Spring Fair fun!

The Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches held its annual Spring Fair, featuring multiple local businesses, on Sunday, June 11.

“[The fair is] an opportunity to bring people into town to visit our local shops,” said Gerry Sapanaro, Chamber of Commerce member and Spring Fair chairperson.

Local businesses and organizations lined up on both sides of Main Street Sunday morning and constructed stalls to showcase their wares.  Vendors sold homemade products and offered their services from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.  The Spring Fair aims to increase public awareness of neighborhood businesses and programs.

“The vendors love our town and our community,” Chamber of Commerce president Jackie Osborne said.

The Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches has held the Spring Fair every year for the past 30 years.  Chamber members send flyers encouraging local businesses to reserve spaces for the event.  The Chamber of Commerce also hosts raffles and distributes pamphlets recruiting townspeople to its cause during the fair itself.

“This board has been really busy with organizing different raffles and using social media to advertise our businesses,” Osborne said.

One of the businesses present at this year’s fair was the Night Owl Book Shop.  The business features a “blind date with a book” program, where customers receive a random book without being informed of its title or contents beforehand.

“I’m a book lover, and I had so many books, I just wanted to share them,” owner Karen Daly said.

Another enterprise participating in the fair was M_D_Crochet, a store selling handmade crochet products.  The two owners of the store weave crochet plushes and offer them for sale to the general public.  According to one of the owners, Sarah Graf, mushroom-shaped “fidget toys,” designed to help alleviate stress, are a bestseller.

“We do whatever patterns we think will interest us the most,” Graf said.

Hoshyla Farms, a Manorville farm specializing in lavender, participated in the fair as well.  The company is a “fifth-generation family farm” that turns the lavender plant into a variety of products.  Fair attendees were invited to see the farm’s range of products.

“We have soaps, we have body cream, we make candles and simple syrup,” vendor Nicole Asendorf said.

Another business showcasing its wares at the Spring Fair was Peppered Fern, a gourmet and gluten-free vegan nut- and seed-butter company.  Peppered Fern started three years ago and originated as a women-owned company. The business specializes in “unusual” nut-butter flavors that it believes are not normally offered at most food stores.

“We have cashew-pecan, matcha-cacao, chocolate hazelnut, and simply hazelnut [flavors],” owner Danielle Johnson said.

Twin Stills Distillery also offered its products to fair attendees. Drinks included vodka, caramel vodka, maple-pecan moonshine, and strawberry and apple pie-flavored liquor. 

Cloud Candles, a luxury candle company, sold its products at another stall.  Al Ozcan had only operated the business for six months by the time the Spring Fair was held.

“We’re just one brand, and we’re just selling candles,” Ozcan said.  “This is our first time here, or at any fair.”

Not every vendor at the Spring Fair was a local business selling products.  The Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library operated a booth highlighting the library’s programs.  The library handed out flyers advertising the Smith Point Bridge 5K Run for Literacy, a charity marathon planned for Sept. 9 that will raise money for literacy and citizenship programs and the William Floyd High School Senior Scholarship Fund.

The Center Moriches Fire Department held its own fundraiser during the fair.  The company offered homemade strawberry shortcake to hungry attendees and turned part of its headquarters into a dining area. The money raised from strawberry shortcake sales went to the fire department’s programs.

“[The money] goes to Company One, who use it for whatever the taxpayers want them to [use it for],” fireman Glenn Madigan said.

The Chamber of Commerce of the Moriches was very optimistic about this year’s Spring Fair.  The chamber will continue to host the Spring Fair next year, and it hopes that many of this year’s vendors will return for the next iteration of the event.

“We have a very effective fair,” Sapanaro said.