Summer’s bounty abounds at the Trenton Farmers Market
By:Pat Tanner
Ask many of the farmers at the Trenton Farmers Market how many years their farm has been coming and the most common response will be "about 50 years."
And those are only the ones who have been trucking their produce to the "new" Spruce Street location on the Lawrence-Trenton border. The true old-timers will talk about how their fathers and grandfathers first set up stands at the market’s original location early in the 20th century down near the river along what is now Route 29.
The Trenton institution is one of only three year-round farmers markets in the state and, as an enterprise of the Trenton Market Growers Co-op Association, is a traditional, no frills market.
The 12 or so farms from Central and South Jersey that come together six days a week in all but the coldest months – when the market is open Thursday through Saturday only – represent, for the most part, conventional New Jersey truck farming at its finest. Little in the way of trendy, organic or heirloom can be found here. What pass as the "latest" are such things as grape tomatoes, white peaches and Yukon gold potatoes.
The market’s loyal patrons wouldn’t have it any other way, especially if it meant losing the chance to buy from, chat with, and get tips from old-time farming families from the Hightstown area like the Esteneses of Sandy Acres Farm or Mary Jane Docherty of Cedarville Farms.
Just as I was eyeing Ms. Docherty’s "gourmet" potatoes – freshly dug when they are about the size of large marbles – she told me how her dad considered them fit only for pigs. He would cook them up on the stove in the barn and feed them to his porkers.
Now she is amused to get $3 a tray. The potatoes were sitting alongside the biggest, most perfect heads of cabbage ($1.50) I have ever seen. Not Savoy cabbage, not Chinese cabbage, just plain old green cabbage.
Heads of plain white garlic (50 cents each) were flawless, fresh and just the right size.
Shoppers will have more success finding ethnic specialties than trendy frippery. The Dochertys, for instance, have plenty of broad Italian green beans ($1.49/pound) and at Sandy Acres there are impeccable specimens of small, tapered Asian eggplants (four for $1). Pint baskets of tiny hot peppers resembling habaneros are $1.50.
The bounty that August brings makes it a prime canning month, and home canners can have a field day at the market, because of both the quality of the produce and the great prices by the bushel.
This is a banner year for peaches, and shoppers have their choice of yellow cling, freestone or aromatic white. Freestones for $2 a small basket were featured at Cranberry Hall Farm, which is located in Chesterfield, just outside of Bordentown. That farm’s other peach baskets are arranged, priced and sold by size of the fruit, from $3 for medium size peaches to $5 for truly impressive, rosy hued jumbos.
Kirby and other cucumbers for pickling come in an array of sizes and are found on virtually every table. These could be put up using the large heads of fresh dill, dripping with seeds, that Cedarville Farms sells for only $1. Huge bunches of fresh and fragrant basil are $1.50 a bunch and hold the promise of a freezer full of pesto (just don’t add the cheese) for a blast of summer this coming winter.
Or the basil can be paired with ruby-red Jersey tomatoes, which grace virtually every farm stand – the market does, after all, bill itself as "your Jersey Fresh headquarters."
The folks at Russo’s Farm, which has been in operation in Tabernacle since the 1940s and has been part of the Trenton Farmers Market for 50 years, promise that plum tomatoes will be arriving in bulk soon. Russo’s table also features cut bouquets of jewel-toned summer asters in shades of purple, blue and deep pink ($3.50). They are rivaled only by the saucer-size sunflowers of Cedarville Farms ($5 for a bunch of four), which come in two varieties, with or without black centers.
Russo’s apples are promised in about a week, although other stands had baskets of mixed red apples already on special for $1.
Pinelands Farm from Hammonton had early Macintoshes at $2 a basket and red Delicious at $1. They also had fresh pressed Pinelands apple cider (pasteurized) for $2 a half gallon, two varieties of excellent sweet potatoes, and, of course, boxes of fresh blueberries – Hammonton being the blueberry capital of New Jersey.
Piles of corn – some stalks stripped bare, the better to show off their perfection – come in yellow, white or mixed varieties with familiar names like Silver Queen and Sweet Sue, and the ears are getting fatter and sweeter by the day.
Jersey melons abound, including cantaloupe-like musk melons, watermelons and their smaller, sweeter kin, the dark-skinned sugar babies.
All of the farms mentioned above have stands operating at least five days a week at the market, but as the week progresses they are joined by others, until by Friday and Saturday the market is in full swing.
The latter include Princeton’s own Terhune Orchards, which offers its famous cider donuts and fruit pies in addition to its fruit, and Specca Farms of East Windsor, which is known for its assortment of herbs and greens.
Fresh Jersey produce is the market’s raison d’étre, but there is much more to it than that. Italian People’s Bakery has a fully stocked outpost there, and the smaller Franca Bakery also sells authentic Italian pastries and breads, such as large wheat toast rounds called freselle. They also sell challah and cheese and raisin babkas.
Honey of a Nut offers roasted nuts and honeys from various beekeepers in the area. Provisions from an old-fashioned butcher can be had at Cartlidge Meats. Jim Cartlidge is a third-generation butcher who features, among other things, sausages without nitrites or preservatives. Maryann Losi’s cheese shop, called "…and everything nice," has been part of the farmers market since 1982. In addition to great prices on great cheeses, Ms. Losi stocks a variety of olive oils, premium vinegars and dried pastas.
To one side of the sprawling, open-sided building that houses the market is the Halo Farm store which carries, among the dairy’s other products, the Halo Farm ice cream that is so popular at Halo Pub in Princeton.
Out at the Princeton Avenue entrance to the farmers market are two adjunct purveyors. The Crab Shack is the place for fresh seafood, and Halal Meat Market carries meats (no pork) that are butchered in accordance with Muslim dietary rules.
Back inside the market at Colonial Farms, barbecued chicken and ribs are popular lunch choices. Uncooked poultry and ribs are available in the butcher section, where turkey necks or drumsticks can be had for 99 cents a pound, and country spareribs for $2.59.
But the prepared food section is the place to be for fried and barbecued chicken (in a choice of traditional BBQ, Cajun or lemon-garlic-pepper flavors), ribs, and classic side dishes at bargain prices. Daily choices range from $3.30 for a meal that includes, for example, a whole breast or big, meaty leg, or three wings, or a hunk of kielbasa, along with one side dish and a soft drink. Among the side dishes are macaroni and cheese, baked beans, cole slaw, corn muffins or fried potato wedges.
Italian-style hoagies are an option at the Hog Back Deli. Jack Ball, who with his wife, Marcia, has been managing the farmers market for 20 years, swears that the deli’s whole hoagies are 2-feet long, half as wide, and easily feed a family of four. They range in price from $4.19 for a half to $9.89 for the top-level whole.
For the rest of the summer the deli is featuring a true special on the days it is open: a three-meatball sandwich for 99 cents.
A recent Friday saw another old-fashioned aspect of the market: the annual Peach Day. Along with clowns, balloons and face painting for the kiddies, there was free peach cake dished up from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The cake was provided courtesy of Italian People’s Bakery, and was topped with fresh sliced peaches and whipped cream. Peach Day followed close on the heels of Corn Day, two weeks before, when over 1,000 ears of corn were given away to hungry noshers.
As the farmers and customers of the Trenton Farmers Market attest, some traditions are just worth keeping. (Apple Day is usually held in September but a date has yet to be established.)
Trenton Farmers Market is at 960 Spruce St., Lawrence (entrances are off Princeton Avenue and North Olden Avenue). It is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday – Saturday, until Oct. 31, when it switches to winter hours. Winter hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday -Saturday. For more information, call (609) 695-2998