Alexander J. Bohinski Jr., 88, the founder and owner of Farmer Al’s roadside market, died Sept. 21.
By: Al Wicklund
MONROE Farmer Al left his mark on countless people and the farmland he loved.
Alexander J. Bohinski Jr., 88, the founder and owner of Farmer Al’s roadside market on Buckelew Avenue (Route 522), died Sept. 21 where he was happiest in his homestead on his family farm with his family.
The response to his death was incredible, his daughter Patricia Jacobsen said Tuesday.
"Sunday (during visitation hours at the M. David DeMarco Funeral Home Inc. on Rhode Hall Road), we were overwhelmed by the numbers of people," she said.
Ms. Jacobsen said there were friends of all ages from near and far, friends who were customers at the roadside stand through the years, going back to its start 26 years ago and friends who were old and new neighbors from along Buckelew Avenue.
"My father enjoyed the simple pleasures that were part of the farm. He was a nurturing man who helped others and had a lot of friends," she said.
She said he loved this area, its earth and the things of nature. He regretted seeing the old farms go for development, she said.
"When he was a boy, Buckelew Avenue was a dirt road.
"He would milk the cows in the morning my grandfather, John Bohinski had a dairy and truck farm and walk to the one-room school on Prospect Plains Road, crossing farm fields that are now occupied by the Concordia and Greenbriar at Whittingham retirement communities. He also went to a school, that no longer exists, at the corner of Buckelew Avenue and Schoolhouse Road," Ms. Jacobsen said.
Mr. Bohinski, born in Poland, came to the United States with his parents in 1913. Looking for steady work, the family went to Wisconsin and West Virginia before coming to Monroe Township in 1924 when Mr. Bohinski was 11.
He worked the farm as he was growing up. In his late teens, he went into his other field, food service, when he went to New York and, after surviving for a while on bread-and-water soup, worked at Bickford’s and Ray’s Coffee Shoppes. He enlisted in the Army in 1942. During World War II, he served as an Army cook in Panama.
After the war, he went to Virginia where he owned and operated a restaurant and coffee shop. He also worked in Virginia’s coal mines.
He returned to New Jersey in 1954 to run the family farm.
While farming, Mr. Bohinski, never a man to work just one job, also worked in a local diner. He then was hired by the Englehard Mineral & Chemical Co. in Menlo Park, managing the cafeteria until he retired in 1978.
While employed at Englehard, he tended the farm using he after-work hours to grow flowers and vegetables, usually working until dark.
He’d come home from work at Englehard, change his clothes and "get his hands into the dirt," his daughter said.
She said, "I think working the farm was his pleasure and his way to deal with stress. It was therapy," she said.
Ms. Jacobsen said her father used to bring vegetables and flowers to work to sell but he always wanted a roadside stand.
"In 1975, my cousin and I set up a table of the front lawn and began to sell. The next year, we used the barn.
"We considered several names for the business, including Route 522 Market and Bohinski’s, before we hit on the logical choice, ‘Farmer Al’s.’ The young son of a fellow worker at Engelhard’s, who couldn’t handle Mr. Bohinski, used to call him Farmer Al," she said.
Mr. Bohinski continued working the farm until colon and liver cancer made it impossible.
"My father was honest, hard-working and loved to talk to people. They’re qualities he learned from my grandparents and qualities he wanted his children to have," said Ms. Jacobsen.
In addition to his daughter, who resides in Monroe, Mr. Bohinski is survived by his wife, Anne (Waleski) they celebrated their 59th anniversary Sept. 5 sons Alexander J. Jr., of Dover, Del., and James F.(Fred) of Spring Hill, Fla., formerly of Englishtown; his brother, Charles C. of Helmetta; his sister, Helen Trepkus of Alpharetta, Ga., and nine grandchildren, John A., Christopher, Alexis, Gabrielle and Zigmund Bohinski, Thomas Jacobsen, and Francis, Eric and Kurt Schuber.
Mr. Bohinski was a member of St. James R.C. Church, a charter member of the St. James Council Knights of Columbus No. 6336, a fourth-degree member of the Immaculate Conception Assembly of the Knights of Columbus and a member of the Helmetta, Jamesburg and Monroe Senior Citizens clubs.
He was buried Monday in Holy Trinity Cemetery, Monroe.
Memorial contributions may be made either to the Hospice Program of the Visiting Nurses Association of Central Jersey, 141 Bodman Place, Red Bank, N.J. 07701 or to the charity of the donor’s choice.

