Closing The Road Show

Last week, Eliot and I brought the "traveling road show" to a grand total of 5 different farmer's markets. We began in Rye then traveled to Portsmouth, Durham, Dover, and Exeter.  At each market we gave out information on the NH Fresh & Local campaign and a survey to determine the demand for fresh fish at farmer's markets.  The overall experience was great, and the communities really seem to want to help the fishing industry by buying local seafood.  The majority of people who took the time to speak with us said they would want to buy fish from the farmer's market.        

Portsmouth was the largest of the markets we attended, and the community was very eager to be involved.  Durham, and Dover were more along the lines of Rye in that the markets were smaller, and less crowded.  Ending with the Exeter market was great, as the market was a little larger than Rye, Durham and Dover but still had a positive atmosphere and wide variety of people.  

Conversing at the Portsmouth market.  

It was interesting to see how each market differed slightly from the next.  We encountered a wide variety of people ranging from those who knew all about the campaign to those who were not interested in seeing a booth at the market with nothing to sell.   This became difficult and at times discouraging, but the positives outweighed the negatives by a long shot.  I'm happy to be able to say that at each market, there was at least one person who said, "Keep doing what you're doing! This is a great cause!".

We've already started seeing some positive outcomes from this traveling road show.  One of which originated in the Durham farmer's market.  At the market, there was a booth positioned next to Eliot and I for Cedar Point Shellfish, selling oysters farmed in the Great Bay.  The organization is run by a family and the response to their set up was extremely positive.  There were always shoppers surrounding the booth asking the family questions and the customers were all smiles when they walked away with fresh, local oysters! We thought it was a great coincidence to have our booths placed next to each other, one to sell local oysters and on to promote local seafood and we were relieved to have a group near by that was also new to the farmer's market scene. We really enjoyed sharing this experience with Cedar Point Shellfish, and now NH Fresh & Local will be partnering with Cedar Point Shellfish to continue to promote buying fresh, local seafood!  

Set up next to Cedar Point Shellfish- how perfect!

Cedar Point Shellfish had a successful first market, keep it up!