SEQUIM — Nature Mart has no traditional vendors this year.
What it does have is natural art, hot soup, apple cider and pies right out of nearby ovens.
Saturday’s event also features big-leaf maple wreaths, decoupaged goose eggs and other goods — and it’s unusual among seasonal bazaars, said organizer Julie Jackson.
It’s a market, yes, but those offering their wares don’t take home the revenue.
Instead, they contribute it to Nature Mart’s venue, the Dungeness River Audubon Center.
The mart will be open in and around the center at Railroad Bridge Park, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Saturday.
Admission and hot cider are free, while cups of Sunshine Cafe pumpkin ginger and tomato pesto soups, with Pane D’Amore rolls, will be available for purchase from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Members of this wonderful network of river center ‘friends’ have been making handcrafted items all year, and they donate them for sale at Nature Mart,” Jackson explained.
Hands-on activities
In addition to shopping for ready-made gifts, visitors to the center can sit down with crafters and learn to fashion their own table centerpieces, bird treats and other natural decorations.
Tuttie Peetz of Sequim is the expert wreath-maker who will show others how to work with huge maple leaves, flowers and forest greenery.
The bigleaf maple wreaths are among her favorites because, Peetz said, they start out pretty and then turn more golden by the day.
Pie sale
For those hoping to treat Thanksgiving guests to a pie, Nature Mart contributor Shirley Anderson — and friends she’s recruited — will lay out the apple, pumpkin and pecan varieties.
Anderson learned from last year’s Nature Mart, when the appetite for pie was more than she could satisfy.
“We could have sold 20 pies last year if we had had them,” she said.
This fifth annual Nature Mart will have an extensive bake sale on the river center porch.
It will also have canopies, propane heaters and the hot cider to keep cold and precipitation at bay, while hot cocoa, coffee and tea will be on tap for a donation.
Anderson, for her part, has also been working with eggs.
She blows and then decoupages duck, goose and chicken eggs, again provided by friends, to create Christmas tree ornaments.
Other gifts to be part of Nature Mart: fingerless gloves knitted by Joan Craft, organic pet treats baked by Melissa Coughlin and silk scarves and purses Mary Mira makes with vintage kimonos from Japan.
Pose with a bear
Also Saturday at the river center, visitors can come face to face with a real, albeit stuffed, bear.
The beast is part of the center’s collection of taxidermy mammals and birds and will be available for photos.
“If you’ve ever wanted to be safely up close and personal with a bear, this is your chance,” said Gretha Davis, Nature Mart’s co-chairwoman along with Anderson.
Davis will be taking festive pictures of shoppers with the bear and with another stuffed river center resident, Rocky Raccoon, in the center’s courtyard.
And since Nature Mart takes place just before Thanksgiving, the big brown bear will be the only bulky symbol sitting for photos.
“It’s too early for Santa,” Anderson said.
Yet another aspect of Nature Mart’s fundraising will come in a whiskey barrel.
The barrel will be filled with gifts for birds and bird lovers, including four kinds of feeders, birdseed, a shepherd’s hook for hanging feeders and other items, altogether valued at $300.
Raffle tickets for the whole package will be on sale throughout Saturday.
Proceeds from it and the rest of the day’s sales will benefit the river center’s educational activities for children and adults.
Nature Mart, Peetz added, is an opportunity to enjoy the gifts of nature and the warm atmosphere of the river center.
“I think [the center] is the jewel of Sequim,” she said.
For information about the Dungeness River Audubon Center and Railroad Bridge Park, phone 360-681-4076 or visit www.DungenessRiverCenter.org.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
