{"id":1515,"date":"2011-09-01T10:07:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T14:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=1515"},"modified":"2024-07-09T12:19:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T16:19:58","slug":"local-catch-start-your-appetites-fall-for-food-fun-and-festivities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/local-catch-start-your-appetites-fall-for-food-fun-and-festivities\/","title":{"rendered":"LOCAL CATCH: Start Your Appetites: Fall for Food, Fun and Festivities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
‘Tis the season. The time for fresh local seafood, fun rides and fabulous bands has returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, the North Carolina Seafood Festival will continue its tradition started in 1987, of feeding and entertaining crowds along Morehead City’s waterfront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have to come up with something every year to keep everyone coming back,” says Stephanie McIntyre, festival director. McIntyre is raising the stakes because the event is celebrating its 25th year. Every year, a planning committee devises “fun little ‘tweaky’ things” to keep the experience fresh for attendees \u2014 and to keep people guessing about what is in store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, McIntyre reveals that this year, SasSea, the Seafood Festival’s mascot, will have a cake to celebrate her 25th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People come for seafood, McIntyre notes, so food vendors and rides will be open on Friday afternoon, Sept. 30. In subsequent years, she hopes to have the festival going full force for three whole days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The festival director has a few more surprises up her sleeve, including the yacht Seafair. McIntyre calls the vessel “an art gallery on the water.” For a fee, visitors can board the luxury craft to peruse its art galleries or eat and drink at its several on-board restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look for booths flying flags of the local catch progams, indicating that they are selling local seafood. Barry Nash, North Carolina Sea Grant seafood technology and marketing specialist, is working to bring even more North Carolina seafood to the festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He anticipates more vendors will purchase and use seafood from local catch programs \u2014 Carteret Catch, Brunswick Catch, Ocracoke Fresh and Outer Banks Catch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The popular Cooking with the Chefs program is back with something familiar and something new. The events again will be held in the Education Tent that also will house booths for North Carolina Sea Grant, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, local catch groups and other organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They will offer seafood- and coastal-related materials to festivalgoers. Sea Grant is an educational sponsor of that tent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nash notes that a 2010 survey of Cooking with the Chefs attendees showed that 72 percent believed the chef demonstrations, coupled with the educational exhibits, helped them learn to identify local seafood at retail markets and to cook restaurant-style meals themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Cooking with the Chefs merges entertainment and education to tell the public when local seafood is seasonally available, where to purchase it along the coast and how to prepare it at home,” Nash says. “Consumers definitely value the freshness, taste and quality of local seafood and the commercial fishermen who provide it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday, festivalgoers will be able to watch North Carolina chefs cook local and seasonal seafood. Guest chefs hail from Durham, Raleigh and Wilmington, as well as from along the North Carolina coast. All the local catch programs will be represented in the cooking demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n