Phoenix chef shares how to craft a Thanksgiving feast from the farmers market

Jason Dwight doesn’t often stroll through the Uptown Farmers Market. Helming an organic farm-to-table restaurant with his wife, Catherine, and raising three kids together doesn’t give the chef much free time. 

But on a crisp, sunny fall morning, Persepshen‘s co-owner stands with his 4-year-old in the parking lot of the North Phoenix Baptist Church, where the market takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He surveys the rows of pointed white tents that sprawl across the asphalt, filled with local vendors.

Before the Dwights opened their midtown brick-and-mortar in 2019, Persepshen got its start at Uptown. This fall, he took Phoenix New Times back to where it all began to share tips for home cooks hoping to incorporate Arizona ingredients into their Thanksgiving recipes.

Local, organic and sustainable are buzzwords at many restaurants. The Dwights aggressively adhere to those principles at Persepshen. 

“It only made sense for it to be the same ethos we live,” Dwight says.

That means cooking almost exclusively with ingredients sourced from more than 35 Arizona farmers and ranchers. Anything else they bring into the kitchen is organic. The chef butchers whole animals and makes everything, down to condiments, in-house. The menu changes weekly based on what’s in season. 

“We’re homers, not just because it’s cool or trendy, but because we understand what Arizona is founded on,” he says.

Dwight concedes his family has “gone down the rabbit hole” of this lifestyle. Lately, he’s found that more folks are curious about what’s in their food and incorporating local ingredients. Thanksgiving is a great time to start.

The market is just getting underway. The electric twangs of “Wednesday Music Man” and guitarist John Boghossian drift down the rows filled with vendors hawking pastries, pasta, produce, colorful flowers and knick-knacks. Shoppers mill by with swollen tote bags, gazing into each stall.

Dwight stands, taking in all the activity. He wears his hair pulled back underneath a well-worn Patagonia trucker hat. Encircling his collared shirt is a kukui nut necklace that a Hawaiian customer gave him a few years back. He carries a glass jar, which will get filled with cold brew from the Beal Beans booth, in one hand. His 4-year-old daughter Daisy grips onto his other.

“It’s sensory overload,” Dwight says. “Look at all the stuff, look at all the people and things.”

The chef showed us how to shop local for Thanksgiving without getting overwhelmed. Here’s what we learned during our walk through the market.

Start with a plan, but stay flexible

Dwight suggests outlining your Thanksgiving menu, hitting on the main protein, sides, bread and other dishes you want on your table. At the market, head to the stands that have those ingredients, starting with produce. 

The chef strolls over to TJ Farms, where we find knobby purple potatoes, twee veritaged Fairy Tale eggplant, hefty bags of mixed greens, long leeks and fat watermelon radishes. Daisy hangs at Dwight’s hip, inspecting each item with him.

“Not all the stuff that’s on our traditional Thanksgiving table is in season come Thanksgiving, so sometimes with that, we have to pivot a little bit,” he says. “As much as we love green bean casserole, green beans aren’t ready yet, so let’s hold off and let’s wait ’til the right season to enjoy green beans. And, we shouldn’t have to cover them with canned cream of mushroom soup and canned crispy onions to make them taste good. They should taste good on their own.”

With green beans out of season by about a month, the chef points out some alternatives. He may snag some squash, sunchokes or sweet potatoes to use in a casserole instead. 

Thanksgiving plates are often piled high with starchy beige foods. Dwight encourages home cooks to grab winter greens that are in season, from spring mix for a fresh salad to curly kale that can be crisped in the oven and served as a pre-dinner snack or used as a crunchy topper for a casserole or mash.

“We’re just so confused about the flavor of vegetables, why they’re always so bland, because they’re picked so early, because they need to transport them across the country,” he says. “So here, when we pick them, when they’re ripe today, that’s when it’s going to taste the best.”

Don’t be shy about asking questions

The chef points out that some farms will supplement their stands with items grown by others. To get the freshest items, he suggests chatting with the vendor.

“I always like to ask, ‘What are you growing? What’s coming from your farm?’” he says. 

That’s not just to support what’s local, he notes. 

“It’s about getting the most nutrient density out of the vegetable, but also the most flavor,” he says. “Because it’s picked when it’s supposed to be picked. It’s grown the way it’s supposed to be grown. It’s ripe and ready.”

Shoppers politely navigate around our unhurried browsing. They grab bunches of broccoli and heads of cabbage, cradling items until their arms overflow or nestling them into colorful plastic baskets.

Dwight sees bags of green beans and raises his eyebrows. The bags are stacked near the cashier stand, and he leans over to them to ask one of the cashiers where those and the rest of the produce come from. The green beans were raised in Duncan, Arizona, near the New Mexico border, and other crops come from Waddell. He doesn’t want shoppers to feel embarrassed about asking questions.

“The worst you can do is offend somebody,” he says. “But are they really going to be offended if they’re doing the work? They’re going to be proud to share that information.” 

Start with small swaps

Diving headfirst into creating a fully farm-fresh feast is a daunting task. But there are plenty of small ways to start, the chef says, noting that’s how his family got started. Try incorporating pomegranates and citrus or local butter mixed with fresh herbs.

“Finding a way to just incorporate some of these small things into our daily habits is going to make a huge impact,” he says. 

He also understands that budgets are a consideration, but pushes back on the notion that shopping at a farmers’ market is more expensive. While strolling down an aisle of the market, he uses the bags of fresh leafy greens, bunches of herbs and mounds of cauliflower as examples.

“When you’re buying produce that’s in season, it’s going to be just as affordable, if not cheaper, than your grocery store,” he says, noting he saw whole cauliflower heads for $5. “Right now, at the grocery store, they’re $4 a pound. Your average head of cauliflower is going to be two, two-and-a-half pounds, especially that size. You’re looking at a $10, $11 head of cauliflower.”

For folks who are ready to go fully local, stop by one of the local ranch stalls. Be warned, you’re likely too late to reserve a local turkey. If you’re ready to buck tradition, a vendor like JH Grass Fed can set you up with a brisket, leg of lamb or whole chicken.

Keep it simple

A bounty of fresh produce doesn’t need much to sing on a plate. Dwight is a font of quick, easy ideas that he spouts off while ambling through the market.

Top your turkey with fried herbs or a garlic-infused oil. Warm oil on the stove, then add herbs. Pull them out once they’re crisp, then add cloves of garlic. Let them cook until golden, then set the oil aside to cool. 

Roast a colorful mix of rutabagas, turnips, potatoes and sunchokes with some local olive oil and salt. Finish them with a squeeze of citrus and a handful of chopped herbs or roasted garlic. It’s the kind of thing you can do ahead of time and then reheat in the oven while your turkey rests, Dwight says. 

Pulse up some pomegranate arils, citrus segments and ginger for a sweet-tangy relish. His kids like to make a “whatever salad,” as in, whatever they put in their bowl becomes their salad. That could be tender or leafy greens, roasted vegetables, sliced radishes or whatever catches your eye at the market.

Clamshell packages of heirloom grape tomatoes and a basket stuffed with “fantastic”-looking fennel draw Dwight to another stand. The chef would shave pieces into a salad for added crunch or roast it with other root veg to coax out fennel’s sweetness. The dressing can be as simple as be oil and citrus. A vendor at the market’s dairy booth recommends using local kefir to make a creamy ranch dressing.

For dessert, Dwight suggests picking up squash and slowly roasting it in the oven to create your own pie puree. Or, go ultra-simple by scouting out fresh fruit and a bottle of heavy cream. Whip the cream with a sprinkle of sugar and salt. Plate your fruit with a slice of sweet bread and a healthy dollop of fluffy goodness.

“Sometimes we try to overdo stuff and add too many components or too many things,” he says. “Sometimes just simple is more.”

There’s nothing wrong with pushing the ‘easy button’

Dwight gets that not everyone wants to spend their whole Thanksgiving in front of the stove. If you never got into sourdough during the pandemic or are feeling strapped for time to make a pie, Dwight says it’s OK to hit what he calls the “easy button.” 

Valley bakeries such as Noble Bread and Proof Bread are at Uptown and most farmers markets around town; we run into one of their staff while browsing tomatoes. These bakeries also have brick-and-mortar stores where customers can find large country loaves and plump dinner rolls. Many restaurants and dessert shops, including Persepshen, sell scratch-made pies.

“Especially now for Thanksgiving, there’s going to be all kinds of options and flavors,” he says, pausing among the market tents.

While the Dwights’ lives revolve around food, he understands that’s not the same for everyone. He also doesn’t want his passion to be mistaken as a “corporate boogeyman,” he says before lifting Daisy into his arms.

“Over 35 years, I’ve been professionally cooking, and I’m still trying to figure out some stuff, so I get it and I’m not attacking anyone for the choices they make,” he says. “My goal is to help change people’s perception of how to eat.”

When Dwight’s family gets together for the holidays, their feast will lean traditional, with a heritage turkey at the centerpiece. The chef’s aim with Thanksgiving, and any meal, is for people to feel up for doing something afterwards. That could mean challenging their cousins to a game of Cornhole, seeing who can score during touch football or catching up with your aunt instead of passing out on the couch.

“Food should nourish us, not deteriorate us,” he says. “We shouldn’t be ready for a nap after Thanksgiving dinner. That’s not the way it should be.”