Homegrown Memories

Do you have a Homegrown Memory to share? E-mail us at njfarmfresh@njaes.rutgers.edu with "Homegrown Memory" in the subject line.

"I've been living (unfortunately) in Chicago, Illinois since 1978.  I am a true Jersey Girl and take advantage of every opportunity to come to New Jersey.  I only get a decent tomato when I come home.  I still remember the tomatoes of my youth (I'm 54) and grew up in Bordentown (Exit 7).  I remember going to Columbus Sale during the summer and buying those wonderful Jersey tomatoes.  I still remember the taste and the smell.  Just a smidgen of salt and a Jersey tomato always made and still makes the best and most simplistic meal."

Joanne, Chicago

"Our family in South Jersey always grew tomatoes from plants provided by a friend who worked for Campbell Soup. They were the same plants provided to the farmers. From the research I did and from talking to former employees, it seemed as if they were a specially developed strain of the Rutgers tomato.

I always remember eating those tomatoes right off the bush from my father and grandfather’s gardens. As an adult I always longed for the taste of those tomatoes. I'm also old enough to remember those trucks rolling down the streets of Camden when I was a little kid. So, I was understandably excited when my grandmother gave me an old cigar box she found in her garage that contained old seeds and seed packs that my grandfather had saved. In there were old bank envelopes that contained tomato seeds he had saved, which had to be the Campbell seeds, since those were all we grew. The only problem was that the seeds were almost 15 years old; one of the last of the plants before the Camden location closed. Would they be viable?

I tried to germinate the seeds and out of about 100, I managed to get about 10 plants. I shared half and grew the others. I tended and fed them carefully to make sure they survived and produced fruit. I also had to make sure the birds and squirrels didn't get to them. Well, by mid-summer I had the fruits of my efforts (and memories) and again tasted one of those tomatoes from my youth and flashed back to my dad and grandfather's gardens.

I harvested as many seeds as I could from those few plants, even though the yield was low, and have continued to grow them each year. The ensuing years have provided healthier more abundant yields. I have shared them with friends who also remember those tomatoes. There is nothing like a garden to bring back fond memories of sights and sounds and tastes."

Ed, Haddon Township

"When I was a girl, my Dad always planted tomatoes in our back yard. I remember coming home from school one day to find a note from my Mom to say she had to be away for a few hours. "Pick a tomato for your snack. The salt shaker is in the milkbox!" That lovely fresh ripe warm tomato is still bright in memory."

- F.F., Montclair

"When we went to the farmstand by my grandmother's house, my mother would choose a bushel basket of peaches which we would split up; half for Nanny, half for us. At home for a week or so it seemed that peaches were all we ate. When the peaches got a little softer, my mother would peel and slice them into a huge bowl. Then she would sprinkle them with sugar (as if they weren't sweet enough already) and we would have them for dessert. At my house the peaches never got past that stage, but at Nanny's the final peach dish was a cobbler. It was pretty much just Bisquick, cinnamon, more sugar, and sliced peaches, but it was a family tradition."

"Every year we go apple picking. Usually several families go together. The children love sampling the apples and taking hay rides. My family usually picks around 100 lbs. Then we make apple pies and applesauce that we freeze and use throughout the year."

"I was out in the desert in Oatman, Arizona driving down into a canyon. I had a Trans-am with T-tops off and eating a Jersey apple, always taking my fresh produce with me wherever I go. I had to slow down cause of donkeys crossing the road and a donkey stuck his head into the car and grabbed my Jersey Fresh apple!!!! He walked off eating the apple very happily."

Growing up in a big South Jersey suburb, Green's Farm Market was an oasis located on one of our infamous traffic circles. Surrounded by clothing and shoe stores, Green's was an open air stall full of baskets of peaches and tomatoes where the scents of ripe peppers and cantalopes mingled. Out back under a big tree were flats of summer flowers, which eventually made way for pots of fall mums. The traffic circle is long gone, as is Green's, but the little touch of "fresh from the farm" in my suburban world is still with me!

- Cindy, Highland Park