Seacoast Eat Local

The Stratham Heritage Commission is sponsoring an evening featuring long-time farmers in the area — come hear about the part agriculture has played in Stratham’s history, with Lorraine Stuart Merrill, the NH Commissioner of Agriculture and Stratham dairy farmer, leading the panel:

 

Salute to Stratham’s Agricultural Heritage

Community Meeting Room, Stratham Fire Station

Portsmouth Ave, Stratham, NH

Friday, February 11, 7 p.m.

 

Veteran farmers and long-time residents will be featured at a salute to Stratham’s agricultural heritage on Friday, February 11, at 7 PM in the Community Meeting Room of the Stratham Fire Station, Winnicutt Rd. at Portsmouth Ave. Lorraine Stuart Merrill, NH Commissioner of Agriculture and Stratham dairy farmer, will lead this rare opportunity to hear about the resourceful farmers, colorful characters and prominent landowners who made Stratham a leading agricultural town.

 

A panel of speakers, including Doug Scamman, Georgiana Law and Cameron Sewall, represent both rich experience of farming themselves and extensive family connections to Stratham’s agrarian past. The Heritage Commission, organizer of the event, encourages all those with stories to tell about Stratham farms to attend and participate. “There are plenty of us newer to Stratham,” adds commission member Rebecca Mitchell, “who are curious about how the landscape and culture of the town was shaped by agriculture. We welcome anyone interested in local history or the history of farming in the seacoast area to attend.”

 

The large market gardens, nurseries, orchards, poultry farms, and cattle farms may have disappeared, but agricultural opportunities remain in Stratham. Hundreds of acres of highly productive farmland have been permanently conserved for future Stratham farmers, and the town is home to many successful fruit, vegetable, and small-scale specialty farms, as well as the large-scale Stuart Farm dairy operation. Heritage Commission member Nathan Merrill, a young farmer himself, adds “The number of farms in New Hampshire is actually growing, so we invite the public to come hear about Stratham’s agricultural past, present and future.”

 

For more information: Rebecca Mitchell, strathamheritage@live.com, (603) 778-7979.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 28th, 2011 at 11:08 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.