PrintNew Jersey Dispatch: Asparagus Farms
If you’re anything like me, you have a pretty solid stereotype of a New Jersey farmer in your head—a windswept looking guy with an advanced degree in engineering who farms his 14 certified-organic acres along with his beautiful, college professor wife. They’re Slow Food members, world travelers, and gastronomic geniuses. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Not much though.
Then I visited Katona Farm in Crosswicks, and was forced to re-think the whole notion of farming in New Jersey.
I mean, these folks farm sixteen hundred acres and grow soybeans for Perdue (the chicken producers, not the university). Drive up to the place and find yourself in a slice of Iowa somehow plopped into the Garden State. Steel sheds, grain elevators—even a large combine. Walk into the farm store between tax time and Memorial Day, and you’ll see asparagus.
Not a few bunches, but crates full of the stuff. Katona Farm has fifty-five acres of it planted. The idea that agriculture here can be more than a novelty is a novelty in itself.
Walt and Betty Katona bought the place back in 1950 when this was as rural as you could get in the Northeast. The area grew around them but they kept farming asparagus, tomatoes, corn, and soybeans. Soon, they became an unusual hybrid—a local farm that grew in wholesale quantities and thrived near big cities. When they go to the post office, the clerk shouts “Asparagus ready!?” Then they go back home and pick enough to supply a supermarket chain or two.
A bit south of Katona was Berry Best Farm in Southampton. This was a stereotype breaker too. A small white barn with a tray of asparagus and a self-service cashbox stood on a tiny road next to a grazing pony. Spring flowers bloomed and game birds pecked away in the fields across the road. It was too Vermont to be Vermont. A perfect tiny farm not all that far from the New Jersey Turnpike.
My final stop of the day was Byrne Farm in Wrightstown. This was a large produce and garden shop in front of a fifty-five acre farm. There, a bit of asparagus was part of a large display of preserves, baked goods, and garden items with lots of empty spaces waiting for fresh picked produce. Formerly known as “Robson Farm,” the Byrne family bought it last year and planned to sell both their own and other local farmers’ produce. The family—which consists of mom, dad, thirteen children, and even some grandchildren—is committed to offering local farm products to local people.
If you want to visit an asparagus farm, you can’t drag your feet. A few weeks from now, most of it will be gone, and by June 1, it will only be a memory. Then, all you can do is wait for tomato season.
Katona Farms, Inc.
355 Ellisdale Road, Crosswicks NJ
609 298-3342
Mon. through Fri., 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Byrne Farm Market
505 Rt. 537, Wrightstown NJ
609-758-2068
Open daily
Berry Best Farm
302 Isaac Budd Road, Southampton NJ
609-859-3634
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (but not manned when I was there)
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
4 Comments:
Nothing to do with the NY region, but there used to be a special train that brought the first crop of asparagus from Scotland to London. Imagine how good that must have tasted, after more than half a year without fresh veg. People literally had a party at the train shed to celebrate.
NotAmerican at 3:30PM on 05/01/09
Sorry Brian, couldn't disagree more about the sterotype of the farmer. Every farmer that I've encountered in this state has the Norman Rockwell look. You know - flannel shirt, rough hands, John Deere hat and a lined, suntanned face and probably third generation. They are polite and soft-spoken and helpful if asked.
Perhaps you are thinking of the new breed of CSA farmers such as Cherry Grove Farm.
On a different note, I always think it is funny/strange that I can often get great fresh NJ produce easier in NYC greenmarkets than in NJ itself. Some of my favorite NJ Union Square farmers are Kernan Farms, Cherry Lane and Stokes.
thomassweet at 8:40AM on 05/02/09
Thomas:
The market issue is a very serious one here. The two best places to get New Jersey produce are Union Square and Headhouse - both close to New Jersey, but neither in it. Indeed, if you visit the farms themselves, you won't get what they offer in the big city.
Is there a best place in New Jersey to buy produce? I have some theories, but I'll be out of state most of May and won't be able to put them to the test until summer.
BrianYarvin at 10:32AM on 05/02/09
Brian :
I think that NJ will never have the quantity of a place like Union Square for simple marketplace economics. In our state you can find great produce it just takes more effort. Your post above is proof of this.
I have found the farmers markets have increasingly gotten better.A lot of towns small and large now have their own. Highland Park has a nice one and Metuchen and Edison both are nice in season. I read about West Windsor and plan on checking it out this year and Rutgers Gardens started their own last year.
Pick your own is not everyones cup of tea but in my opinion a little effort leads to a great reward. I go to Von Thuns in Monmouth Junction for strawberries, Eastmont Orchards in Colts Neck for peaches, Terhune in Princeton for apples, Mountain Top for sweet and sour cherries and will be trying The Berry Farm next to Delicious Orchards for raspberries this year.
This may be the Garden State after all!
thomassweet at 10:40PM on 05/02/09