Donaldson Farms Market

Donaldson's is a traditional farm market with a large section of fresh fruits and vegetables. While the farm is not certified organic many organic farming practices are used. No-till planting and biodegradable ground cover help to safeguard the environment. With this in mind we happily bought a variety of produce including some of the dirty dozen which we usually avoid unless they are organic. Everything that we bought was very good except for the peaches which weren't picked ripe and weren't as good as Columbia River, Georgia, or Chambersburg peaches even after they ripened. The corn, which we ate along with the zucchini, and shrimp from our freezer, was excellent - so good that we bought more corn and zucchini to eat the next night along with barbecued chicken. Yum!

    

The market is accessible but the parking lot is surfaced with loose gravel which is difficult to push through. The accessible space has a paved section that goes into the store.

This is a Harvest Hosts site. The parking area is a very large grassy field.  Guests are requested to not park close to the houses at the south side of the lot. We parked near the entrance where the employees parked. Another guest parked at the far west end beside the corn field. Market  40.83048, -74.8433

 

Waterloo Village

Waterloo Village, originally called Andover Forge Farm, was established in 1760 with the Musconetcong River supplying the water power needed to run the forge and make pig iron. In the early 1800s the property was bought by John Smith to take advantage of all the good farm land that had been created when the trees were cut down to make charcoal for the forge.. Smith realized that the proposed Morris Canal would run through his land and continued buying until he had over 2000 acres. Three generations of the Smith family owned and developed the town property which included a church, school house, store, hotel, tenant housing, apple orchards, crop land, an ice company, and grist, plaster, and saw mills.

 

When the canal closed in 1920 the Smiths abandoned the town. Eventually the property went into foreclosure and was sold in 1945. The land and buildings sat empty for three decades until Percival Leach and  Louis Gualandi, business partners and history lovers, bought the property and restored the buildings. The two men created a very successful non-profit living history village with working blacksmiths, potters, candle dippers and weavers. Due to Guanlandi's death and possible shady financial deals by Leach, the non-profit went bankrupt and the state took over. Unfortunately the state has not provided adequate funding to staff the park so now it's a ghost town with beautiful old houses The visitor center, museum, and some of the other buildings are open on the weekends and for special programs.

We did not visit on the weekend so the sawmill was the only open building. It's still an interesting place to roam around. Almost two dozen original buildings are still standing and there are a few interpretive signs, although they are faded and hard to read. One of the buildings, possibility the museum, has walking tour maps in a box outside.

The village is not accessible but the paths can be managed with assistance. I did not notice any ramps.

The parking lot is large enough for any vehicle.  Village  40.9146, -74.75913