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Business & Tech

Indoor Farmers Market Ushers in Spring

Bay Street locale offers off-season jams, pastas, breads, sauces, and other treats

Some of the much-missed benefits of summertime on Long Island are the farmers markets, offering everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to sprouts and soaps.

But a new wave of winter farmers markets have been making progress on the East End, including the indoor Sag Harbor Winter Farmers Market in the building across from the Breakwater Yacht Club. Starting March 26, it will be held at , where it will run through May.

The winter market started over the President's Day weekend in February, and it continued every Saturday starting at the beginning of March from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Ivo Tomasini, who co-organizes the market with Ana Nieto, said that the transition from a summer to winter market was a fairly easy one.

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“Ana and I manage the summer market,” Tomasini said, “and just after the summer season ended, we were thinking, ‘Well, why don’t we continue somehow, because people want it to continue.’ We literally turned our heads around and saw that this place was empty with a ‘For Rent’ sign on it. So we called the landlord, and he said, ‘Let’s make a deal.’”

The ambiance is unique. Gone are the fresh fruits and berries, but in their place are rich and flavorful jams, jellies, and preserves. The green-veined whites of fresh onions and leeks are temporarily set aside for the dusty beige tones of freshly-made pasta. And all things icy are replaced by all things warm – soups, coffees, spicy sauces, and baked goods.

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The market was nicely crowded one Saturday morning, with plenty of customers carrying out fabric tote bags loaded with goodies. Tomasini is confident the winter market will continue to grow.

“It’s going very well on two fronts,” he said, “The local community is enjoying it, and on the vendors’ side, they like it enough to invest time and money to wait it out at its beginning and make it successful – which I am sure it will be."

Martine Abitbol, a private chef local to Shelter Island via Tunisia, Paris and Corsica, presided over an arranged table of marmalades, scones, chocolates, quiches and crusty loaves of fresh bread one recent Saturday.

“We do the summer market across the street,” she explained in her French-accented English, “and this is just as nice. Old clients heard that I was over here, so I am seeing them, and of course all of the new people, too.”

For pasta vendor Steve Price, who represents Papa Pasquale of Brooklyn, the winter market was also a chance to continue a good rapport with summer clientele.

“We’ve been participating in many of the Suffolk and Nassau county markets for a while,” Price said, "This was an indoor market, something a little different, and we wanted to be part of it. We have raviolis made in Brooklyn, and sauces from Papa Pasquale’s own grandmother’s recipe. So it’s been good.”

A different variety of sauces were being offered at the next table over - the Pete’s Endless Summer table, which was helmed by Caitlin Calke under owner Pete Ambrose.

“My boss is from Sag Harbor,” Calke said, “so he wanted to use his connections with the community to promote himself and bring his product to the masses. We have really great barbeque sauces, ketchups, and marinades, among other things, and they’re all tried and true.”

Even pets are taken care of at the Sag Harbor Winter Farmers Market; Barbara Frerichs was busy running Teddy’s Goodies, a small but popular line of all-natural dog treats.

Offering Tasty Turkey and Sweet Potato Praisins on that particular Saturday, she said, “They are for dogs, but they’re also the same as human food, and they have an actual shelf life, so I tasted them as I made them – and now, I’ve got people trying them all day. Dogs of course love ‘em.”

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