Well after about one hundred and forty one years, it is now official- New Jersey is the ‘Garden State’ as Governor Christie signed the bill this past week.

The nickname “first became popularly associated with New Jersey in 1876, when Camden attorney Abraham Browning called New Jersey the Garden State while speaking at a centennial celebration in Philadelphia.” Furthermore “Browning said that our Garden State is an immense barrel, filled with good things to eat and open at both ends, with Pennsylvanians grabbing from one end and New Yorkers from the other. The name stuck ever since.”

Now you know why the slogan is on our license plates and it has nothing to do with having gardens throughout the state. Today there are 9,071 farms in existence (per 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture) that grow everything from Christmas trees to produce milk.

These farms consist of 715,057 acres of land and unfortunately many of the farmers are over 65 years old. Hopefully these farmers will be able to pass on their holding to others that will follow in the tradition of tilling the soil.

So many different farm products are still produced here in the ‘Garden State’ that it makes me wonder how many of you even knew that there were still farms in existence in New Jersey anymore. The view from the New Jersey Turnpike is mostly of refineries, storage facilities and other non-farming industries, so it is normal for those passing through our state to not give a second thought to the idea that we are the 2nd and 3rd producers of eggplant and cranberries in the United States.

If you look around when traveling our highways and byways for farm stands and/or farmers markets you can get the wonderful local farm fresh agricultural products that come from our New Jersey farmers. So the idea of calling New Jersey the ‘Garden State’ is not dated nor is it wrong to do so. It is just wonderful to me that we still have farms here in a state with such high densities of population in many areas.

So now that you know that the slogan on your car’s license plate is official by law, go out and visit those places you can get farm fresh produce from New Jersey farmers. Remember that without you the consumer, buying their products farms will disappear from our landscape and that would be a shame. After all who wants a concrete jungle, when you can have a state doted with open farmland!

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike