Portfolio: Craig Easton celebrates roadside selling in his book '52 Weekends by the Sea and 52 Weekends in the Country'

Sure you could sell your home-made preserves on Etsy or flowers on eBay – but there's something special about items put out for sale by the side of the road with only an honesty box for company.

It wasn't only the homely that Craig Easton chanced upon while travelling the country for the books 52 Weekends by the Sea and 52 Weekends in the Country, mind. "One of the first images [I took] was the tree [pictured centre]," says the 46-year-old photographer. "The sign wasn't clearly on any parcel of land or relating to any property, so I wonder whether it really was the tree that was for sale, maybe for firewood?"

It's not the only mystery – what, for instance, was a tank doing just off the A69 between Carlisle and Hexham? One wonders, too, what the bride thought of her transport being on the block for five grand.

No matter. For Easton, the act of roadside selling itself represents "a celebration. I think it's a way of connecting. Most of the pictures have been rural; I wonder whether we should be doing it in town, too. My kids made some jams once and put them on the wall outside our house – the neighbours loved it; they all sold in a couple of days. Maybe it's an entrepreneurialism natural to us all: let's all make stuff and get it out on the street – we should start a campaign!"

Craig Easton was the recipient of the Cutty Sark Award for Worldwide Travel Photographer of the Year, 2012. For more: craigeaston.com. The '52 Weekends' books can be seen at 52hq.co.uk