Eat fresh for Thanksgiving: Harvest Market on Sunday

----------- Prepared foods include everything from pies to handmade cheeses. There will be New England fiddle music and free cider, too.

Pre-order your favorite pie from La Petit France by Friday, pick it up at the Harvest Market on Sunday.

This Sunday, Nov. 23, the Coventry Farmers Market hosts a Harvest Market event, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Coventry High School, 78 Ripley Hill Road.

Besides a variety of great things to eat, the Harvest Market will have live New England fiddle music and complimentary cider.

A sampling of offerings...

Windham Gardens: broccoli, leeks, and mustard, collard and turnip greens

Bird Song Farm: Garlic, shallots, bok choy, winter squash, turnips, honey

Starlight Gardens: certified organic salad greens, arugula, and spinach

Killam & Bassette Farmstead: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, gold & purple turnips, Empire, Golden Delicious, Cortland, and Macoun apples, Bosc pears, and eggs from their 150 free-ranging hens.

18th Century Purity Farm: Green Mountain and fingerling potatoes, Swedish turnips, heirloom dried beans, County King and Macoun apples

Dondero Orchards: apples, pears, butternut squash, cabbage, made-on-the-farm jams, jellies, pickles, and apple and pumpkin pies

Maggie's Farm: fresh salad greens mix, dried shiitake mushrooms and heirloom tomatoes

And grass-fed beef from Four Mile River Farm. Nunzio Corsino of Four Mile River Farm provides a natural stress-free environment for his cattle, who graze on naturally-fertilized, open pasture and are fed corn and grain milled in Connecticut. He doesn't use antibiotics, growth stimulants or hormones. For Christmas Day and Sunday dinners, there are steaks, standing rib roast, holiday beef roast, yankee pot roast, stew beef, and nitrate-free franks and kielbasa.

Prepared foods for the holidays...

Daniel’s Dairy Downtown: Fudge, caramel dipped apples, and ice cream

Morning Glory Homemade: Stuffed breads (chicken Parmesan, pepperoni, spinach feta, and broccoli sausage), made-from-scratch butter rolls, maple pumpkin whoopee pies, traditional pumpkin pies, cookies, blueberry sour cream coffee cakes and a variety of muffins

Bean and Leaf : Artisanal quality, freshly-roasted coffee beans and Fair Trade teas, and hot coffee by the cup

Beltane Farm: A variety of farmstead goat milk cheese

La Petit France: Breads, croissants, French pastries, sample their Yule Log and order one for Christmas. (To order your favorite pie to buy at the market on Sunday, see the bakery's full listing at http://www.lapetitefrance-frenchbakery.com/ ) and contact Alexandra by Friday, Nov. 21

Norm's Best will bring marinated mushrooms, coated cashew nuts and award-winning barbecue sauce (his barbecue sauce won first place in the barbecue category of the Connecticut Specialty Food 6th Annual food contest)

Bear Pond Farm: Pesto sauces: Premium Basil, Tomato-Garlic, Fresh Lemony, Rich Cilantro and Robust Arugula

Shayna B's & the Pickle: Vegan, wheat-free and gluten-free baked treats

Lizzie's Curbside Cuisine: Roasted butternut squash by the quart to take home and, if you come to the market hungry, try a plate of wild mushroom ravioli with a porcini cream sauce or bowl of sausage and beef chili

Salsa Loca: Makes salsa using only fresh ingredients in small batches to ensure consistent quality and flavor

Millix Family Farm: Cookies, pies, biscuits and fudge including Pumpkin Fudge and Chocolate Fudge

Keifer's Kettle Korn: Will be popping on the spot, and will have Do-It-Yourself Kits, Holiday gift tins and chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks

Christine's Country Kitchen: Jars of pickles in all varieties and bottles of cranberry-herb vinegar

Dagmar's Desserts: Specializes in traditional Bavarian and Austrian pastries, cakes and strudels. On Sunday, you can purchase apple strudel, red wine marzipan torte, and cranberry-caramel-almond tartlets. And pastries packed in small gift bags, including: Linzer tartlets; assorted gourmet cookies (vanilla crescents, chocolate crackles, cinnamon stars, and Lebkuchen); hazelnut and almond bars, larks filled with marzipan and apricot jam, and almonds twists

Unique gifts and holiday decorations...

Bethany Homecrafts: hats, mittens and wrist warmers (some made of cashmere), Christmas stockings, felted ornaments and a flock of new owls

Sleepy Moon: holiday soaps - Maple Gingersnap, Sleigh Ride, French Quarter, and Cedar and Saffron, as well as Yuletide Soap Sampler bags decorated with organza ribbon and a wooden snowflake

Leslie Maltby: Weaves rich and earthy table runners, kitchen towels and handwoven scarves

Also at the market...

Crestland Llamas, Rich Valley Farm, Regina Malsbury, The Beading Tree, Skyspyders Pottery, Fog Hollow Studio, Handwoven Dailey, and Robert Aborn brooms.

Posted Nov. 18, 2008