K&S Farm Part of Farmers Market Since its Inception

The 16th annual Main Street South Orange Farmers Market started up again on Wednesday, and occupying a stall once again is K&S Farm of East Windsor, NJ, which has been a vendor at the market since its inception.

The 120-acre family farm is off Exit 8 on the Turnpike and run by Kevin and Sharon Kyle and their children, Amanda, Kathleen and Patrick. While they're focused on farming and selling produce at the South Orange and Hoboken farmers markets, and the Englishtown flea market in the spring and summer months, their focus turns to Halloween once the air gets crisp. Their farm offers pumpkin picking, a corn maze (the Field of Terror) and hayrides (haunted and otherwise).

According to Sharon Kyle, K&S is known for its melons—watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydew melons—which will be available in mid- to late July, and for sweet corn, which should be ready in a week or two. (On Wednesday, they were selling sweet corn from a farm in South Jersey.) But they already have a range of vegetables and herbs—from cabbage to broccoli to radishes to arugula to beets to scallions—though the planting season only started in early May and has been slowed down by the unusual cold and raininess of the last two months. Peppers and eggplants will arrive later in the season, and "string beans I should have next week if the deer stop eating them," she said.

The Kyles also sell on Tuesdays at the downtown Hoboken market, which has more foot traffic but tends to attract single young professionals and seniors on a fixed income as opposed to shoppers buying for families in South Orange. "There's more people at the Hoboken market," Kyle said, "but they buy less."

The Farmers Market will be open on Wednesdays through Oct. 28. 

Editor's note: I'll be profiling the other three farms with stands at the Farmers Market over the next month.