February 22, 2014, at the Fernandina Beach Market Place farmers’ market will bring a wide variety of true farmers’ market selections including sweet honey, syrup and succulents. There will also be seasonable fruits and vegetables, fresh baked breads and pastries, healthy nuts, clean quinoa, organic dog treats, handmade soaps, flavorful jams and jellies, old fashioned pickles, cookies and chow chows… and so much more.

Cross Creek Honey has been bringing the sweet nectar of nature to the market every single Saturday including a wide variety of flavors. Orange Blossom honey is sweet, with light citrus notes and is blonde in color. Tupelo, is a specialty from the Florida panhandle, with a light woodsy note. Gallberry is a mild honey, with just a hint of berries in its flavor. Palmetto is a rich, full flavor honey in a light red amber. Wildflower is complex to describe with its miscellaneous floral sources, and the Florida Everglades is a full flavor, molasses-like honey and very dark in color.

Seven Trees Nursery will be a very popular vendor this spring as many of us are replacing several varieties of plants, including succulents, lost to winter’s unseasonably cold temperatures here in the Sunshine State. Look for spring blooming annuals, small citrus plants, plenty of cacti and of course those hardy succulents they are known for. My favorites include Bromeliads, which love my front porch full of bright, indirect light and our Florida humidity. The carnivorous Pitcher Plants that entice unsuspecting insects into the fluid found in their goblet shaped flowers – just to be devoured, and I also love the Drunkard’s Dream, or a Beer-bottle cactus. This is a succulent that puts out small, yellow, beer bottle shaped blooms along the stem’s tips that cascade like a waterfall when placed in a hanging basket.

Steephill Vermont Maple syrup products return to the farmers market in downtown, historic Fernandina with Grade A Fancy, Medium Amber and Dark Amber syrup. They will also have Grade B Dark syrup and fresh Maple creame. Maple syrup is not just about pancakes! Use as a tasty glaze on baked salmon, sweet potatoes and yams. Maple syrup can also be added to barbeque glaze for pork or beef ribs. This is 100 pure syrup, with no artificial additives of any kind.

Local Saxophone Artist Gabriel Arnold will be blowing some great tunes, and Lois Jost will be available to answer your questions about the upcoming Home and Patio Show for Realtors, being held on March 3rd, in Fernandina Beach.