New Hampshire’s fair circuit kicked off in Stratham last week, as did the season for fair food.
I’m usually content to stand on the customer’s side of the counter and gratefully receive an overly large, homemade doughnut, some sweet potato fries or a cup of fresh-squeezed lemonade. But I do get curious about the vendors, too.
I always wonder what motivates people to plop themselves on a hot fairground and stand sweating it out over a fry-a-lator all day. What keeps them on the move from a park one week to an empty field the next?
All of that, too, for a bunch of hungry people like me.
Bob Bell and his 29-year-old son, Matt, were good people to ask. They cart their North Conway-based Cloud Nine Delights kettle corn to a bunch of different New England fairs and events, and they’ve kept it up for 16 years.
Bell, who is a glass-blower by trade, said he got his start by noticing that there was no popcorn for sale at all the fairs and shows at which he sold his blown-glass.
“There’s only two things the body craves in food – sweet and salt,” said Bell. “We put them both in and got a winner.”
He made his own, massive popping machine – using a canoe paddle to stir the kernels – and went through almost 30 kettle corn recipes before finding his best-seller.
With Bell’s new business came a commitment to a certain lifestyle.
“My kids grew up in the back of the tent,” Bell said.
He added that he’s had customers remark how special that is. And, Bell added, “It made this a little special for me.”
His grown son, Matt, continues to make popcorn with him. And the pair get to witness other families spending time together. At the Stratham Fair last week, Bell gave Jack Degan, 4, of Milton a high-five after Degan bought
a bag of kettle corn for himself, his mom and his sister.
Most of the food stands at the Stratham Fair had an emphasis on family.
Just past Cloud Nine Delights’ tent was Boogalow’s, a Seabrook-based Jamaican food truck.
Couple Dave and Sharee Bridgeo were busy making jerk chicken while their three boys bustled around them. Behind them, another food truck, Hot Potato, housed brothers Dave and Mike Ayotte, who were four months in to their new French fries-based business.
A more seasoned food stand run by Laurie Safran obviously had family of the “not blood-related kind.” After 30 years running Lily Bell’s Ice Cream Barn, Safran said she does all of the fair circuit. In Stratham last week, she was familiar with the various fair workers who came for a cool treat.
“We live it everyday,” Safran said.
Sharing a meal with a community family is how the Stratham Fair got its start. In its 49th year, all the proceeds go to the Stratham Volunteer Fire Department, and for those 49 years, the department has put on a chicken barbeque for everyone to attend.
Department association president Dan Crow said his family has been the one putting on the meal itself, though the chicken, in particular, has been made famous by an old neighbor.
“It’s made with a secret sauce,” Crow said. “It’s made by the little old lady down the street.” He added that though she has since passed, “I still rely on the family of the little old lady down the street.”
In addition to the chicken barbecue, volunteers run two food shacks at the fairground every year. Stratham volunteer firefighter Mike Perry was in charge of the “big mac shack” – the chicken, fingers, hot dogs, burgers and fries shack – and he had about 20 family members and friends to help.
“This is a family reunion every year,” Perry said. “All of my friends and all of my family, we get together.”
He added that kids start volunteering and keep returning throughout the years.
“They start at sodas and if you’re lucky enough to stay long enough, you grill,” Perry said.
Though people will have to wait for 2017 to taste the Stratham Fair’s secret sauce barbecue chicken or visit the “big mac shack,” there are plenty of more opportunities to catch fair food with the family. These are the local upcoming fairs this summer and fall:
Hopkinton State Fair from Sept. 2 – 5
Deerfield Fair from Sept. 29 – Oct. 2
Sandwich Fair from Oct. 8 – 10
(Elodie Reed can be reached at 369-3306, ereed@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @elodie_reed.)