ANNA MARIA – Now in its second year on the Roser Church property in Anna Maria, and its third year overall, the Anna Maria Community Farmers Market returned on a rainy day on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
Weather permitting, the weekly market will continue every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through the end of May. Roser Church is located at 512 Pine Ave. and parking is generally plentiful on the church property that features multiple parking lots.
Presented by The Center of Anna Maria Island, Roser Church and market manager and organizer Devinne “Dev” Whittaker, the weekly market features vendors selling fresh produce, coffee and tea, fresh juices, bread, freshly baked biscuits and other baked goods, meat and poultry, clothing, wellness goods, pickles, microgreens, local art, jewelry, dog treats, fish spread, live music and so much more, with massages also offered.
THE MANAGER
Whittaker started the market three years ago and it operated for one season on The Center’s athletic fields before moving to the Roser Church property last year.
The Sun visited the market on Oct. 13 and the weather was picture-perfect.
Whittaker and her fiancé, Ted Louloudes, operate Ted’s Breads at the market, and also inside The Center. The couple is expecting a baby soon, so Whittaker has suspended her DBTB Juice Bar operations for now.
“I’m taking a break. Ted’s still baking, doing wholesale and we’re still at The Center,” she said.
The Ted’s Breads offerings included miche (Ted’s signature sourdough wheat bread), cookies, scones and more.
While working the Ted’s Breads tent, Whittaker said, “Week two’s good. We had no rain. We are full of vendors and we have a wait list. We’ve got 40 vendors and I max out at 43. More than half of my vendors have been with me since day one.”
When asked about opening day, Whittaker said, “It was a little rainy, but it was good. We were busy.”
As for why she does it, Whittaker said, “I just love building a friendly community where people can gather.”
Trevor Bystrom provided the live music on Oct. 13 and Albert Donadi was on deck for the Oct. 20 market.
THE VENDORS
A stroll through the market found Lazaro Suayero at the Hermano’s Chicken Salad tent, enjoying his first year and second day at the market – and selling several varieties of chicken salad.
“The second day was great. We built a clientele so the same people come by, and we also got some new customers. It’s a nice sunny day, so it’s a great day. It was rainy last week,” he said.
“We only use pasture raised chicken. We use organic ingredients. The only thing that’s not organic is the dry cranberries and the buffalo sauce. We also buy our chicken from a farm and all our ingredients are Cuban seasonings. Plus, the ingredients that we buy are organic. And it’s all Cuban seasonings that we use for our flavor for the chicken salad,” Suayero said.
“Everything’s freshly made and packaged at two in the morning. The dill pickle is our number one seller,” he added.
Accompanied by a large stuffed turtle mascot, Joanie Derry promotes AMI Turtle Watch’s Adopt-a-Nest program, and she also sells turtle-themed items. “The proceeds I make here I give to the program. I’m also a Turtle Watch volunteer. This display is to encourage people to adopt turtle nest,” Derry said.
She said the easiest way to adopt a turtle nest is to visit the AMI Turtle Watch website.
At the Spare Kitchen tent, Michael Calvino bakes a variety of traditional and non-traditional biscuits throughout the day.
“We use organic flour and local buttermilk. We do our plain biscuits and we also do chocolate chips, sweet potato, rosemary garlic – and the sausage is my father’s recipe. We bake them fresh at the market,” he said.
For the second year in a row, the Spare Kitchen tent is located near the Sol Sipsters coffee tent operated by sisters Olivia and Grace Schoditsch. And their mom is now on the other side of them, with her Banana Bums tent where she sells homemade frozen banana whip.
Holmes Beach resident Eileen Van Lieshout is bringing her Manatee Pottery tent to the Anna Maria Community Farmers Market for her third year now. Her homemade pottery offerings include mugs, ornaments, bowls, little trinket dishes and small pottery ornaments.
“I make everything myself from clay and everything’s inspired by where we are,” she said.
At the neighboring Black Circle Coffee tent, Brian Nagy said, “We’re new. We just launched in February in Sarasota. This is my first time at the market.”
Some of his coffee offerings carry names that pay homage to the legendary jam-band, Phish.
Tillman Thomas, from Thomas Produce, has been selling fresh produce in the Anna Maria market since it began as a city-hosted market at City Pier Park. After the 2024 hurricanes, the non-city-affiliated market set up shop at The Center for one year.
Accompanied that day by his wife of 45 years, Judy, Thomas said, “Today was really good and I’m running out of stuff.”
His fresh produce offerings included tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, avocados, citrus, fresh herbs and more.
Milagros Produce also dates back to the first year of the city-operated market and Tony Martinez was operating that well-stocked and bountiful produce tent on Oct. 13.
“Number one produce in America,” he joked.
