Choosing Local
Farmers’ market high season has begun. Do you attend a true farmers-based market near you? If so, go. If Market Day isn’t yet a regular posting on your own calendar, check out one there’s good word about within a reasonable drive. Two worth an hour of your time are these biggies, now officially in session: Brick Farmers’ Market and Hunterdon Community Farmers’ Market.
In Season Now: Farmers’ Markets
Along with Garden State asparagus, strawberries, peas, spinach and lettuces come the new vintages of our farmers’ markets. They’re ever-more prevalent, diverse and geared to weekly stock-ups. It’s truly where the smart and savvy shop for food.
Burlington County Farmers’ Market: Pre-season Edition
Stock right up at the early birds’ version of one of the Garden State’s best farmers’ markets. There’ll be three more after this year’s inaugural foodfest, so let these highlights motivate you to mark your calendar post-haste.
Hot Breads
Plum cake that’s confidently spiced, cookies that stand apart from their sugared brethren, and pastries rolled with savory fillings keep company with specialty Indian breads at a storefront with a fired-up kitchen out back in Franklin Park.
Yuki’s Bakery & Coffee
Extraordinary pita is the standout at a bakeshop in Hoboken built on traditions of Eastern Mediterranean breads and pastries that Yuki Levinson translates with skill, pride and a tweak here and there.
Vegan Cheeses
At a specialty food shop in Morristown that also holds court at farmers’ markets, a variety of plant-based selections from a variety of producers offers options for those who avoid foods made with animal products.
A Bounty of Food Gifts
Whether you want to give a primo ingredient, bring a more-than-respectable prepared dish to a party, or make something heartfelt from scratch for a host, here are three dozen sources for gifts that will be well received and just as well used.
Jarred Fishes
Instant party! While tinned fishes are high up in the hierarchy of foods that manage to be both trendy and top quality, many jarred fishes have yet to emerge on the entertaining scene with quite the same bravado. One line, available at L’Annexe de Mamie Colette, could change all that.
Balkan Market
For New Jersey residents of Balkan heritage, the fundamentals of home-cooked meals often depend on procuring critical ingredients made in their homelands – ingredients that, fortunately, are imported and found in the Garden State at small, family-owned and independent groceries, such as this shop in Manalapan run by Timi Marke and his family.
Woori Mart
For the Kim-Lee family, it’s kitchen and community first as its members put a very personal stamp on their Korean-leaning Asian market in Mercer County. Whether you come for the top-tier prepared foods or a weekly stock-up (or both), an education in culture awaits.
Filling the Boat
At Cape May County’s Scallop Shack Farms, expansion is the direct result of extraordinary products and a desire to serve the seafood-buying public in the manner they deserve to become accustomed.
Bonanza of Bounty
The farmers and food artisans are ready – and so should you be, too: It’s high spring season at some of the biggest and busiest buy-direct markets in the Garden State. We check out three and find both longtime favorites and new loves.