You can do all your shopping for a Thanksgiving feast at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market
By CARL MARIO NUDI
Jamie Mulvin has been selling herbs and tea blends at the Farmers’ Market since Decembe
There are no written records of what the Pilgrims and members of the Native American Wampanoag tribe exactly ate at the first Thanksgiving in 1621 in Plymouth, Mass.
But historians said the menu probably included some fowl, such as ducks, geese, and wild turkey; fish and shellfish; and fruits and vegetables native to the area, both wild and cultivated.
Manatee County residents can find many of those foodstuffs and more to recreate the bill of fare served during the first Thanksgiving at the Realize Bradenton-sponsored Farmers’ Market, held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday on Old Main Street in downtown Bradenton.
For appetizers, stop by the Cascella Cheese booth where Sabastiano Cascella will let you sample the cheddar, mozzarella, and scamorza cheese he makes for Dakin Dairy.
“Cheese and Thanksgiving go together because it tastes good,” Cascella said. “You can serve it with wine before dinner.”
Gene Ticconi, of Colony Cove in Ellenton, said the Jay’s Italian Olive Salad he sells at a Farmers’ Market booth also would make a good appetizer or served on a relish tray.
The seasoned chopped olive, celery, onion, carrot, and sweet pepper mix in olive oil would be great or used in a salad.
“My wife Darlene likes to use it in her tuna salad in place of mayo,” Ticconi said. “It’s all natural.
“You can use it in your pasta,” he said. “It’s good hot or cold.”
For the creative cook, Jay’s Italian Olive Salad could be used in a sauce for the fish sold a couple of booths down at Liz’s Seafood Market.
Liz and Frank Lawson have been selling seafood at the Farmers’ Market for four years.
“All the fish are bought fresh the day before from Florida fishermen,” said Frank. “All the pink shrimp come from the Florida Gulf.”
He said fish could be a good substitute for turkey.
Parrish resident Keila Horne and her mother, Marta Prado, have a wide colorful assortment of cut flowers and arrangements at their Farmers’ Market booth, Medallion Flowers.
“People are tired of traditional turkey dinners, and are now trying new things,” Frank said. “Or you can have turkey, but add a fish (entrée) also.”
Along with the pink shrimp and fish, they also sell spiny lobster, stone crab, scallops and more.
“Some great fish for Thanksgiving are black grouper, tuna, or salmon,” said Liz. “You can cook all three several ways — baked, grilled, or pan-fried.
“For instance, black grouper breaded to fry, or bake with garlic and butter, or grill it with Old Bay seasoning,” she said.
If you wanted to stick with having a bird as the main dish, you can find natural, pasture-raised poultry dressed and ready to cook at home at the Feathered Oaks Farm booth.
“We butcher the animals when we get ready to come to the farmers’ market,” said Mike Ferguson, who helps his son, Matt Ferguson and his wife, Brandi, owners of the farm.
“We raise meat chickens, turkeys, and laying chickens,” Matt said. “We also have pigs, but they’re not for sale.
“We also have goats for pets,” he said. “We may start to dabble in goat’s milk, though.”
If you are looking for turkeys from the Feathered Oaks Farm, they are already sold out.
But with more than 100 laying free-range chickens, they always have fresh eggs.
“All our laying hens are raised in the pasture,” said Brandi, who helps on the farm and at the booth while raising their two daughters, Laina and Leanne.
When looking for produce for your Thanksgiving feast go see Fred Dula at his Come Under the Yum Yum Tree booth.
“We carry a lot of Florida produce and fruit, such as watermelons and citrus,” said Dula, who has been in the produce business for 35 years.
He said he carries Ruskin tomatoes and “some of the best candy corn,” which is a mix of the silver queen and yellow corn varieties.
From his booth at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market, Sabastiano Cascella offers cheese he makes for Dakin Dairy.
“You could have tomato salad and stewed tomatoes for Thanksgiving,” Dula suggested, “and yellow squash and zucchini.”
Every Thanksgiving dinner should include sweet potatoes, and Dula said the Mississippi sweet potatoes he sells are the best.
“There’s something about the soil,” he said. “It’s the best sweet potato on the planet.”
When you go to season your entrée and side dishes, pick up some herbs and seasonings at Wolfheart Herbals.
Owner Jamie Mulvin has about 100 different kinds of herbs and tea blends at his Farmers’ Market booth.
“I make herbal tea (blends) that do different things; for example a tea that helps with arthritis has alfalfa, rose hip, parsley and rosemary,” said Mulvin, who is a member of the Lenape or Delaware Native American tribe. “It helps with inflammation and lubricates the joints, and it’s all natural and easier on the body than medicines.”
He said he was taught how to make his blends from a Native American medicine man when he was 18 years old.
“Every herb has benefits of its own,” Mulvin said.
You have to end every grand feast with a grand dessert, and India Pearson at Greeks Bearing Gifts has a great selection.
And you can sample the home-baked Italian cream cake, tiramisu, a Greek butter cookie called Koulourakia, and baklava before you buy it to make sure you get the perfect dessert.
Pearson, whose family has owned a Greek/Italian restaurant in Valdosta, Ga., for 40 years, said you have to have sweets for Thanksgiving because “it brings us happiness.
“It’s wonderful to share delicious food with family and friends,” she added.
“My grandmother and mother taught me how to make these recipes, and I wanted to share them with my friends at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market.
Another way to make your friends feel welcomed at your Thanksgiving feast is with table flower arrangements from Medallion Flowers
Keila Horne, who lives in Parrish, has been doing flower arrangements for friends and family for about 10 years before opening her booth at the Farmers’ Market about a year ago.
“We have flower arrangements in pumpkins for fall and Thanksgiving decorations,” Horne said. “We also have arrangements in horns of plenty.”
Fred Dula and his son, Chase, sell produce and fruit at their booth, Come Under the Yum Yum Tree at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market.
If you want to make your own arrangements, Horne can help you pick from a wide assortment of colors and varieties of cut flowers.
For those who want to stick with the traditional turkey, Mattison’s City Grille Bradenton Riverwalk restaurant, 101 Riverfront Blvd., No. 120, in Bradenton, was offering a Thanksgiving special.
The restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine Scott Cardenas was at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market as the featured Chef at the Market a couple of Saturdays ago serving a fresh bruschetta with house-made pesto.
Every week a different restaurant chef demonstrates a recipe and Farmers’ Market shoppers get to sample the food creation.
“It’s very important to be here at the Farmers’ Market,” Cardenas said. “We’re very much into locally sourced food items and (it makes sense) to be at the Farmers’ Market where everything is fresh and local.”
Mattison’s marketing director, Caryn Hodge, was at the Farmers’ Market that day telling everyone about the restaurant’s special Thanksgiving dinner deal.
“All the restaurants are open for Thanksgiving,” Hodge said. “You can dine-in on a traditional turkey dinner or order off the menu.
“But the best deal for people who want to spend the day at home in their pajamas watching the parade,” she said, “is a complete feast to go for six at $149 plus tax or for 10 at $189 plus tax.
The dinner for six includes a 12-pound turkey and all the trimmings with two sides and a special dessert, a three-layer, salted caramel, butter cream cake, topped with candied pecans and bourbon caramel drizzle.
The dinner for 10 includes an 18-pound turkey and all the trimmings with two sides and the special dessert.
“The turkey dinners are prepared fresh,” Hodge said. “Or you can order just a turkey.”
Mattison’s City Grille Bradenton Riverwalk restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine Scott Cardenas, left, was at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market as the featured Chef at the Market recently, serving a fresh bruschetta with house-made pesto with the help of Maitre d’ Jonathon Collins.
Orders for to go dinners must be placed by Sunday, Nov. 18.
Peg Haynes, Bradenton Farmers’ Market manager said the market was a great place to do your Thanksgiving Day dinner shopping.
“You can get the freshest local produce and things you can’t get anywhere else, like the cage-free chickens from Feather Oaks Farms or the seafood from Liz” Haynes said. “And there’s a variety of side foods like pickles and rustic bread and honey.”
For information about all the vendors at the Bradenton Farmers’ Market visit the Realize Bradenton web site at www.realizebradenton.com/about_the_market.
For more information about Mattison’s City Grille Bradenton Riverwalk restaurant and its To Go Turkey Dinner special call 941-896-9660.