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If you have never strolled through the Sarasota Downtown Farmers Market, you’re missing the boat! What better place to be, on a sunny Saturday morning?

We like eating locally grown foods, available at various stands there. Last Saturday we stocked up on navel oranges and red grapefruit from our friends at Browns Groves, and I made a Tropical Ambrosia for our Feast of the Seven Fishes, on Saturday evening at my in-law’s house. Only, we forgot to take it, so it ended up being part of the menu on Christmas night at our house.

The hit of the menu though, was the “Heirloom Tomatoes Trifle” which I chopped and layered from around 20 different Heirloom Tomato varieties that the Browns are growing this year. It was well-dosed with fresh basil from “the Herb Guys” – the Dufour Brothers, who also supplied the mint which topped the Ambrosia and the rosemary which got mashed into the Anchovy Mustard Glaze that we slathered over the leg of lamb. I made slits in the lamb skin and inserted both a sliver of garlic and a rosemary leaf into the holes. 

Of course the tomatoes had to have a nice sprinkling of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil from Kristine Insalaco’s booth, where she sells the most tasty olive oils I’ve ever had. Saporedellavita obviously is not locally grown, but we’re lucky to have Kristine importing it from Italy.

The Farmers Market runs from 1^st Street to State Street on Lemon Avenue crossing Main Street. Some of the vendors have been there for all of its 30-year history – stop by and be part of it soon.