Ideal Farm Garden Center and RV Resort

I watched as the guy driving the John Deere Gator came bouncing across the field towards me. I slowed my borrowed mower down and eventually turned it off as it was obvious that he was intent on talking to me. The guy stepped off the Gator with a bungee cord in his hand, came over to the mower, and lifted the safety chute up, bungeed it open and said to me, “It won’t clog up as fast now.”

          All I said was, “You must be Ben.” And as the saying goes, “The rest is history.”

          It was Saturday, April 19 of 2003 when I first met Ben Jorritsma of Ideal Farms in Augusta, New Jersey. I was mowing the aforementioned field next to Sonny’s Drive-In, which was, in two weeks, going to become The Chatterbox. Sonny had scheduled a car show for what was going to be our first weekend of business and I knew that if I waited until then to mow, that it would be a debacle trying to hack through what would have been essentially a hayfield by then.

          Hence the pre-emptive strike on all of those blades of grass.

          Little did I know that mowing that field would become one of my favorite pastimes in my entire life, but more on that later.

          Having Ben and Jan Jorritsma and their family-owned business, Ideal Farm Garden Center as our neighbor, was one of the highlights of our fifteen years in business at Ross’s Corner. We were right next to, and across the street from Ideal. In  fact, our common property lines were the boundaries between Lafayette and Frankford Township. To both of us, that boundary was non-existent.

          It is kind of strange how two business, so different from each other, can come to rely on, lean on, and totally depend on each other whenever we needed each other.

          Ours was a wonderful symbiotic relationship if there ever was one.

          How and why, you may ask?

          The answer was simple, but the bottom line is that we were both family-owned business that watched each other work like crazy to fulfil the niche that we had created for ourselves.

          To start, we both had card-blanche run of each other’s places of business. There were times when I needed a tool (or whatever), and all I needed to do was walk over to the big red machinist building, walk through the doors, and borrow said tool or even bring whatever needed repair over there to be worked on. In return, Ben and his crew could walk into the Chatterbox, coolers in hand, and fill up their needs from our beloved Ice Machine (which now sits proudly over at Ideal Farms continuing its legacy).

          Doing one’s own repairs is essential to both of our businesses. Not that we didn’t need the pros from time to time but calling them all the time would probably bankrupt us. One morning I was trying my best to work on our stalwart dishwasher and for the life of me (and the giant pipe wrenches in hand) I couldn’t get a fitting loose. In despair (because I didn’t like to bother Ben unnecessarily) I called him and asked if he could drop by for a minute. In a little while Ben marched through the back kitchen door, took one look at me and my dilemma, took the wrenches from me, put them down, then using his hands, grabbed the pipe and in about 6 seconds had my fitting apart. I received that patented Ben Jorritsma Smile, and another patented quote, “Call me if you need me!” and out the door he went.

          I don’t care how much you can bench press, there is nothing stronger than “Farmer Strong”!

          In return for all the practical favors, we would provide them with what we did best, food! We prepared all of their lunches, no charge, during the crazy Pumpkin Season and the just-slightly-less-crazy Christmas Tree Season. I would come up with a menu at the beginning of the season for the four weeks ahead, both Saturday and Sunday. At about 11:30 AM, just as we opened and before we became overrun with “Pickers” ourselves, we delivered roughly twenty sandwiches (or portions of whatever was on the menu that day), over to the main building where they were distributed to all of the workers. Those folks barely had time to breathe never mind stop for food!

          Pumpkin Season was particularly intense. The hayrides took customers past humorous ‘graveyards’  on the way to ‘Pumpkin Hollow’ to pick out their pumpkins and then tons of them came across the street to us for the rest of their tradition. Most were from “Down Below” as we affectionally called anywhere south of us. Throngs out of Bergen and Morris Counties made their annual pilgrimages ‘Up Country’ to our little corner, had a grand time, and wished us both well.

           A “See you next year!” was all the thanks we needed.

          A collective sigh could be heard from both sides of the road when the onslaught was finally over at the end of the season and our coffers were, hopefully,(depending on the weather!) full. This was what helped get us through the Dark Times……. The Dreaded Winter!

          During the summer, when the tomatoes were ready, I would make daily trips across the street to procure those red, ripe, softball sized examples of what all the world knows as the epitome of greatness, The Jersey Tomato! We even had special signs on our tables letting all know that these delectable slices of heaven came from across the street and Ideal Farm. Ben also supplied us with our GIANT pumpkin at the beginning of October for our Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin contest.

          You can’t believe what some of the guesses were!

          Leaving our friends at Ross’s Corner was one of the hardest parts when it came to selling the Chatterbox and leaving the area. I’m sure that its not quite the same for both of us.

          But the legend lives on at Ideal Farm and Garden Center because they purchased the Very Formidable Ice Machine and my most favorite lawn mower ever! I gave them instructions in Ice Machine Etiquette, which means I showed them how to bang on the side of it to loosen the ice stuck up in the top and other various ‘dos and don’ts’ of the ice-making world. They now don’t know how they survived before without one!

          As for my Lawnmower Extraordinaire, I have been able to use it as of late because we are parked, nestled behind the greenhouses and parked at Ideal Farm Garden Center and RV Resort!

          We have all the best of anything that we could want.

          Great produce,

          Fresh eggs,

          Tons of privacy,

          Goats, chickens, and ducks as our neighbors,

          And……  a wonderfully level grassy spot to park our own giant pumpkin, the motorhome!

          And we all know what level grassy spots need….

          Mowing!

          I get to mow our spot and as much of Ideal Farms property as I want!

          With my old mower!

          Eyeing my baby sitting in her special hanger, my pulse quickened. I slowly slid into the seat. Déjà vu took over and it was like I never got off of it.

           I sat in the cockpit, reached for the controls and…..  it all fell back into place. Little throttle, full choke, work the throttle, and then Vrooom!

          She roared into life!

          Carefully backing out of her hanger, I taxied into position and then, saluting the Catapult Officer as he shot me down the deck, I was on my way to Lawn-Mowing Nirvana again!

          Upon reaching cruising altitude, I throttled back a bit, engaged the PTO, the blades whirled to life as I inched the throttle back to full and set course for the Level Area.

          Being the mechanic that he is, Ben has my old baby running perfectly and I’m sure that he sharpens the blades more frequently than I did, so it makes beautiful passes back and forth like in Yankee Stadium!

          Life is good.