T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Jeff Scofield, owner of Mr. Pickler’s Pantry, shows off his spread of wares at the sixth annual Love is in the Air Craft Show on Saturday. It was held at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Seventy vendors and more than 250 people went through the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday for the sixth annual Love Is in the Air Vendor & Craft Show.

One of the vendors was Jeff Scofield, owner of Mr. Pickler’s Pantry in Ankeny. He brought a variety of pickled products – bloody mary pickles, dill garlic pickles, ginger carrots – but made sure to bring enough of certain products as they have proven to be popular with Marshalltown residents.

Scofield has been to Marshalltown many times with his pickled wares. Every time he comes for a Marshalltown vendor show, he brings around 500 units.

“I’m a regular here,” Scofield said. “I’m always pretty happy to come back, because I know my regulars. I always bring extra mushrooms, extra salsa and the others which will sell out fast. Since Marshalltown was coming up, I made an entire case of the mushrooms in the pint size – gone. They always go fast.”

Organized by AB Events, owners Christina Best and Ashley Anderson were happy with the turnout at Love Is in the Air.

“It’s been a great day,” Best said. “It’s been busy. It’s been steady, and this is the first February show the weather has cooperated with us fully.”

The number of vendors and the traffic has been comparable with previous February shows, she said. The month is always sketchy because it is never known what the weather is going to do.

Anderson said they had a lot of new vendors show up, and a lot of those were bakeries.

“The baked goods have gone over good,” Best said. “I think everybody has left with something food-wise.”

Anderson believes the number of new vendors, close to half, was higher than usual.

“Regular vendors talk to vendors they meet at other shows and they recommend us,” she said. “We also do a lot of advertising, but the number one way is vendors recommending us.”

Best highlighted they have a charity donation at every show, and at Love Is in the Air, the chosen recipient was the Emergency Food Box. People could just bring in and drop off grocery items, or financial donations.

“Dave’s Coffee Cake donates $4 from every cake they sell to whatever charity we choose,” she said. “This is the second or third time we have given to the Emergency Food Box. We don’t have a quota on how much we collect. We don’t care because anything helps. We are more than grateful for anything.”

The next AB Events vendor and craft show is the Spring Fling on April 11.

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or bradstream@timesrepublican.com.