, such as stationery and tote bags, reflecting a national trend of the growing popularity of handmade goods.

“We’ve stayed heavy on the antiques side … but we also loosened up a bit and said if someone is making something we love, why wouldn’t we want to include them?” she says.

Edwards and Thompson are especially excited about a large collection of 1930s and ‘40s enamelware they’ll have for sale. They acquired it from a man in Indiana who discovered it stashed away in warehouses in India. The cookware is unused and many items sport their original labels, which Edwards says are as appealing as the products themselves.

“The labels are beautiful – robin’s egg blue with a red lip,” she says.

There are more than 500 pieces in the collection, some of which are “as small as something that would hold a couple of teaspoons to as large was something that would hold a small child,” Edwards says.

More than 4,000 people attended the last show in 2006.

“We kept having the problem where the tents were so packed, people would have to wait an hour in line to get in,” Thompson says. “Then, when they got in, they felt like it was way too crowded, which made it less enjoyable for people.”

So Thompson and Edwards took a break from the event in 2007 and regrouped. They knew they needed a venue with more space, and they hoped to find a better way to manage the show.

The Farm Chicks concede that some devotees might miss the Fairfield factor – the small-town charm that served as the backdrop to the show.

“During the last show we did in Fairfield, we had taken over the whole town, and it felt really big to people when they came because it was the whole town,” Edwards says. “It might feel smaller (at the fairgrounds) because we’re all in one place.”

Managing the show in Fairfield was also a logistical nightmare for the partners, who had to run the length of the town (and back again) several times just to keep things in order.

Also, the main tent area was a few hundred feet away from the sale’s other venues, creating an area where non-Farm Chick vendors could set up shop even if their products didn’t fit the show’s theme and sell to customers who didn’t know the difference.

“People would tell us, ‘This guy on the street sold me such-and-such a thing and I don’t think it’s legitimate,’ ” Thompson says.

She adds that the women have been working on ways to dress up the fairgrounds in their signature style.

“Sure, we’re worried (about losing Fairfield’s charm), and we kill ourselves to make it be really amazing but in a different way,” she says. “There’s no way we’re going to capture the small-town feel and the pretty drive to Fairfield … but I don’t think people are going to recognize they’re at the fairgrounds.”

Larson, of Everett, isn’t concerned.

“I’m really excited that it’s being held in Spokane this year, as I’m not too confident with my driving in strange towns,” she says. “And, there are lots of good malls in Spokane.”

If you go

The Farm Chicks Antique Show

When: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m

Where: Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St., Spokane.

Admission: $6, or $5 with a receipt from a Yoke’s Foods store.

Highlights: A book signing by EllynAnne Geisel, author of “The Apron Book: Making, Wearing and Sharing a Bit of Cloth and Comfort,” and appearances from the editors of Country Living magazine.

For more information: www.thefarmchicks.com.