Northeast Harvest takes on the Topsfield Fair!

Northeast Harvest had a large presence at the 200th Topsfield Fair this year. Northeast Harvest was able and provided a marketing campaign at the fair to instill the Buy Locals mission to Buy Local. It was an opportunity to reach thousands of fair-goers in Essex and Middlesex counties. Both Farmer George and Northeast Harvest could be seen throughout the fairgrounds.

This year we had multiple spots where we promoted our brand as well as our farms in Essex and Middlesex counties. We distributed local food guides and received amazing feedback. Local food guides were available to visitors in the Vegetable Barn as well as our Buy Local Booth in the Trade Center. Both displays provided educational information about buying local and informative about where our local food sources are.

	Rebecca Blanchette hosting an educational class teaching our youth about dairy and serving milk.

Another program Northeast Harvest had a presence in was the Education Field Trip Program. This year we put efforts towards the healthy eating class. We also were a big contributor to the milking class by providing the mechanical milking cow sponsored by the MA Dairy Promotional Board as well as hosting a milk class educating the students where milk comes from, as well as a life of a dairy cow, and some fun milking math curriculum.

Not only did we provide educational classes with school groups we also used the full 11 days to educate the the general public about dairy. We hosted a dairy question challenge this year at the fair. It was an interactive concept to engage with the public and teach them about dairy! Participants who answered the question correctly went home with a dairy promotional swag and also got to sample some of our milk from one of our local dairy farms, Dunajski Dairy Inc, in Peabody. We served over 12,000 glasses of milk to patrons at the fair. It was a successful program promoting our dairy farms. Everyone loved the milk and couldn’t wait to be able to purchase their own. The MA Dairy Promotion Board sponsored this program and it was a great success!

Farmer George, the Northeast Harvest Mascot, was also a part of the 200th Topsfield Fair. He had a presence at the Topsfield Fairgrounds giving patrons the opportunity for photo opts and to post them on our social media. He has been an instrumental part of our social media campaigns. Having Farmer George at the fair was great!

Northeast Harvest had many great programs at the Topsfield Fair promoting buying local, but we also had the MA Dept. of AG Commissioner John Lebeaux here on Opening Day to further promote our mission of Buying Local. John made a great presentation during our Opening Ceremonies applauding our farmers and promoting the importance of buying local. We were so happy to have his presence along with the new assistant AG Commissioner Ashley Sears.

Northeast Harvest took on the challenge to promote buy locals at the 2018 Topsfield Fair and we successfully accomplished our mission!