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Brandon Fresh Market To Reopen

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By YVETTE C. HAMMETT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 22, 2007

Updated: 09/21/2007 10:55 am

RIVERVIEW - When the Brandon Fresh Market reopens Oct. 6, patrons will see new faces and new products, including homemade goat cheese and fresh-cut flowers.

This will be the third season for the outdoor market, started by native Colombian Olga Santamaria, who felt Brandon was missing out by not having its own version of the community bazaar.

After several changes of location during the past two seasons, forced by logistical issues such as parking, Santamaria said she hopes she has found a permanent home for the market in the Town Centre at Winthrop Village, southwest of the intersection of Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road.

The market will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays through May.

'Right now, we have 22 vendors signed up, and we think we'll open with 25 to 30 vendors,' Santa Maria said.

'We have a French guy, Glenn Cryer, who's going to make crepes on-site, and there will be coffee,' Santamaria said. 'And we've added fresh-cut flowers.'

Santamaria said there also will be live music.

In addition to fresh-baked German bread, Santamaria also will be selling Amish butter and spicy and sweet old-fashioned grain mustard from Wisconsin.

Phyllis Harrod of Dover will be at the market for the second year, selling fresh wild Florida shrimp that she trucks in from Tarpon Springs.

Depending on the season, Harrod, of B&P Fresh Seafood, will sell pink Gulf shrimp, brown Panhandle shrimp or white East Coast shrimp.

'We get all our shrimp from the 'Miss Julie Ann' out of Tarpon Springs,' she said. 'A lot of transplants from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas have discovered us and are regular customers,' she said, noting that last week she had an order for 30 pounds of shrimp for the Saints versus Bucs game.

'We sell it just like it comes out of the water, with the head on,' she said.

Harrod also plans to stock stone crab claws and will periodically offer fish for sale, including grouper and snapper.

Linda VanCleve of Valrico will be there selling goat cheese that she and her husband, Jim, make as a hobby. VanCleve said she hopes to bring some of the goats to the market so youngsters can see how they are milked.

VanCleve, who owns more than a dozen milk goats, said she and her husband make a plain goat cheese and two flavored cheeses, all from natural products. 'We get creative with it,' she said.

Jim VanCleve, a financial adviser, said it takes about three days to make the spreadable cheese, from the time he cooks the milk and adds the spices until the time it is ready for market.

Another vendor at the market uses the VanCleves' goat milk to make soap because of its buttery consistency.

It's all about fresh and local, Santamaria said.

The idea for the market started as, and continues to be, a way to allow people to support local artists and vendors and a way to gather and socialize, she said.

FRESH MARKET RETURNS

The Brandon Fresh Market will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays through May in the Town Centre at Winthrop Village, southwest of the intersection of Bloomingdale Avenue and Providence Road.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.

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