JACKSON – It has been a busy summer for the township’s Farmers Market which concluded its second year earlier this month.
The Farmers Market returned on June 20 and ran from through September 12 at the Justice Complex on West Veterans Highway.
Vendors changed per week and offered fresh produce, sweet treats, art, and dog treats.
The Jackson Times stopped by for the last market of the summer and spoke with Jennifer Perkel, founder of Here Here, LLC. She is an event organizer and the market’s manager. The firm is “dedicated to creating vibrant and engaging community events, like farmers markets, that bring people together and “dedicated to curating branded market events that build community.”
Perkel runs Farmers Markets in various communities such as nearby Howell Township as well as in Hazlet, Sea Bright, Parsippany, Atlantic Highlands and Allenhurst.
She noted that the market did endure some challenges in the form of a relocation and some brutally hot weather and some rain storms as well. The final market experienced great weather, fortunately. “We have three vendors today. We struggled this year. Not only did we hit some weather issues, we had some location issues.”
“At the end of last season, it wasn’t made clear what was happening with the Farmers Market and so another entity approached me and asked if we could hold the Jackson Farmers Market at another location,” Perkel noted.
“Vito Cardinale reached out to me and asked would you like to have the Farmers Market at Adventure Crossing as we have amazing traffic meaning foot traffic not realizing it was also Great Adventure traffic. We had 20 vendors on the first day at Adventure Crossing but the wind was incredible and we were holding on to the tents,” she added.
“My company has insurance but I was worried about my vendors. We spent the next couple weeks without a lot of foot traffic, the wind was strong and I felt I had to take care of these small businesses in some way, so we tried it without tents and the wind was borderline dangerous like a wind tunnel. We had looked at different areas to have it within Adventure Crossing like by the baseball field but they wanted us there in front of the dome and we weren’t able to have it inside the dome because nobody could see us and there were issues there too,” Perkel added.
She reached out to the township’s recreation department. Fred Meabe, the township’s new recreation director told her “We’d be happy to welcome you back” and he gave them the parking lot within the Justice Complex which had great exposure. “They had signs for the Farmers Market. Despite hundreds of dollars of advertising online, we were there for three weeks before we asked to come home here.”
“We had a very turbulent beginning of the season but once we made it back here (to its original site by the Jackson Jungle playground) we have had two or three times the number of customers we had when we were in the parking lot,” Perkel said. “I cover the insurance for the space with the town which puts us in compliance with all the fire department regulations. I remain out here in case anyone has any questions about the market and keeping everyone safe. One occasion we had – due to the heat – someone pass out. We couldn’t win with Mother Nature this season but today is a nice sunny day.”
“We had between five and seven vendors on average,” she added. “When we first came back, we started with 15 but the more the community comes out the more vendors talk to each other. We do have a community farm that comes out,” Perkel noted.
She was referring to the Allaire Community Farm which is a nonprofit organization based in Wall Township that has an outdoor petting zoo, indoor and outdoor riding arenas, horse barn, farmer’s market, indoor petting zoo, wagon rides and greenhouses.
“We’ve been here for four weeks. We’ve been fine here,” Program Specialist Kathy Ragauckas said. She brought along some tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, and eggplants.
“We have herbs, we have an herbarium on the farm, we’ve been in operation since 2013. It is a nonprofit farm which is unusual. We do programs for people with disabilities. We do programs for veterans with PTSD, at risk youth, and teens with depression. Next month we go into pumpkin picking.”
Nearby was the Daydreamer Bakery of Neptune City that featured sourdough bread and baked goods. “We do make bagels, scones, cookies – all from the sourdough discard. We were here last year and this year all season. This is our favorite market,” owner Samantha Gallo said.
Customers were browsing about. “We were here last Saturday for the sourdough. I can’t say enough about the great stuff they have and I came to get some produce because you want to buy local so I came here to get fresh Jersey tomatoes and cucumbers. I would like to see more things like this in Jackson. I think it is about getting it out to people that this is here. Its great and a beautiful day,” resident Theodora Noordzy said.
The food truck Fry’n High was also present for the afternoon. Their menu featured a large variety of flavorful street food, including gyros, Philly chicken sandwiches, Mediterranean bowls, and street fries piled high with custom toppings.
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