KEARNY –
Soon there’ll be a new book on the market that’s completely home grown.
The Kearny Farmer’s Market Cookbook boasts 81 pages chock-full of Kearny residents’ recipes which incorporate the use of fresh produce available at the open air market held in town during the summer months.
Proceeds from sale of the book go to Friends of the Kearny Public Library and the Kearny Urban Enterprise Zone.
Library Board President Jennifer Cullen, who also heads up the Friends group, the library’s fundraising arm, said the cookbook was the brainchild of Fourth Ward Councilwoman Susan McCurrie, who has been looking for a way to promote the Farmer’s Market and figured a cookbook was the way to go.
Cullen said the lawmaker “approached different service organizations (including the Friends and several local women’s clubs) to make it happen.” Of the 147 recipes for main dishes, sides and desserts, more than half came from members of those groups, she said. Individual contributors were limited to no more than five entries.
But it didn’t happen overnight. “It took two years to get this to fruition,” Cullen said.
McCurrie said she discovered that a lot of people resisted, jealously guarding the ingredients making up their favorite dishes.
But, eventually, sufficient numbers of folks could be persuaded to part with their favorite food formulas to share with the general public and the cookbook is the proof of the pudding, so to speak. “We were fortunate to get the participation we did,” McCurrie said.
Lynn Oelz, owner of Signs By Lynn, a local shop specializing in signs and graphics, contributed the art work for the book and Morris Press Cookbooks handled the printing. Carol Puchyr and Cullen handled the logistics of putting together the final product.
The book, which sells for $9.95, comes with a free stand you can use to support your book while you prepare your dish of choice.
The Kearny Public Library will host a cookbook launch party on June 8 at 7 p.m. and tickets are only $5 but limited to 100 attendees. Guests will sample Jane Mackesy’s recipe for “chopped veggie and corn salad.”
After the event, people can obtain copies of the book from the library or by contacting Town Hall.
The seventh annual Jersey Fresh Farmer’s Market resumes this season on June 21 and continues every Thursday, from noon to 6 p.m., in the parking lot across from Mandee Shops, Kearny and Bergen Aves., through mid- October. Union Hill Farms, of Denville, and Alsteade Farms, of Chester, supply the fresh produce, jams and jellies.
Typically, the season starts with a selection of berries, followed by peaches, lettuce, cabbage and squash; then come corn, tomatoes and melons; early fall brings apples, pears, pumpkins, fruit pies, jams and jellies.
– Ron Leir
