Interest rising for Maryland’s Best buyer-grower event

By MICHEL ELBEN
Staff Reporter

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — This year, the Maryland’s Best Buyer-Grower mingle turned into a trade show and was moved to the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Football Stadium “N” room to accommodate the more than 400 registered participants.
The show has really blossomed since 2003, when MDA initially elected to bring 30 vegetable growers together to meet with local grocers.
Now “the meeting is to connect local growers and producers with regional retail and wholesale buyers one-on-one,” said Mark Powell, chief of marketing and agricultural development for the Maryland Department of Agriculture at the show on Jan. 24, adding that the event has “grown diversified, both in numbers and in breadth.”
“We love this event,” said Barbara Maniscalco of Chesapeake Greenhouse, LLC in Sudlersville, Md. “It saves us a lot of time and energy.”
The Maniscalcos sell their greens to restaurants and grocery chains.
“We consider the trade show a ‘one-stop shop’ for buyers,” Maniscalco said. “It’s a good time of year for everyone because it’s just a little slower.”
The Maniscalcos have a half-acre greenhouse where they grow herbs, microgreens and 10 varieties of hydroponic lettuce.
“We’ve met a lot of chefs and institutions that have shown interest in our products, ” she said.
Just down the isle, plush toy goats and the smell of grilled Gouda brought buyers to Alice Orzechowski’s station for Caprikorn Farms.
“We’re giving away samples of our Gouda goat milk cheese,” Orzechowski said, who also passed out mini-cheese melts to demonstrate the various ways in which her cheese could be prepared.
Caprikorn Farms, in Gapland, Md., is the home of Orzechowski’s award winning Saaen dairy goats. It is also home to “Kids Love Goat Milk Artisan Cheeses.”
Seven goat cheeses are available in small batches but the fresh Chévre is only available at the farmer’s market locations and “often sell out,” she said.
Dr. Richard Uva, owner of Seaberry Farm in Federalsburg, Md., said the trade show had connected him with companies of every size.
“I’ve found opportunities to market my flowers as well as my fruit, it’s been a great experience so far,” he said.
Uva said he specializes in wholesale flowers and is new to the wholesale fruit market.
Uva studied the native beach plum in 1997 at Cornell University, and developed a species for a commercial crop. The shrub can be used for dune stabilization, landscape and other conservation programs.
Uva and his wife Wenfei harvest beach plum on a four-acre orchard. In addition to fresh and frozen fruit — like peaches, persimmons, squash and cantaloupes, they also make homemade beach plum jam, jellies and other preserve products.
Seaberry Farm’s flowers can currently be found for retail in the Market House at Easton Market Square in Easton, Md. Their beach plums have been sold to wineries around the region.
Shane Hughes, of Liberty Delight Farms in Reisterstown, Md.,  raises Simmental and Angus beef cattle on over 65-acres of pasture. Hughes was busy spending the day talking to farm-to-school marketing agents, farmer markets’ representatives and other members of the food industry about his all-natural beef. Although the farm is not certified organic, Hughes supports local food systems and good stewardship of the land, “through practices like composting,” said Keri, marketing representative from Liberty Delight Farms.
“Clearly, we’re having a wonderful show,” she said.