Boosting local agriculture: Meet Your Local Farmers event draws big crowd
What a hootenanny! The Meet Your Local Farmers event on March 29 was a rollicking good time for attendees and a big win for local agriculture. More than 1,700 people attended the event, which featured over 40 farmers from all around Cape Cod.
People flocked to the Meet your Local Farmers Event on March 29, 2025 at the Harwich Community Center. Photo by Eric Williams
The happy crowd scooped up local produce, fish, meat and handcrafted products, and folks of all ages marveled at farm animals, including Scottish Highland cattle, a horse, a pig and a Flemish Giant rabbit.
The event, co-sponsored by the Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) and the Orleans Farmers’ Market (OFM), officially began when OFM Board President Gretel Norgeot rang a cowbell.
Farm fans filed into the beautiful Harwich Community Center gym, grooving to the smooth jazz provided by Wayne Naus and the Art Ensemble of Cape Cod. They were treated to a cornucopia of conversation, splendid local food offerings and a healthy serving of optimism about the growing season to come.
Nutritious conversations
Francie Randolph, Founding Director of Sustainable CAPE, was thrilled by the turnout at Meet your Local Farmers. “It’s so much fun to see everyone,” she said. “You’re just coming out of your winter rest and suddenly, here’s everybody planting their seeds for the next season. Ideas are flowing and partnerships are happening. It’s a great event.”
Sustainable CAPE (Center for Agricultural Preservation and Education), celebrates the connection between local food and the positive effects on health, community and the environment. “Buying local food that is really nutrient dense makes an enormous difference in your cellular growth,” said Randolph. “It enables you to combat disease — it is evidence-based research. Local food is the healthiest food if it’s grown in regenerative soils.”
As shoppers filled recyclable bags with farm-grown goodies, Randolph also noted the economic boost of buying local. “Here you are, putting your dollars into the local economy,” she said. “They recirculate in the local economy — everybody wins.”
‘Good reward for farmers’
Meanwhile, over at the Cape Cod Pickle Company table, cucumbers were selling like hotcakes. “Today has been fantastic, better than expected,” said co-owner Chris Kaczmarek. “It’s a really good hometown feel we’re creating here.”
Kaczmarek grew up making pickles with his grandmother, and her tried and true recipes have been key to the success of the Cape Cod Pickle Company. High quality ingredients are also vital. “Fresh dill, fresh garlic, fresh cucumbers, not heat treated,” he said. “Right off the vine into the brine.”
With her cowbell duties done for the day, OFM Board President Gretel Norgeot took a break in the action to reflect on the big turnout and exuberant mood of the event. “It has been awesome and it’s a good reward for farmers,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize that we really do have agriculture on Cape Cod. This helps to reinforce that, and to show them that even in the offseason we have product.”
Farming offers challenges and benefits
Victoria Pecoraro from the Wellfleet Chick Koop farm had plenty of egg-shaped product for sale. “It’s really fun to be here today,” she said. “It’s great exposure. I get to meet new people and see farmers that I don’t get to see all the time.”
Pecoraro was asked what it’s like to be a farmer on Cape Cod. “It’s not easy. It’s expensive, and it’s really hard to get help,” she said. “But I love what I do. I’m fortunate enough to have a landscaping business that sustains my farm and allows me to do it.”
She thinks that local agriculture on Cape Cod is on the upswing. “It is growing — people are buying land and therefore they can grow their business,” said Pecoraro. “We’ve got some new farms now. It is exciting, and diversity of products is the way to go.”
For Pecoraro, farming also brings Zen-like rewards. Her chicken adventure began when her ninth-grade son convinced her to buy a dozen cluckers. “He lost interest rather quickly, but I just fell in love with the birds,” she recalled. “”I would get out of work after a full day of landscaping. I would squat down and they would gather around and it was like a decompression.”
As the event wound down, it was nice to think of all the good local food that would be gracing tables around the Cape. Making new friends, learning about local agriculture and building community can be delicious!
The Harwich Conservation Trust would like to thank the wonderful staff at the Harwich Community Center, for providing a great space. And we’d like to extend a heartfelt “thanks” to volunteers from Monomoy Regional High School, AmeriCorps and the Harwich Conservation Trust who helped set up and break down the event.
We’ll put away the cowbell for now, but we’re already working on ideas to keep Meet Your Local Farmers growing. See you next year!
Vendors
204 Market Days | Accent Socks of Cape Cod | ACK Gioia | Bayside Equestrian Rescue | Cape Abilities Farm | Cape Cod Cranberry | Cape Cod Cranberry Harvest | Cape Cod Lavender Farm | Cape Cod Pickle | Chatham Harvesters | Confetti Waffles | Farmhouse Meats | Farming Falmouth | Garden Club of Harwich | Green Briar Nature Center | Green Road Refill | Hall’s Cape Cod Cranberries | Hammersmith Farms | Harwich Health Department | Hidden Acres Farm | Hillside Poultry Farm | In the Mix | Lake Farm Gardens | Love Farms | Lower Cape TV | Master Gardeners, Barnstable County Extension Service | Nauset Green Club | Nauset Middle School Greenhouse | Orleans Farmers Market | Phoenix Organic Farm | Pleasant Lake Farm | Poor Boy Fisheries | Resilient Roots | Roots & Rhythms | Seapuit Farms | Seawind Meadows | Sustainable Cape | Taylor-Bray Farm | Three Fins Coffee Roasters | Wellfleet Chick Koop | Oak Tree Farm
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Photos by Gerry Beetham:
