iN PHOTOS: Amusing Trades a Kamloops gardener has taken for her bounty

At the end of every summer a Kamloops gardener entertains the community with a light-hearted trading game she calls Amusement Trade.

Lee Hunt-Clary, 72, grows so much produce, much of it is given away, but she always offers a box of it on a local gardening group’s social media to see what silly items will be offered as a trade, and the sillier the better.

“The whole idea is to have fun because gardening is a lot of hard work,” Hunt-Clary said. “It’s rewarding to have the trade as a time for gardeners to use their creativity and imagination. Everyone gets a chance to let their silly side come out.”

Some offers in the past included a size 10 pair of sparkly staccatos, a Brazilian wax and a deflated blow-up doll.

Last week, Hunt-Clary offered a box of big, ripe heirloom tomatoes and fielded almost a hundred offers to exchange items that included an ice cream sandwich, lipstick and a hand massage, a fork, cinnamon buns, a song and dance, a remote-control monster truck and a paper mache fish.

“I’ve had the most ridiculous things offered, and I don’t want a fair trade,” she said. “I want something that isn’t fair in cost value but is fair in amusement value to me and all the other gardeners who can take a break and read the silly things people are coming up with.”

Hunt-Clary had a difficult time choosing the winner of the most recent trading game, but ended up accepting an offer of a pair of thong underwear and two jars of hot pepper jelly.

“It isn’t the thong, it’s the idea of it,” she said. “It’s currently sitting on the kitchen table. When I go south in the winter, I thought I could wrap a gift with it for my sister or her husband. I’m sure I’ll find a use for it, I’m certainly not wearing it.”

The longtime gardener still has a couple of boxes to put up for trade in the Kamloops Green & Garden group in the coming weeks. Her online audience is clearly entertained, with some cracking jokes and others following along for the laughs.