Downtown Toms River Farmers Market--Toms River, NJ

Christine and I took some time yesterday afternoon to visit the Downtown Toms River Farmers Market. It is held at Huddy Park in Toms River every Wednesday from June to October, from Noon to 6 p.m. Besides being a great place to find locally grown produce, it is a great place for a nice stroll along the river on a lazy summer afternoon. The number of vendors is not huge, but there is a nice variety and the folk are displaying their wares live, work and farm right in our own backyard.

Being the pickle lover that I am, the first stop I made was to the Pickle-licious stand. Their booth is an homage to all things brined or pickled. They offer a large variety of pickled cucumbers, fresh sauerkraut, green tomatoes and olives. Grab a toothpick to sample a taste of any or all of their products. My favorite were the half sours which are crunchy, briny and garlicky almost fresh cucumbers. The other favorite were the citrus olive. This was was a medley of Greek olives, kalamata olives, and various green olives with slices of lemons and oranges in a spicy brine.

In addition to Pickle-licious other prepared food purveyors at the market include The Lithuanian Bakery, Italian Treasures, and the Peanut Man.

We purchase produce from several of the stands. We made arrangements with Krowicki's Farm in New Egypt to get a half bushel of cucumbers for the bread and butter pickles we are going to do later this month. We purchase a giant bunch of basil from Fresh Pick Farm in East Windsor, NJ for some pesto that I will be making this evening. Our favorite stand though, for the sheer variety of produce and quality of the products was E. & R. and Son Organic Farm from Monroe Township. The picture above is of some of their products. Each of their bins has a picture of the field from in which the produce was grown on the front of it which was interesting.

A really fun stop was to the Herbertsville Honey Company stand. The Bergs are award winning beekeepers who produce their honey from apiaries located at various organic farms and other properties located around central NJ. Mr. Berg was kind enough to give me jar of Herbersville Heat, which is chili pepper infused honey. This honey won the hot pepper award at the 2007 New Jersey State Beekeepers Association Show. I can't wait to experiment with it. I'll be doing about post about my fun their product.

With summer winding down, you can take a walk along the Toms River on a Wednesday afternoon and have fun cooking with changing bounty of nature's harvest. It's worth a trip.

Enjoy!

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