By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher stopped at the farmers market in Hinds Plaza Thursday to showcase and highlight the roughly 145 farmers markets around the state.
As morning shoppers mingled through the open-air market, Mr. Fisher shopped along with them by picking up some honey, jam and doughnuts.
"This is sort of the opening salvo in terms of a lot of markets are now open," he said standing next to Mayor Liz Lempert during his first stop of the three-market tour Thursday. Mr. Fisher was scheduled to visit markets in Monmouth and Burlington counties later in the day.
"Every farmers market is different. Every one has its own unique flavor," said Mr. Fisher, who added he likes to buy "everything" when he shops at them.
Thursday was his first visit to the Princeton farmers market, which attracts about 1,000 people every Thursday.
"This is the best one," Mayor Lempert chimed in.
The market opened in 2009 and today has 22 vendors, said Megan McKeever, manager of the Princeton farmers market. Of those, there are six main farmers; the other vendors either sell locally sourced products through farmers or another local farm, she said.
"So we keep it all local," she said.
"We have a really healthy farming community in Mercer County, and we’ve got a great customer base in Mercer County that supports it," said Meredith Melendez, a senior program coordinator with Rutgers Cooperative Extension.
As the Garden State, New Jersey has farmers markets in 20 out of the 21 counties except for Gloucester. Mr. Fisher is a native of Cumberland County, an agricultural section of south Jersey that he had represented in the state Legislature as an assemblyman.
In New Jersey, farmers grow 100 different crops, something Mr. Fisher said he found extraordinary given how urbanized the state is. Farmers this year had to go through a harsh winter that was followed by a late spring.
"The ground was cold. They couldn’t get planted. Everything was late," Mr. Fisher said.
He said that traditionally, there would be a huge supply of Jersey corn this time of year. Instead, that will happen in a few more weeks.
"Crops are clearly now in season. People … want to know when the corn’s starting and how we’re doing with the tomatoes," Mr. Fisher said.
Mercer County has a long history in agricultural. Today, there are 311 farms on the books, Ms.Melendez said. She said some of that is based on tax assessment, so that a farm might qualify even if they are simply selling firewood.
