HOWELL – Fresh air, sunny skies and a bit of a breeze made for a perfect Sunday afternoon for the second weekend in a row for the Township’s Farmers Market.
The market is overseen by a town organization and in cooperation with the Township, its Environmental Commission and its Green team members. It returned recently and is continuing through the summer into the fall each Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Several groups and people made this all happen and it is going well. We are looking for more vendors to be a part of it,” said Joan Osborne, who heads the township’s Environmental Commission and is also the president of the organization overseeing the market.
It also has another benefit for the township in that having a home-grown farmers market featuring Jersey Fresh produce helps toward earning the township state certification for the Sustainable Jersey program.
She said the market provided vegetable and plants and locally grown flowers. “As more produce becomes available during the season we’ll have more items.”
“We are providing a nice safe place to shop,” Osborne said sporting her protective mask. While all shoppers had masks, some sported those made by Caryn Wilder and her husband Joe of Caryn’s Custom Embroidery & Gifts.
“I was donating them to hospitals, EMTs and other emergency workers. I must have donated a thousand of them but then people started to ask me where they could get them and it kind of snowballed from there,” Caryn Wilder said.
Her husband, a construction worker, is currently out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic conditions and said, “I traded in my tools for a scissors and have been helping cut out the patterns. Now I work with my wife.”
The couple makes unique personalized items for special occasions and their customized masks have served to also advertise their work on those who are wearing them.
It wouldn’t be a Farmer’s Market without a produce stand and the Kauffman’s Farm Market based in Howell had that covered with a variety of vegetables, fruits and starter plants.
Co-owner Debbie Kauffman was joined by six other workers from her market who were busy putting out their produce, bagging it for customers and waiting on customers during the day. “It has been pretty consistent and busy.” She had fresh spinach, Spanish and yellow onions and kale among many other items.
“We also have rosemary and starter plants. We sold out of all our basil today. We also try to educate the customer if they have questions and to let them know where the products come from,” Kauffman added.
Andre deGarmeaux, the vice chairman of the Shade Tree commission said the market has also provided a good location for people to leave off donations of non-perishable food for the local food pantry collection.
deGarmeaux noted another food collection being made during the day a short distance away in the parking lot of the township’s Chick-Fil-A parking lot. As the popular fast food restaurant is closed on Sundays that left the area clear for local Boy Scout leaders to use it for those who are donating to their collection program. The food will also be donated locally.
“The people are really stepping up and it is wonderful to see. We collected $700 in cash donations in addition to food donations and I’ll be donating it to the Howell Emergency Food Pantry. Their staff is keeping up with all of this as a labor of love. They are really making a difference,” he added.
Shake Shack and Simply So Frito which are no strangers to farm markets in Ocean and Monmouth counties as well as at special events were among the vendors in food trucks at the market.
“We are still looking for vendors. We have 12 or so now but they aren’t always the same vendors. We are happy with the amount of produce we have but more vendors are welcome,” Osborne said.
