Berlin Farmers Market, Berlin, New Jersey

“Flea markets are fun because they are the ultimate treasure hunt. Be open to the fact that you never know what you’ll find. The most beautiful, quirky, funny, scary pieces may not have an intrinsic value.”

Lara Spencer

While visiting New Jersey, our home state, we decided to go see the old timey farmers market in Berlin. We hadn’t been there in probably twenty years and the last time we were there, we were unimpressed. Then it was dark, dirty, had scary bathrooms, and just not nice, but they did have good bargains. When Joe mentioned going there at first, I hesitated remembering how it was. But we went after he convinced me to go and give it a try. I’m glad he did.

We pulled into the aging parking lot and looked up at the building. It looked pretty much the same as it did from the outside but with a new paint job. We got out of the car and walked apprehensively up to the building to go inside to check it out. As soon as we walked through the doors, right away we noticed a huge difference. It was brightly lit and the floors looked clean with no trash. One of the janitors even greeted us coming in. Nice.

This place always had the most interesting stores, food places, and people. It still had all that but even more and much better. Jenna Ackerman is the market manager and the new co-owner along with Travis Pratt. They ran the Central Jersey Columbus Market in Springfield Township, New Jersey and have since put their efforts into transforming Berlin Farmers Market into what it should have been all along. When they took ownership around 2015, they renovated the place with new bathrooms, put in new floors and lighting and did a major upgrade to the building. What a difference.

Berlin Farmers Market was established originally in 1940 by the Giberson Family. When it first opened, all they sold was livestock and local farmers produce. When I was a child, I can remember going here when we referred to it as the Berlin Farmers Auction. They had an auctioneer who could sell anything and he did. I loved hearing him rattle off prices and trying to figure out what he was saying. By then it wasn’t for auctioning off livestock or produce; just common everyday, should I say junk?

As I was passing one of the stores, I did a double take and went back where I spotted real swords in the window for sale. That reminded me of the time my brothers came here, when they were teenagers and bought two real swords so they could have sword fights. To say the least, that didn’t go over well when my father caught them sword fighting. He took the swords back to the store and demanded my brothers money back and somehow got it even with the no return policy. Fortunately, he never saw my brother, Howard’s cut on his thumb which he just showed the scar to me about a month ago. I never knew he actually had gotten injured till then. Thankfully, that was the only damage ever done.

Walking down the long hallways, with stores lining both sides, we saw so many really interesting and different shops that you would never see in a mall. There was an old time haberdashery, a shoe repair shop, shoe shine area, old fashioned Barber Shop, music store, candy shop, military store, clothing stores, Amish butcher, produce shops, Clam Bar, pizza and food areas, vacuum cleaner repair shop, Sam’s Fabrics, Locksmith, record store, and Golden Touch Pretzels. I’ve always enjoyed the pretzel store as you can actually see them being made which always fascinated me. I could watch them fold the pretzels into shape and put them on the conveyor belt for what seemed like hours when I was a child.  The pretzels are the best.

Now they even have a wine tasting room for Valenzano Winery where you can go in and taste for free. The ladies were very nice and asked what kind of wines we liked and gave us samples. All the wines were great and when we walked away, we were carrying few bottles in hand.

When we came up to Al’s Barber Shop, Joe decided to get a haircut.. They did a great job on his haircut and thought it was hysterical as I snapped pictures of my man getting his haircut. After the haircut, we walked to the outside section. It was freezing that day but there were still quite a few vendors outside braving the cold.

This is one of the oldest and has grown into one of the largest flea markets in the state of New Jersey. Berlin Farmers Market boast of having 150,000 square feet of indoor stores with a total of 85 businesses inside. In the nice weather, they can have over 700 vendor sites outside and on a nice day it is packed. It can take you two to four hours to explore everything. It is a great place to find that something special or unique that you can not buy anywhere else.

The indoor section is open Thursday through Sunday from 9 to 8 while the outside is open Friday through Sunday 8 to 4. They are located at 41 Clementon Road in Berlin. Check them out: www.berlinfarmersmarket.com.

When we were heading back to the car, we both said simultaneously how nice it is now. We wondered how many people in the area knew about this change. If you are looking to find that hard to find item or just want to treasure hunt, this is the place. We love the new look and will return. Till next time. Bye for now.