From the Garden State to Your Plate

From the Garden State
to Your Plate
Farming Fruits and Vegetables in New Jersey
A publication of the New Jersey Agricultural Society
By Carolyn Taylor
Art by Lauren Theis

New Jersey Agricultural Society
1200 Florence Columbus Rd.
Bordentown, NJ 08505
Copyright © 2019
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0-578-44291-4
Special thanks to Caroline Etsch and Tracy Duffield of the New Jersey Farm
Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee for their dedication to the publication
of this book.
Cover photographs:
Duffield’s Farm Market, Sewell, NJ;
Specca Farms, Bordentown, NJ;
Title page photograph: A.T. Buzby Farm, Woodstown, NJ;
Beatrice Bee and New Jersey map by: Loreto Martin
Nutritional information by: Elyse Yerrapathruni,
Director of Outreach & Events for Farmers Against Hunger

This book is dedicated to all
the wonderful teachers in the
program
who teach their students how their food is grown
by giving them the opportunity
to plant and learn in a school vegetable garden.
We are so proud of you!

That’s right, New Jersey’s nickname is
the Garden State -cause of all the
wonderful food that is grown on New
Jersey farms.
Agriculture is another word for
farming. Agriculture is New Jersey’s
third largest industry.
Hi There!
I am Beatrice, a -utiful honey bee! I am New Jersey’s
official state insect. I am here to take you on a tour of
the fruits and vegetables that are grown in the Garden
State.
Duffield’s Farm, Sewell, NJ;
That may surprise you. Farming takes a lot of land, and New Jersey is a small
state. In fact, of the 50 states in our country, only three states - Connecticut,
Delaware, and Rhode Island - are smaller than New Jersey.
Yet today, there are 9,000 farms in New Jersey where 100 different kinds of
fruits and vegetables are grown.
Farms are measured in acres. An
acre is about the size of one
football field. New Jersey’s farms
cover 720,000 acres. That’s a lot
of football fields!
The value of crops grown in New
Jersey each year is more than
$1 billion. That’s a lot of money!

The two people in this elevator look
very comfortable. The population of
the elevator is not very dense!
Truth told, you also wouldn’t think
New Jersey is a good place for
farming, -cause the state is very
crowded. Nine million people live
here. It is the most densely populated
state in the country.
What does that mean? It means
that New Jersey has more people
living here for each square mile than
any other state.
Here's the same elevator jammed
with people - a very dense
population!
To understand density, picture an elevator with two people in it. The
population of the elevator is not very dense. Then picture the same elevator
crowded with people. The amount of space is the same, but the population in
the elevator is very dense!
If you divided New Jersey’s population equally and placed them into the
number of square miles in the state, there would be 1,210 people in every
square mile. If you did the same thing with the entire population of the
United States, there would be only 92 people in every square mile.
Hillsboro Farms, Hillsborough,

Let’s take a look at where some of the
delicious crops that make New Jersey
the Garden State are grown.
This is a map of New Jersey showing 10 important fruits
and vegetables grown here. You see that New Jersey is
divided into 21 counties. You can see that many counties, but
not all, have farms that grow New Jersey’s 10 most important fruit and
vegetable crops.
On the map, you will also see the names of the 10 biggest cities in New Jersey.
Look at the northeastern corner of the map. Many of these cities are located in
the northeastern part of the state, across the Hudson River from New York City.
-cause there are so many cities in this part of the state, there is not much
room for farming.
Point to the northwestern corner of the map. There are fewer farms here
because this area has many mountains and that land cannot be used for
farming.
This map shows the counties where there are large farms of 100 acres or more
that grow these 10 fruits and vegetables. There are many smaller farms that
this map does not show.
Can you find your county on the map?
Are any of New Jersey’s
top crops grown there?

Map Key
Sussex
Bell Peppers
Blueberries
Corn
Cranberries
Passaic
Paterson
Clifton
Warren Morris Essex
Newark
Bergen
Passaic
Hudson
Union City
Cucumbers
Elizabeth
Union
Jersey City
Bayonne
Peaches
Hunterdon
Somerset
Soybeans
Spinach
Squash
Mercer
Trenton
Middlesex
Monmouth
Tomatoes
Ocean
Camden
Burlington
Gloucester
Camden
Salem
Cumberland
Atlantic
N
Are you ready? We are
going to fly over the Garden
State to take a look at the fruits
and vegetables that grow here!
Cape May
W
E
S

Blueberries
We will -gin our tour of New Jersey farms with
blueberries, the official fruit of New Jersey and the state’s biggest
crop! In fact, New Jersey is the fifth largest blueberry-growing state
in the country.
Blueberries grow on bushes in a woody area known as the Pine
Barrens, which covers 1 million
acres of land in Burlington, Atlantic, and
Ocean counties in the southern part of the
state.
Most crops won’t grow in the sandy, acidic
soil of the Pine Barrens, but blueberries love
it there. They were growing wild in the
forests when the Lenape Native Americans
lived on the land
that later -came New Jersey. The Native Americans ate
the berries and used them for medicine, tea, and dyes.
Elizabeth Coleman White invented
blueberry farming in New Jersey in
1910.
There are two types of blueberry plants: highbush and
lowbush. New Jersey farmers plant the highbush variety,
which can grow 6-12 feet high. The berries from these
bushes are usually sold fresh.
The lowbush variety of blueberries grows in Maine and
Canada. These bushes only grow to about two feet high.
The berries are smaller and are usually sold frozen or
canned.
Blueberry farming was actually
invented in the New Jersey
Pine Barrens in 1910 by a woman named Elizabeth
Coleman White.
-fore this time, people enjoyed the wild blueberries
growing in forests, but they couldn’t grow them in their
fields, which didn’t have the sandy, acidic soil that
blueberries need.
Blueberry bushes growing in fields of sandy soil. Merlino Brothers
Farm, Hammonton, NJ;

Elizabeth lived on a cranberry farm called
Whitesbog in Browns Mills,
Burlington County. Cranberries also grow
best in sandy, acidic soil. She got the idea
to plant blueberries in -tween the
cranberry bogs on her farm. She contacted
a botanist named Frederick Coleville who
was doing research on blueberries for help
with her idea.
Elizabeth paid her neighbors to bring her
blueberry bushes with the largest berries
from the Pine Barrens forests. She
Some blueberry farmers use a machine that moves over the bushes
and shakes off the berries. Merlino Brothers Farm, Hammonton, NJ;
experimented with growing them. Six years later, she was harvesting blueberries from
her farm.
Blueberries are harvested in June, July, and August. At most
farms in New Jersey, the blueberries are picked by hand. At
some very large farms, however, the berries are harvested
by machines that move over the bushes, shaking the berries
from the branches and dropping them into boxes.
Blueberries are first green
and then turn blue.
Name:
Blueberry
Antioxidants
Vitamin C
Vitamin K
Blueberries are considered a
superfood of nutrition! A serving
of blueberries is stuffed with
antioxidants like vitamin C, that
help protect you from cancer and
other diseases, as well as vitamin K,
which is essential for blood
clotting and healthy bones.
Most New Jersey blueberries are picked by hand. Michael Cappuccio Farm,
Hammonton, NJ;
What is a
ghost’s favorite
fruit?
Boo-berries!

tOMATOES
Tomatoes -long on our tour -cause Jersey tomatoes
are famous for their sweet and juicy taste! The tomato is
the official vegetable of New Jersey and it is the state’s
second largest crop. New Jersey ranks in the top 10 states for tomato
production.
Tomato plants love hot weather, but
in New Jersey they cannot be planted
outside in fields until the middle of
May. So, most tomato seeds are first
planted inside greenhouses, where
the small tomato plants can get a
head start growing in the warm air.
Tomatoes are planted in greenhouses like these in early spring. Then
they are transplanted into the field in the middle of May. Abma’s
Farm, Wyckoff, NJ;
The small tomato plants from the greenhouse – called – are
then planted in the fields where they grow until the tomatoes are ready
to be eaten. When plants are grown in one place and then moved to
another, it is called .
Tomato plants can grow up to six feet tall! When
these large plants are covered with tomatoes,
their tops get heavy, and they bend toward the
ground. Some farmers support their
tomato plants with stakes or cages.
Others surround the plants with
plastic so when the plants bend,
the growing tomatoes do not lie
on the ground. Tomatoes are first
green, and then they ripen to other colors.
Why do Jersey tomatoes taste so good?
On large farms in other states, the types of
tomatoes grown are ones that won’t bruise easily when shipped a long
distance. These tomatoes are picked when they are green, and are often
sent hundreds of miles to grocery stores. While these tomatoes travel well,
they don’t taste as good as Jersey tomatoes.

The types of tomatoes grown in New
Jersey are chosen for their taste, not how
well they travel. Jersey tomatoes are
picked by hand when they are ripe and
juicy. They are sold at nearby local
markets where customers can buy them
and eat them immediately.
Tomato harvest at Duffield’s Farm, Sewell, NJ;
There are hundreds of types or
of tomatoes. They can be large like a
beefsteak tomato or small like a cherry
tomato, and they come in many colors:
red, pink, orange, yellow, golden, white,
black, and striped.
Why did the
tomato turn red?
Because it saw
the salad dressing!
Name:
Tomato
Lycopene
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin K
Tomatoes are full of vitamin A,
which keeps your eyes healthy,
and vitamins C and K. They also
contain the cancer-fighting
antioxidant lycopene.

BELL pEPPERS
I -lieve I hear a bell telling me it’s time
to talk about peppers! Bell peppers, that
is! New Jersey ranks third in the country for
growing bell peppers. These are the sweet
peppers that are shaped like a bell and are
usually green, red, or yellow.
Bell peppers also can be orange, white, brown, and
purple. Peppers -come sweeter and milder as they
ripen. Many peppers start out green and change
color in the field as they ripen.
Small pepper plants growing in a field. The black plastic around them keeps
weeds from growing.
Bell peppers are grown all
over New Jersey, but most
come from Gloucester,
Cumberland, Salem, and
Atlantic counties in the
southern part of the state.
Like tomatoes, most bell peppers are planted first in a greenhouse when it is
too cold for them to grow outdoors. They are transplanted into the field when
the weather warms in May.
Farmers pick bell peppers by hand.
Bell peppers are often called “sweet”
peppers -cause of their sweet taste.
They are related to what we call “hot”
peppers or “chili” peppers,
but they do not
produce a substance
called .
Capsaicin is the stuff that will make your mouth feel like it’s on
fire. Without capsaicin, bell peppers taste sweet, not spicy.
Pepper plants at Duffield’s Farm, Sewell, NJ;

Can you find the green and red peppers
growing on this plant?
Why does the pepper that is in the shaker beside your
salt have the same name as a bell pepper? Here’s the
story. When Christopher Columbus sailed in 1492, the
king and queen of Spain asked him to bring back
pepper from India. At that time, black pepper that
grew on vines in India was a very popular spice and
also very expensive.
When Columbus landed in
the Caribbean islands instead
of India, he found the native
people eating a new food –
the hot pepper. He took this
spicy vegetable back to Spain as a replacement for
the expensive spice
from India. This new
vegetable quickly
became very popular
and was also called
pepper.
The pepper harvest at The Original Columbus Farm and Market
in Florence, NJ;
Name:
Bell Pepper
Vitamin A
Vitamin B6
Vitamin C
To see Dr. Pepper!
Where do
vegetables go when
they are sick?
Bell peppers are an excellent
source of the vitamins A, C and
B6, which helps keep your
blood and your brain healthy.

Peaches at Fralinger Orchards, Bridgeton, NJ;
-low. This is
called the “chilling time.” The trees must have this time to chill out -fore
fore
making fruit again! New Jersey winters are
cold enough to allow for this chilling rest,
but the spring weather is usually not so cold
that it will kill the fragile peach flower buds.
There is a lot of work that goes into growing
peaches, and most of it must be done by
hand. The trees must be pruned by skilled
workers in the spring to thin out branches
and remove many of the buds. A healthy
peach tree may produce 10,000 flowers. Farmers must remove all but 1,000 of
those flowers so so they will have room to to turn into healthy, large peaches. When
the peaches are ripe, they also must be picked by by hand.
Flowering peach trees at Circle M Farms, Salem, NJ;
The big stone or in the middle of a peach is the seed. But to grow a new
peach tree, farmers don’t just plant the seeds. Farmers want to grow trees
that have the juiciest and largest fruit and that can survive bad weather,
disease, and insect attacks. So most new fruits are grown with a process
called .

Harvesting peaches by hand at Duffield’s Farm, Sewell, NJ;
s
soaking up too much water,
which would make it rot. Others think the fuzz protects peaches from
insects who don’t like to walk over the rough skin.
Fiber
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Some people don’t like the ticklish feel of peach fuzz.
Those people can eat nectarines, which are a
type of peach with smooth skin.
New Jersey peaches are sold fresh all
over the eastern part of the United
States and in Canada.
Did you hear the
joke about the
peach?
It was
pit-iful!
Peaches are packed with vitamins A
and C. They also provide fiber that
helps you digest your food.

cranberries
-sides blueberries, the Pine
Barrens are also home to
cranberry farms. New Jersey
ranks third in the country -hind
Massachusetts and Wisconsin for producing
cranberries.
Do you think the cranberry flower looks like a crane? Early settlers
called this fruit “craneberries.” Pine Island Cranberry Farm,
Chatsworth, NJ;
Cranberries grow on vines in an area of soft, wet,
swampy ground called a . Cranberries are a
tart fruit. They have a sharp taste that is not as
sweet as other fruits. That’s why cranberries are
rarely eaten raw. They are usually mixed with
sugar into cranberry juice or cranberry sauce, or
or dried with sugar added.
Early American settlers called this round, red fruit “craneberry” -cause they
thought the plant’s flowers looked like a crane. A crane is a bird with a long
neck and long legs that searches for food by wading in rivers and ponds. The
name was later shortened to cranberry.
Cranberries float! Each cranberry has four
small pockets of air inside so it can
float, just like the tube you fill with air to
float on in a swimming pool.
When it’s time to harvest the cranberries,
farmers flood the bogs with water. They
use a machine called a water reel -- its
nickname is “the eggbeater” -- to churn
the water and pull the cranberries off the
vines.
Farmers use a machine nicknamed “the eggbeater” to knock the
berries from the flooded cranberry plants.
Pine Island Cranberry Farm, Chatsworth, NJ;
The berries float to the surface. Farmers wade into the bogs and gather the
cranberries together with floating booms. The berries are then lifted or
pumped into trucks.

Harvested cranberries are poured into a bin for cleaning.
Blowers dry the cranberries and remove the leaves.
Pine Island Cranberry Farm, Chatswoth, NJ ;
Ripe cranberries bounce! Farmers remove
unripe cranberries from ripe cranberries by
bouncing them on a machine called a
separator or “bounce board.” The ripe
cranberries bounce down the machine. This
machine was invented in the 1840s by John
“Peg Leg” Webb, New Jersey’s first cranberry
farmer. John stored his cranberries on the
second floor of his barn. Because he had a wooden leg, John could not carry
the barrels of cranberries down the stairs. So, he spilled the cranberries down
his barn stairs instead. John noticed that the ripe berries bounced down the
stairs and the unripe cranberries stayed at the top.
Cranberry sauce was invented by a
New Jersey farmer named
Elizabeth Lee in 1917.
Farmers wade into the flooded cranberry bog and gather the
cranberries with a floating boom. Lee Brothers, Inc. cranberry farm,
Chatsworth, NJ;
Name:
Cranberry
Antioxidants
Fiber
Manganese
Vitamin C
What’s the
difference
between a pirate
and a cranberry
farmer?
A pirate buries his
treasure, but a cranberry
farmer treasures his
berries.
Cranberries contain many
disease-fighting antioxidants
and are an excellent source of
vitamin C, dietary fiber, and
manganese, which is a mineral
essential for growth and metabolism
(breaking down foods for energy).

sweet corn
Look out -low, I see fireworks! No Fourth of July picnic in
New Jersey would be the same without sweet corn on the cob!
New Jersey farmers harvest about 60 million pounds of sweet
corn each year. Salem, Burlington, and Gloucester are the three counties that
grow the most sweet corn.
People use many unusual words when they
talk about corn. The seeds are called .
They are attached to a long, round, woody
. A typical cob can hold 800 corn kernels.
We call a corn cob with the seeds attached an
of corn.
The corn seeds or kernels are protected by a
leafy covering
called a . To eat the seeds, you must remove
the husk. When you remove the husk, you
the corn. So if your mom tells you to get the
corn ready to eat, you can say, “Aww, shucks!”
Sweet corn can be be white, yellow, or “bi-color”
-- a mix of white and yellow.
Unlike most vegetables, corn is not pollinated
by bees or other insects. Corn is a grass plant
that is pollinated by the wind.
A corn plant has male and female parts. The
male part, called the tassel, grows up from the
very top of the plant and looks like a little tree
with branches that are covered by sticky pollen.
The tassels at the top are the male parts of the corn
plant. The silks in the middle are the female parts.
Spring Brook Farms, Elmer, NJ;
An ear of corn is actually the flower, and the corn’s female parts are the silky
strands you can see growing out of the ears. In order for the plant to be

pollinated and produce corn kernels, the wind must blow pollen from the
tassels at the top of the plant onto the silks in the ears. To get a corn
cob full of kernels, each individual
silk needs to be pollinated with
pollen from the tassel.
Some farmers first plant sweet corn
seeds in their fields in late March.
They then cover the seeds in plastic
to protect the tiny plants from the
Some farmers pick sweet corn by hand.
Duffield’s Farm, Sewell, NJ;
cold. Other farmers plant a cool-weather variety of sweet corn in April. This is
the corn that is ready to eat by the Fourth of July.
After that, farmers plant more corn seeds every week, so that sweet corn on
the cob is available to eat into the fall. This is called planting.
Some farmers harvest sweet corn by hand and some harvest the corn with
a machine that strips the ears of corn
from the plant.
Why should you never
tell secrets in a corn
field?
Because
there are
ears all
around!
Sweet corn is different from field corn.
Sweet corn is harvested when the
kernels are soft, making them perfect
for people to eat. Field corn is harvested
later, when the kernels are dry and hard.
This corn is fed to cows, chickens, pigs,
and turkeys.
Name:
Sweet Corn
Fiber
Lutein
Zeaxanthin
Sweet corn is loaded with
lutein and zeaxanthin, two
phytochemicals that promote
healthy vision. A medium-sized ear
of corn also offers a helpful threegram
dose of dietary fiber.

soybeans
Did you ever eat something made from soybeans? You
may not know it, but I -lieve the answer is yes! Soybeans
are packed with protein, more than any other bean.
-- people who do not eat meat – often eat soy for
protein.
Soybeans are frequently made into a dish that looks like soft
cheese called , but they are also made into milk, flour, oil,
and sauce. You can find soy in salad dressings, candy bars,
frozen food, soup, crackers, hot dogs, and cereals. Raw
soybeans are called .
Soybeans are one of New Jersey’s top crops and are grown
all over the state. Most of the state’s soybean crop is shipped
out of New Jersey to be made into many different food
products. Soybeans are also made into meal that is fed to chickens, pigs, and
cows. Soy is used to make shampoo, skin cream and makeup, candles, crayons,
and household cleaners, as well as printing ink.
Soybeans;
Soybeans and all other beans
are a type of plant called a
. The word is
pronounced lay-goom.
Lentils, peas, and peanuts
are also legumes.
One of the most important
nutrients for plants is called
. There is a lot of
A field of soybeans at Simonson Farms, Cranbury, NJ;
nitrogen in the air around us, but most plants cannot get nitrogen from the air.
Most plants must get nitrogen from the soil through their roots. Legumes like
soybeans are special -cause only legumes can capture the nitrogen in the
air and then put it into the soil, where other plants can use it to grow strong.

Before they are ripe, soybeans in the
pod are green.
Farmers have learned to switch their crops from year to
year to keep their soil rich with nitrogen. If one year
they plant a crop like tomatoes, which soak up a lot of
nitrogen from the soil, the next year they will plant
legumes like soybeans that put nitrogen back in the soil.
This is called .
In New Jersey, farmers plant soybeans from April until the end of June. The
soybeans are then harvested -tween September and November.
When the soybeans are ready to
harvest, the leaves turn from
green to golden yellow and then
brown. The soybean pods also
turn brown as they slowly dry out.
Farmers know the beans are ready
to harvest when they shake a pod
and the beans inside rattle!
A combine harvesting a field of soybeans. Simonson Farms,
Cranbury, NJ;
Knock
Knock!
Bean!
Bean a
long time
since I’ve
seen you!
Who’s there?
Bean who?
A field of ripe soybeans at Simonson Farms, Cranbury, NJ;
Soybeans are harvested by large
machines called combines. Big teeth in
the front of the machines cut down the
plants. A threshing drum inside the
combine shakes the plants until the
soybeans break out of the pods.
Name:
Protein
Protein
Protein!
Soybeans
Protein is a nutrient that
is required for the growth
and repair of many body
structures, including muscle,
skin, blood, and bones.

sQUASH
Next we are going to make a -line to a field of squash,
another big New Jersey crop. There are two types of
squash: summer squash and winter squash.
Summer squash has a soft
outer skin. Zucchini, a green vegetable,
is the most popular summer squash
grown in New Jersey. Yellow summer
squash is also grown here.
Farmers first plant summer squash in
early May, and then they plant more
every two weeks through the middle
of August. It takes about two months
for summer squash to grow and ripen.
Yellow summer squash and zucchini.
Winter squash has a hard shell. This squash needs more time to grow than
summer squash, and it is harvested in the fall when the cool weather sets in.
Winter squash comes in many colors, including yellow, tan, blue, white, green,
and orange.
Three types of winter squash are the most popular
in New Jersey. Butternut squash, which is tan and
shaped like a bell, is the favorite, followed by green
acorn squash and yellow spaghetti squash.
Spaghetti squash -comes stringy when cooked,
and you can twirl it on your spoon, like pasta.
Here are the three most popular New Jersey winter
squash: yellow spaghetti squash, tan butternut
squash, and green acorn squash.
Squash grows under large
leaves on vines that spread
out all over! These plants
need a lot of space, so the
seeds are planted three
to six feet apart.
What vegetable
likes to look
at animals?
Zoo-chini

Most flowers have both male and female parts, but squash flowers are
different. Squash have flowers that are either male or female. These separate
male and female flowers are called
flowers.
A male squash flower is on the left and the female squash
flower is on the right. Can you see the difference?
You can tell male and female squash
flowers apart easily because the female
flower has a tiny fruit beneath it. The male
flower just has a stem.
Pollination is trickier for plants with imperfect
flowers, because for pollination to happen, a
bee or other insect must first stop on the male flower and pick up the pollen.
Then that same insect must stop on a female flower and release the pollen.
The word squash comes from the
Native American word
askutasquash
(ah-skoot-ah-skwosh) which
means “a green thing eaten raw.”
Pumpkins are a winter squash
grown all over New Jersey, but
they are counted as a separate
Notice the big leaves on the squash plants.
crop. New Jersey farmers plant about 2,000 acres of pumpkins every year.
Many farms offer families rides to pumpkin fields to pick their own pumpkins.
On weekends in October, you will see people lined up to climb aboard hay
wagons pulled by tractors bound for the pumpkin patch.
Name:
Squash
Vitamin C
Squash are filled with
many antioxidants, such
as vitamin C.
Pumpkins at James Durr Wholesale Florist,
Chesterfeld, NJ;

Cucumbers
Look -neath those big leaves, and what do you see?
Cucumbers! New Jersey ranks fourth in cucumber production
in the entire United States. One out of every 10 cucumbers that
Americans eat are grown in New
Jersey.
New Jersey farmers grow about
58 million pounds of cucumbers
each year on 3,100 acres of
farmland.
Nearly half of New Jersey
cucumbers are grown in
Gloucester County. The rest are
grown in Atlantic, Cumberland,
and Salem counties. Usually
cucumbers are green, but there
also is a yellow variety.
and be ready to eat.
Farmers plant their first cucumber seeds in a
greenhouse and transplant the seedlings
into their fields in May. After that, they will
plant more cucumber seeds directly into the
fields. It takes about two months for
cucumbers to grow.
Cucumbers grow on long, tangled vines that
take up a lot of space. Fresh-picked
cucumbers are prickly – some varieties have
hairs on their skin and some even have little
spikes. These likely protect the cucumbers
from insects. Most of the prickles can either
be washed or brushed off easily.

Have you ever heard the expression “cool as a cucumber?” It describes
someone who stays calm and relaxed in a difficult situation. But “cool as a
cucumber” is a scientific fact. Cucumbers are made up almost entirely – 96%
-- of water, so even on a hot summer
day, the inside of a cucumber can be
20 degrees cooler than the outside
air!
Did you know that pickles are made
from cucumbers?
Name:
Cucumber
Water!
Water!
Water!
The large amount of
water in cucumbers will keep
you hydrated and flush
harmful toxins from your
body.
What did the
cucumber say to
the celery?
Quit stalking me!

spinach
-tween the winter and the summer, what do
New Jersey farmers grow? Spinach! New Jersey is
the second largest grower of this leafy veggie
in the United States. The yearly spinach
crop in the state is worth more than
$10 million.
Spinach is a cool-season vegetable. That
means it does not like the hot weather.
Spinach grows best when temperatures
range between 60°F and 65°F. Spinach
seeds won’t sprout if it gets too hot. That’s
why in New Jersey, spinach is planted in
early April and harvested in June. It can
be planted again in September and
harvested in early November.
We eat the leaves of the spinach plant, so
spinach is harvested -fore the plant
completes its life cycle. When a spinach
plant grows flowers
and seeds, it looks
A spinach field at Spring Brook Farms, Elmer, NJ;
very different than the bunch of leaves that is picked
to eat.
Near the end of its life cycle, spinach goes through a
process we call . The plants quickly begin to
grow taller. Then a stalk shoots up from the leaves, and
flowers grow on top of the stalk. The flowers bloom, are
pollinated, and produce seeds.
Flowers at the top of the spinach plant
mean that it has bolted and is near the
end of its life cycle.
Don’t eat the leaves of spinach after it starts to bolt.
They will be very bitter.

We call spinach a “leafy green” vegetable. All leafy green vegetables are good
for you, but leaves that are darker in color contain more vitamins and minerals
than pale-colored leaves. Spinach
with its dark green leaves is a
particularly healthy food choice!
Name:
Calcium
Fiber
Iron
Magnesium
Potassium
Vitamin A
B Vitamins
Vitamin C
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Spinach
What vegetable
loves to dance?
Spin-ach!
Spinach is known as one of the
most nutritious foods. It is an
excellent source of many vitamins,
minerals, and antioxidants, as well
as dietary fiber. The B-vitamins in
spinach work together to help with
growth and metabolism in your
body. Vitamin E is an antioxidant
that helps protect you from
diseases. Calcium and magnesium
are needed for healthy bones and
teeth and help keep your muscles
and nervous system healthy.
Potassium helps move and balance
fluids in your body, and iron helps
move oxygen to keep your blood
and muscles healthy.

ees
Honey, I’m home! At last, I shall -dazzle you with
what I think is the most important part of farming –
bees! -fore a tomato, sweet pepper,
or blueberry can grow, their flowers
must be pollinated by an insect
like me!
Pollination happens when
pollen grains in flowers are
transferred from the stamen
(male part) to the pistil (female part).
These are the parts that stick up in the middle of a
flower. Without pollination, plants will not produce
Bees on a hive.
fruit or seeds. Honey bees and other insect pollinators fly from flower to
flower, collecting nectar and pollen. The pollen of one flower sticks to the
hairs on an insect’s legs. Then when the insect flies to another flower, the
pollen falls off onto that flower. And you have pollination!
Although honey bees are the official
state insect of New Jersey, the honey
bee is not native to New Jersey. I am
actually a European honey bee.
Settlers from Europe brought honey bee hives to
America about 400 years ago.
Bees in a hive on Abma’s Farm, Wyckoff, NJ;
Beekeepers in New Jersey take care of 20,000
hives. Each hive holds a colony of bees. A hive is
a house for a bee, and the colony is the family of
bees that lives inside.
Bee hives are much more crowded than your house, however, as each hive
contains 30,000 to 60,000 bees. Those bees are working hard to produce
honey to feed the hive. Twelve worker bees work their entire lives to produce
just one teaspoon of honey. The bees produce so much honey, that there is

plenty for the bees to eat and plenty
left over for beekeepers to sell to
people to put on their toast and in
their tea!
New Jersey beekeepers move their
hives from farm to farm when the fruit
and vegetable plants are flowering.
Usually, the hives will stay on a farm for
six weeks to pollinate a crop. Honey
bees fly back to their hives for the night,
and that is when beekeepers load the
hives on trucks to move to the next farm.
Beekeepers place the bee hives near fields that need to be pollinated.
Beekeepers use smoke to keep the bees calm when their
hives are moved from farm to farm.
Some bees have a special job to guard their
hives. Bees that guard a hive signal danger
to the other bees with a smell. They release
a chemical from their
bodies and the smell of
that chemical is the
danger alarm for other
bees. But smoke covers up the smell of this
danger signal, so beekeepers use smoke to
keep bees calm while they are moving the
bee hives or working with the bees.
New Jersey’s blueberry and cranberry
farms need the most bees for
pollination. It takes 18,000 hives just to
pollinate the state’s blueberry fields.
Why did the
bee get married?
Because she
found her honey.
All bees return to their hives at night. That’s when beekeepers will
load the hives onto trucks to move to another farm.

Farm Machines
-hind all New Jersey farmers,
there are machines that help them
grow their crops. The tractor is the
most important machine on every
farm. It pulls the equipment that turns
over the soil and prepares it for
planting. It pulls the seed drill that
plants seeds in straight lines.
Round discs pulled by this tractor are turning over the soil to get ready for
planting. Abma’s Farm, Wyckoff, NJ;
This tractor is pulling a seed drilling machine that plants 15 straight
rows of spinach seeds at one time. Spring Brook Farms, Elmer, NJ;
Many vegetables grown in New Jersey are
planted first in greenhouses when the
weather is too cold for them to survive
outdoors. When the weather warms up,
farmers transplant the small seedlings into
their fields.
A tractor is used to pull the seedling planter.
Two people ride the planter and place the
seedlings in rows in the soil. Tractors are also
used to pull wagons that bring the harvested
vegetables from the fields.
A seedling planter at Abma’s Farm, Wyckoff, NJ;

A combine harvesting soybeans at Simonson Farms, Cranbury, NJ;
pods are collected in a tank. When the tank is full, an
elevator takes the soybeans up to a chute, which
drops them into a truck.
Of course, you know that plants need lots of water.
When summers in New Jersey become very hot and
dry, farmers need to water their crops just like you
may need to water plants around your house.
To do this, farmers set up long pipes that bring
water to the fields. This is called
The fruits and vegetables grown in
New Jersey are often harvested by
hand, but for some crops, a large
machine called a combine harvester
is used. The combine shown on this
page is harvesting soybeans. First, the
machine’s sharp front teeth cut down
the soybean plants. The plants are
then fed into a threshing drum, which
shakes them to remove the beans
from the
soybean
pods. The
A line of irrigation pipes on a field of Christmas
trees at Simonson Farms, Cranbury, NJ;
A wagon full of hay at Abma’s Farm, Wyckoff, NJ;
Irrigation makes a rainbow at Simonson Farms, Cranbury, NJ;

LET’S FIND NEW JERSEY
FRUITS AND VEGGIES!
-sides these top 10 fruits and vegetables, New Jersey
farmers grow many others. Farmers here also grow cantaloupes,
watermelons, cherries, apples, strawberries,
broccoli, green beans, carrots, and potatoes,
to name a few.
New Jersey fruits and vegetables are great
to eat and easy to find! Some New Jersey
farmers sell their fruits and vegetables at
their own stores right on the farm. These
stores are fun to visit -cause you can see
the work -ing done right on the farm.
Other farms will sell fruits and vegetables at
stands by the side of the road, making it easy for customers to pull over their
cars and buy fresh produce.
At some farms you and your family can go into the fields and pick your own
fruits and vegetables. You can find farms
where you can pick your own apples,
strawberries, blueberries, and pumpkins! And
the produce you pick will cost less, -cause
you are doing the harvesting work for the
farmer.
(picture needed here)
Duffield’s Farm Market, Sewell, NJ;
Farm stand at Bodine Farm, Stockton, NJ.

Farmers also sell their fruits and vegetables at New Jersey community
farmers markets. They pack their (
)into trucks and bring it to towns to sell. If you visit a farmers
market near your town, you will find
farmers from many different farms
selling their fruits and vegetables, as
well as eggs, honey, flowers, chicken,
and beef.
Many grocery stores also sell local New
Jersey fruits and vegetables. Look for
the sign that says Jersey Fresh, and you
know you will be eating produce grown
right here in New Jersey.
Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers Market, Flemington, NJ;
Would you like to visit a farm store or
farmers market near your home? The
website will
show you where to go!
Picking green beans at Giamerese Farm and Orchards,
East Brunswick, NJ;
Many farms host fun events that allow
families to visit and see how food is
grown. Visitors may wander through a
corn maze, ride in a hay wagon, or pet
farm animals. These visitors are
touring the farm, so when farms hold events open to the public, it is called
.
I hope you enjoyed our visit to -utiful New Jersey farm
country! good to yourself and eat some delicious
and nutritious New Jersey fruits and vegetables today!
Riding the corn train at Etsch Farms in Monroe Township, NJ.

The publication of was made possible
with funding from:
United States and New Jersey Departments of Agriculture
New Jersey Agricultural Society
New Jersey Farm Bureau
New Jersey Soybean Board
About the author:
Carolyn Taylor is the director of the New Jersey
Agricultural Society’s
school garden grant program. She is a certified
Master Gardener and received the Rutgers
Cooperative Extension of Hunterdon County Award
of Excellence in 2018 for her work with children’s
gardening programs. She is a former elementary
school teacher, editor, and journalist.
As director, Ms. Taylor provides support to teachers in the
program. She guides teachers in the building and maintenance of
school vegetable gardens, leads school garden workshops, and creates
curriculum designed to help PreK-5 teachers integrate gardening into their
everyday lessons in all subjects.
About the artist:
Lauren Theis is the director of education at Raritan
Headwaters, a non-profit water conservation organization,
where she leads school programs, field trips, and nature day
camps. She is also a graphic designer, visual artist, and yoga
instructor. Ms. Theis is a contributor to Edible Jersey (Edible
Jersey Kids) and a volunteer at the Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers’ Market,
where she draws the weekly chalkboard.

The New Jersey Agricultural Society, publisher of
, is a private, non-profit organization dedicated
to educating people about New Jersey agriculture. Established in
1781, the New Jersey Agricultural Society is the oldest agricultural
organization of its type in the nation. It currently has more than 400 members.
You can learn more about the society on its website:
The New Jersey Agricultural Society sponsors these programs:
collects surplus
fresh produce from New Jersey farms,
grocery stores, and wholesale suppliers
and distributes this food to those in need
through local hunger relief organizations.
Community volunteers are recruited to
harvest excess produce from farm fields
throughout the state. This is called . If your school or organization is
interested in participating in a gleaning, go to for more
information.
gives grants to
schools to build vegetable gardens and trains
teachers to use the gardens as outdoor
classrooms. School gardens are a vital way to
show children where their food comes from,
how plants grow, and that fruits and
vegetables are essential for a healthy diet.
Every school should have a garden. The
program offers a
curriculum that includes basic gardening lessons as well as lessons connecting
the garden to language arts, math, science, and social studies. This curriculum
and information on applying for a garden grant is available to everyone on the
New Jersey Agricultural Society’s website:

Did you eat some
fruits and veggies today?