Bees and Pasta: Local Farmer Combines Many Passions

The Butler Marketplace comes to town with fresh produce and baked goods the second Saturday of each month. Among the vendors are farmers who use local produce to make products. For the next few weeks, we will highlight some local farmers whose crops and creations are for sale at the marketplace

• Name:  Nina Bertsch of Nina’s Red Barn Farm.
• Products: Honey, eggs, herbs and vegetables.
• What’s Unique About Her Farm: She and her husband use organic practices on their small farm. Along with produce, they raise bees and free-range chickens. In addition to the Butler Marketplace, Bertsch, who is from Ringwood, sits on the board of the Ringwood Farmers Market.
• What She Sells: It is still early in the season for fresh produce and herbs. Currently, Bertsch is selling her honey products. “We’ve been beekeepers for about five years,” she said. Bertsch took a Rutgers course on beekeeping and has been keeping hives ever since. While she finds bees wonderful and enjoys watching the “fascinating social creatures,” Bertsch also said raising them has been a journey. "It’s tough,” she said. “Right now the bees are having a tough time and they are under a lot of pressure and strain.” In addition to the harsh winter and a blight that has put many bees at risk, northern New Jersey has bears which often decimate hives. Bertsch has six hives, but lost four hives to bears recently. “You can get about 60 lbs. of honey per hive,” she said. “Sometimes you can harvest twice a year.” Bertsch also mixes her honey with honey from another local beekeeper.
• Other Products: Bertsch also sells Fontanarosa’s Gourmet Ravioli at the Butler Marketplace. Anthony Fontanarosa, who has a deli in Totowa, has been making gourmet and gluten free pastas for 21 years. “Anthony is intrigued. He’s not your basic cheese and meat pasta kind of guy,” Bertsch said. “He really enjoys experimenting and trying to come up with different things.” Fontanarosa has developed more than 70 specialty pastas. One of Bertsch’s favorites, macaroni and cheese ravioli, came from Fontanarosa’s daughter. “It’s four different cheeses inside this little pasta. It’s delicious,” said Bertsch. “It has the texture, the creaminess and the velvetiness of macaroni and cheese.” Another of her favorites was developed using golden beets that she grew on her farm. The ravioli Fontanarosa created paired Bertsch’s golden beets with goat cheese and he used red beet juice to color the dough. “So you have this festive, delicious, sweetness. It’s earthy. It’s wonderful,” she said. Bertsch likes that the raviolis, and the sauces, are made with fresh, seasonal ingredients.
• Why She Participates in the Farmers Market: “Farmers Markets, they’re enjoyable. I think it’s so important to the community,” said Bertsch. “They bring vitality to the community. If you spend your money locally, and keep your money local, you really enrich your own community. If we all rush off and spend our money in big box stores, that money goes to corporate headquarters elsewhere. It doesn’t get reinvested back in the community. But if you’re supporting your local merchants and you’re helping them out, they, in turn, make local purchases and everyone benefits from it. That is such an important message. And it’s enjoyable. It’s a lot of fun, too.”

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