State has popular farmers market vendors
Catherine Hu has led marketing initiatives on the global stage for Pepperidge Farm Goldfish and Hershey’s Kisses, but when it came time to starting up her own food business, Hu brought a bit of world cuisine back to her corner of Connecticut. Specifically, she brought it to a farmers market table not far from where she lives in the southwesternmost corner of the state, for neighbors wanting to try something new off the beaten culinary path.
Mama Hu’s Sushi Bake is expanding in its second year, branching out from an initial season at the New Canaan Farmers Market, the Georgetown Farmers Market and the Rowayton Farmers Market. This year, Mama Hu’s will be at the Greenwich
Farmers Market and the Nichols Farmers Market in Trumbull, and possibly down the road at the Westport Farmers Market if Mama Hu’s makes the cut.
If among the more singular dishes on the Connecticut farmers market circuit — sushi fixings and flavorings on a bed of rice to pop from the freezer into the oven — Mama Hu’s Sushi Bake is just one booth in a crowd of 1,100 vendors to appear at 100-plus summer farmers markets in Connecticut. Those vendors and farmers markets date back to the start of last year’s season as tracked by CT Insider via online lists and social media postings.
Factoring in vendors that attend multiple summer farmers markets, Connecticut households have access to at least 1,800 farmers market stands statewide at varying points in the season, the CT Insider analysis shows, with not all of them on hand every single week. The real number is likely even higher, with farmers markets having varying levels of diligence in posting participating vendors in any given week.
‘First thing that came to mind’
Hu is among the newer arrivals, having discovered the sushi bake concept during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to keep a dish readily at hand that evokes the sushi rolls she and her daughter love. They began experimenting with recipes, and with her extensive experience in consumer packaged goods Hu saw the potential to create a sushi bake brand in Connecticut. She decided to test the concept at the New Canaan Farmers Market and got a welcome