Ramsey Historical Association

By Nancy Boone, originally published in the Ramsey Journal

This winter season our Ramsey Farmers’ Market took a leap of faith when it ventured on to become Bergen County’s first community based indoor farmers’ market. Choosing the Eric Smith School cafeteria for a location and held every Sunday from December through March, over 20 vendors brought their seasonal produce and great artisan products for our community to continue to enjoy. Word spread rapidly and farmers’ market followers appeared from so many surrounding towns, a few new farmers and vendors joined the market and our winter market became a wonderful success, thanks also to the efforts of a talented and dedicated farmers’ market committee and support from Mayor Chris Botta, Borough Council members and our Council Liaison, Vanessa Jachzel.

Sponsored by the Ramsey Historical Association, the Ramsey Farmers’ Market will begin its 3rd season outdoors at the Main Street train station on June 10th, kicking off with our traditional Strawberry Festival hosted by the Woman’s Club of Ramsey. The market will continue outdoors every Sunday 9AM – 2PM through November 18th.

Planning is already well on the way for another season offering the freshest produce and products from local farms and vendors. The market has planned plenty of family fun, music, chef demos, artisan exhibits, children’s crafts, and special events and hopes to serve as a resource for helping to make our town one committed to environmental sustainability and healthy living.

The outdoor market will continue its Pay it Forward program where visitors can bring non-perishable food items for donation to the Center for Food Action in Mahwah. Visit the market website www.ramseyfarmersmarket.org for a schedule of events and list of vendors.

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The RHA continued in its work on the May Barn which was moved to the Old Stone House property in 2008. Last year saw the addition of stairs to the hayloft, which has been a favorite destination for the scout troops who tour the Old Stone House. Electricity was added to the barn to enable lighting for our growing collection of old fashioned farm implements, horse grooming equipment and our antique sleigh – which used to sit outside of the Old Stone House.

All the work has been done by a group of volunteers and everyone has a say in what to do next as well as how to do it. Since there are no definitive records of exactly what the barn looked like when it was built in the early 1800’s, we research what some of the likely features and materials would have been in barns of the period.

For example Andy Clark who heads up our building and grounds, figured that to get bales of hay into the hayloft there must have been a pulley above the hayloft door and sure enough there was evidence that the barn had, at one time, support for a peak beam in just that location. So we procured an antique barn pulley on eBay (a bargain at $17) and installed it. “Once it was in It just looked like it had always been there” remarked Kurt Pralle, longtime RHA board member.

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