"It's totally a launching pad" for her business, Latitude 22, she said. "The community is really good. Everyone is so helpful and supportive. The overhead is low. It's great."

Business has been so good, in fact, Kobayashi and her business partner Ruth Arakaki make more than 2,000 oatcakes in a variety of flavors every week to meet the demand.

"It's been totally worth it," Kobayashi said.

Many small businesses — from organic farms to catering companies — have discovered the benefits of setting up a booth at the local farmers' market.

The rent — $65 a week for Hawai'i Farm Bureau Federation members, $90 for nonmembers — and low overhead — just a table and tent — make the move to the outdoors a financially feasible one.

Farmers can sell their produce to communities away from where there farms are located. Bakers can test new products or recipes. Caterers can make contacts for future gigs.

And the vendors come from all over the state. There's grass-fed beef from Hale'iwa and sugarloaf pineapple from Kaua'i. Ma'o Farms packs up its organic produce and travels from Wai'anae to participate in the farmers' market once a month.

"We wanted to showcase locally grown stuff and stick to it," said Joan Namkoong, market coordinator.

Bernadette Benigno, owner of Country Comfort Catering, has watched her business grow because of her participation in the farmers' market.

Selling freshly made lumpia and flavored goat cheese has led to catering jobs for parties and weddings for people she met at the market.

And the instant consumer feedback at the market creates an ideal environment for her to test out new lumpia flavors, such as Peking duck. So far, her customers have liked spinach and feta cheese, crabcake, haupia and guava-cream cheese.

"I listen to my customers," Benigno said. "It's nice to create something new."

Ruth Arakaki displays an oatcake for sale at the Latitude 22 booth at Kapi'olani Community College's Farmers' Market. She and partner Sharon Kobayashi make more than 2,000 oatcakes each week. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I'm always getting suggestions and ideas," said Chan, 29, who started making chips in his Mo'ili'ili apartment and now rents a kitchen in Kalihi. "It's a different crowd from what we normally see at trade shows. And it gives people a different venue to come and find us because we don't have an open storefront and not all the stores carry all of our flavors."

Business is good enough that Chan left his part-time job at a bookstore to focus on chip-making full time. He distributes a few hundred cases of chips a week, with stores on O'ahu and the Big Island, where he's from, selling his variety of taro and sweet potato chips. Next will be Las Vegas, San Francisco and Maui. He's already shipping orders to customers on the Mainland, including New York, Florida and New Hampshire.

Networking is another benefit of the farmers' market.

Terry Yamamoto, who sells homemade mochi crunch, met Chan at a local food trade show. Now they share a Kalihi kitchen and a booth at the KCC Farmers' Market.

"It gives me a chance to interact with consumers," said Yamamoto, a father of three who has worked as a waiter for 13 years. "At this level, we're not really known yet, so it feels like such a disadvantage. But being there and interacting with all the customers really makes a difference."

Having a weekly venue to sell his products has been a godsend, he said. Now he doesn't have to endure the long waits between seasonal trade shows. He even has a booth at the farmers' market on Fort Street Mall.

"This is great, to have a weekly thing," said Yamamoto, who makes about 300 bags of mochi crunch a week. "It's really great for small businesses like ours."