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Have you noticed more locally grown fruits and vegetables in your local store? Hopefully you have, as Jersey Fresh items are now appearing in farmers markets and stores around the state.

To celebrate the onset of another great season of New Jersey’s agriculture, New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas H. Fisher and other state and local officials recently kicked off the 2021 Jersey Fresh season by visiting Katona Farms in Burlington County, which grows asparagus as well as other vegetables and crops.

“Jersey Fresh fruits and vegetables provide delicious and nutritious offerings to everyone here in the Garden State as well as other places around the country,” Fisher said. “The season is off to great start for our farmers with asparagus and other greens already available in supermarkets and farmers markets. Jersey Fresh is a trusted brand that is synonymous with peak freshness. We encourage all buyers of food – wholesalers, restaurants, and consumers - to support the local economy by purchasing Jersey Fresh wherever it is sold.”

Why is Jersey Fresh such a trusted brand? Growers must become licensed to use the Jersey Fresh logo on their packages. The logo indicates that the contents meet quality standards equal to or better than U.S. No. 1. This inspection standard adds a quality assurance note to the overall Jersey Fresh marketing program that is welcomed by wholesale produce buyers and consumers who want high quality products that are uniformly sized and consistently packed.

New Jersey ranks in the top 10 across the U.S. in the production of several crops, including fourth in asparagus. According to the USDA, in 2020 the New Jersey asparagus crop was valued at $15 million, and the overall production of fruits and vegetables in New Jersey was valued at approximately $350 million.

Other crops with an early harvest that are available daily include kale, lettuce, radishes and spinach. Others that are expected to be widely available in about a week are beets and strawberries. Consumers can find what Jersey Fresh produce is in season and where it is being sold by going to FindJerseyFresh.com. A searchable database for crop availability by month is available at findjerseyfresh.com/availability/.  

The Jersey Fresh program is designed to help New Jersey farmers inform consumers about the availability and variety of fruits and vegetables grown in the Garden State through three areas: advertising, promotion and quality grading. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture team continually strives to bring Jersey Fresh to all who want it by working with and establishing relationships between farmers and restaurants, schools, colleges, big box stores, local communities, hotels, hospitals and more.

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“We always look forward to the beginning of Jersey Fresh season and we have high hopes this will be an outstanding year,” Katona Farms owner and operator Chip Katona said. “We enjoy reconnecting with our customers in our market and plan to continue the agricultural tradition started by my family 70 years ago.”

First established as Rolling Acres in 1950 by Walt and Betty Katona, it later became known as Katona Farms and is now in its third generation. The Katona family has lived and farmed in Chesterfield Township for over 60 years. Along with asparagus, the nearly 800-acre farm grows sweet corn, market tomatoes and watermelon which are sold at its Crosswicks Farm to retail customers. They also sell vegetables wholesale to large farm markets, and wholesale buyers, as well as to the Hunts Point Market in New York and to markets in Philadelphia.

Go Fishing app

New Jersey offers more than 400 publicly accessible lakes, ponds and reservoirs. These waters offer a great diversity of fishing opportunities, from abundant populations of panfish to trophy-sized game fish. There are also miles of public streams and rivers.

Some great websites to assist any aspiring angler or avid fishing enthusiast are the state website, www.njfishandwildlife.com/fishplc.htm, and the aptly named www.takemefishing.org/. Both these sites help visitors find out both where to fish and boat in New Jersey and throughout the U.S. and more.

But now we can say, “there’s an app for that” when it comes to local fishing. “Great Fishing Close to Home in New Jersey,” found online at www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/fishing_fresh.htm, is a tool to allow users to quickly identify places to fish near them or near where they plan to be in the state. It provides interactive maps of 291 waterbodies picked by the Division of Fish and Wildlife as good places to fish along with a list of the primary sportfish present, ownership, whether a special permit is required, whether outboard motors are permitted, and if there are other amenities such as boat ramps, swimming areas, picnic areas and camping.

Clicking the features on the map within the app will bring up a pop-up window with additional information about that place to fish. The “My Location” tool will track your current location on the map, shown as a blue dot, and the app allows you to search by coordinates, address, place name, Wildlife Management Area and lot/block.

Nicholas Polanin is associate professor, agricultural agent II, Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Cooperative Extension of Somerset County. Email him at polanin@njaes.rutgers.edu.

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