This story will be in our Middle Township Gazette and SandPaper this week but I thought I'd post it here for the folks who don't get those print versions.

By JOHN SAMSON

Staff Writer

STONE HARBOR – Prospects for Stone Harbor’s farmers market are growing.

The borough held its second market July 6 at the water tower parking lot on 95th Street. Though rain hindered business early on, eight vendors showed up. As it is still early in the season for most produce, the market will be another week older and is expected to have more vendors, more produce and more options for shoppers each Sunday through summer.

“We had two hours of rain this morning, then the sun came out,” said Anne Wannen, the borough councilwoman who initially proposed the idea for the market. “I hope we will get a few more people. Last week was our first weekend. We had probably about 250 people. Hopefully, because it’s the Fourth of July weekend, we’ll have more than 300 people come and go. The (produce) is gorgeous.”

The number of vendors, she said, should grow.

“Presently we have seven or eight, we’ll probably have 10,” she said. “Whether we expand it any more than that, I doubt it. I think we can handle that much.”

She said the location certainly works.

“There are bathrooms, water, electricity, so this is the perfect location for it, it really is,” she said. “There is going to be a baker who will be coming, and a lady who just does blueberries and cranberries, and a coffee guy. He roasts all the beans himself. This is all Jersey produce.”

The vendors were happy just to have yet another venue from which to sell their produce.

Michael Mattera, from the Nummytown Farm and Nursery in Rio Grande, has a farm stand next to Seashore Campgrounds on Seashore Road.

”We don’t even sell out of our farm,” he said. “We sell out of a farm stand and then we do West Cape May’s farmers market on Tuesdays and Ocean City’s on Wednesdays.”

He showed up early to be ready for Sunday’s 8 a.m. opening in Stone Harbor.

“We were here in the rain,” Mattera said. “We come rain or shine. We set up in the rain. We actually had people here with umbrellas. About quarter to eight, they came in with umbrellas and bought a couple of things.”

He said having farmers markets helps him as well as shoppers.

“It helps to move the produce,” he said, adding that more produce should be available as the growing season progresses.

“I sell basically all Jersey produce,” Mattera said. “Our tomatoes aren’t ready. We pick corn every day from the farmer down the street. We buy Hammonton blueberries. Everything else, we grow in Rio Grande at Nummytown Farm and Nursery.”

Josette Marino, of Clinton Conover’s Farm, said she was happy to have been approached by Wannen and offered the opportunity to sell the produce her family has been growing for four generations.

“The lady in charge came to our farm market,” Marino said. “We have two markets – one in Swainton and one on Stone Harbor Boulevard. This is our first farmers market. It’s great for everybody here. It’s the second week they’ve done it. The first week was very busy.”

She said her grandfather, Art Conover, grows all the produce, including corn, tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, eggplant and strawberries.

Borough Administrator Kenneth Hawk said he liked the farmers market concept.

“I think it has been great,” he said. “You can see by the crowds we have today that, even though it was raining a little bit earlier, it’s really taking off. I think people like to come down and support the local farmers. The original idea came out of Mrs. Wannen. She saw it as a way to benefit the farmers and the tourists and the locals.”

Wannen said she met with local restaurateurs Lucas Manteca, of Sea Salt and Quahogs in Stone Harbor, and Cookie Till of Steve and Cookie’s in Margate, to formulate the idea for the market.

“I don’t know how we got together, but we got together and decided it might be a fun thing to do and that it would be a good community project,” she said. “We started sending out letters and talking to people on the phone. It has been wonderful to meet them and see all their nice, green, beautiful stuff. People like to eat fresh these days.”

Till, who started a farmers market in Margate, said she was trying to come up with a way to get all her vendors to show up in one place at the same time and then decided to just involving the whole community.

“That is where the idea came from,” Till said. “It has since taken on a life of its own. You get to meet the farmers and your neighbors. The product is so much fresher. They are basically picking it that morning. You just can’t find produce like that at a supermarket.”

She said farmers markets are a great thing to have in any city.

“It brings people out,” she said. “Instead of going offshore to a farm market or supermarket, they might as well shop on the island with all the local merchants. That way they can see what the town has to offer.”

Her market in Margate started on June 26 and runs every Thursday beginning at 9 a.m.

She said people are all so conditioned to walking into a supermarket and buying any produce they want.

“If you want to eat locally, you have to be patient,” Till said. “Corn started to be harvested locally last week. This week should be pretty strong. Then it just gets into the season, so there will be an abundance – tomatoes, beans, different squashes, cucumbers. They are things you don’t find at a supermarket because they are family farms that cater to specialty markets. The produce is very delicate, and is hard to distribute them to supermarkets. Plus the farmers can get feedback from their customers. Just that interaction is great.”

The Stone Harbor farmers market is scheduled to run every Sunday from 8 a.m. until noon through September.