Island Finds
With the holiday season upon us, shopping is on everyone's mind, but there's no reason it can't be an exciting prospect rather than a dreaded one. Friends and family will delight in anything that helps them dream of sun-baked beaches, particularly as the national weather map changes into an ever-darker shade of blue. This year, treat your friends in cooler climates to a taste of the islands. A cornucopia of food-related gift items awaits you, and often at stockingstuffer prices!
The Cheese Nook on Sanibel is a wonderfully dangerous place for food-loving shoppers. Filled with fantastic sauces, wines, gourmet items, preserves and gifts, this engaging mercantile holds the key to an island-lovers heart and palate. With its own line of mouth-watering products, The Cheese Nook tempts with shrimp boil seasoning, Caesar salad dressing mix, vidalia onion and peach hot sauce, and other palate-pleasers, each in Sanibel Seasoning packaging. Some are small enough to include in greeting cards. Periwinkle Place, 2075 Periwinkle Way, 472-2666.
Sanibel's Unpressured Cooker has an extremely popular cake pan shaped like a lemon pectin seashell. It makes for happy bakers everywhere. And, who says Christmas cookies always have to look the same? Bring the tropics to the minds (and mouths) of cookie monsters everywhere. Choose from cookie cutters shaped like palm trees, dolphins, alligators, lighthouses, seashells and fish each for less than a dollar! Periwinkle Shopping Center, 32 Periwinkle Way, 472-2413.
Just down the road, in Tahitian Gardens Shopping Center, at Spices and Spoons, pasta aficionados will be amazed at what they'll find. Who wouldn't love a bowl of manatee-shaped pasta? You can also select from dolphin, golfing, Florida and gator shapes, but our favorite was the tri-color seashell pasta, which looks like treasures from the beach when uncooked. You'll also find rib-tickling bottles of Sting Ray Bloody Mary mix. 1993 Periwinkle Way, 472-5599.
Island Style on Captiva Island should be your first stop if someone on your list is quirky, artsy, humorous, on the edge or all of the above. Of several styles of witty dinnerware, one stands out: Wally Ware by Tom Edwards. Exclusively available at Island Style, this cutting-edge line of hand-thrown pottery sports goofy graphics and catchy phrases about local luminaries, national political figures and pop culture. Nothing is sacred; everything is funny. Chadwick Square, 472-4343.
Boca Grande's gourmet food shop, The Grapevine, is happy to deliver or ship specialty gift baskets anywhere in the country. Each is beautifully arranged and gift-wrapped. Gourmet coffee and wine connoisseurs will appreciate the great selection of both. 321 Park Avenue, 964-0614.
Pine Island remains the local agricultural mecca for exotic fruits of all types. Nolan Murrah, proprietor of the popular Blind Hog Grove, invites you to visit his grove's fruit stand, where you'll find both exotic carambola and passion fruit. The grove will happily help you ship these amazing fruits. At the intersection of Stringfellow and Pineland Road, 283-4092.
Coconut toast spreads, tropical candies, mango jelly, grapefruit-orange jelly, coconut patties and key lime cookie mix all await you at Gulf View Shops on Fort Myers Beach. Ship juicy Florida oranges and grapefruits anywhere in the U.S., Canada and Europe directly from the shop, or simply call with your credit card number shopping couldn't be easier. 2943 Estero Blvd., 463-9252.
Put a little imagination into you gift-giving this year and enjoy the holidays the island way. Happy shopping!
- compiled by Libby Boren