Vegetarian and Vegans Shop, Sell for Thanksgiving
Among the first arrivals at the Farmer’s Market at Kennedy Plaza on Wednesday and Saturday mornings is Robyn Goldstein, a vegan for 27 years, who surveys the fresh produce that sustains her. Last Saturday, she arrived to do her shopping for Thanksgiving.
Goldstein purchased everything from lettuce and turnips to peppers and potatoes to apple cider to cookies from the many vendors who know her by name.
“The Farmer’s Market is the best thing that’s ever happened here,” said Goldstein, a ten-year resident of Long Beach.
In Long Beach, Goldstein and other vegans and vegetarians have to get out early in Long Beach if they’re to have fresh food for Thanksgiving.
“It was lucky she came early,” said one vendor, Frank Sciarratta of StanPat Farms in Manorville. “We sold out of sweet potatoes by noon. Cauliflower and kale were also big, as were dandelion greens used for juicing in the days before the big feast.”
On Goldstein’s Thanksgiving menu is salad, cream of broccoli or cauliflower soup, homemade cranberry sauce, sweet and white potatoes, asparagus, string beans, stuffed squash and vegan pumpkin pie.
Gabrielle Giacomazzo, owner of Peace Love and No Nuts, a peanut-, gluten-, egg- and dairy-free and vegan foods vendor went vegan last February to lower her cholesterol without medication.
Giacomazzo avoids the traditional Italian feast that her sister-in-law prepares by bringing her own food on Thanksgiving. Some of what she will prepare includes mashed cauliflower with mushroom sauce, lentil loaf with breadcrumbs, mushroom bread stuffing, and sweet potatoes with pineapple and marshmallows.
Cristin Gest, who works at Goshen’s farm stand, turned vegetarian in 2005, but she eats eggs. She has also found alternatives to her family’s traditions of turkey, meatballs and cured meats and cheeses.
Her menu will include a corn bread with cranberry jam, vegan kale onion lasagna, tahini encrusted cauliflower, Brussels sprouts sautéed with apples in oil with balsamic vinegar and red chili flakes are on her menu, as well as an apple crisp in pie form and vegan pumpkin cheesecake made with tofutti cream cheese.
Stephanie Barann, a vegetarian for ten years and vegan for six years. “For years, I would just eat sides during Thanksgiving,” said Barann, who eats eggs and yogurt.
Now she eats Tofurky (processed soy shaped like a turkey) that she bakes with apple cider, chopped onions, carrots, celery and walnuts with mushroom gravy, made from vegetarian-based stock with fresh wild shitake and maitake mushrooms.
Mashed turnips with veganaise, acorn and butternut squash, cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries and organic stuffing are among her sides. Dessert will consist of dairy-free apple pie with cinnamon, earth balance butter, brown sugar and raisins.
Barann works across the street, At Bob’s Natural Foods, were customers are buying fresh organic produce and packaged produce to put on their dinner tables on Thanksgiving. Gluten free breads, brown rice, lentils, quinoa, organic butter, organic apples, walnuts, pecans, dried cranberries, honey, veggie bouillon, organic yams and butternut squash are plentiful.
Down the block at the Fruit Bowl, Idaho and sweet potatoes, all three colored peppers and greens have all sold the best this week.
Meanwhile, at Farmer’s Market, vendors are getting ready for last-minute Thanksgiving shoppers on Wednesday, including Rob Carucci of Carucci Farms in Mattituck.
“We sold almost all our sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and winter squashes, along with cabbage and brussel sprouts Saturday,” he said.
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