Authors: Albert Zhu and Alice Wu
Editors: Audrey Yang and Yvonne Wang
The recent coronavirus pandemic forced many local businesses to close down, resulting in large numbers of lost jobs due to safety concerns. Nevertheless, as the pandemic drags onwards, many small local businesses are reopening with safety measures in place. Some examples of these socially distant and safely operating local businesses such as Terhune Orchards. These reopenings have generally gotten little attention, with the constantly looming prospect of Covid-19 dampening the mood, considering that New Jersey used to have the 2nd most cases in the states. In contrast, now we are making progress as the sixth thanks to our dedicated essential workers. Furthermore, the fact that people are now able to go to smaller, independently owned stores and other locations without a spike in new cases is great news. It’s all contributed by the great safety measures, and we must all continue to follow to keep making progress towards overcoming this virus here in New Jersey.
Few weeks ago, I visited Terhune Orchards, one of my favorite local businesses. Taking a trip there and making a purchase is a wonderful form of local support. By purchasing local goods, you are cycling money back into your local economy! At Terhune Orchards, you can pick blueberries yourself. While I was there, I picked baskets of blueberries. Terhune Orchards’ blueberries are fresh and blue – this means they’re ripe! Practicing good hygiene, we wore masks and washed our hands at the hand washing stations prior to picking blueberries. These hygiene measures, coupled with social distancing, made this experience very safe and fun. Social distancing was well-kept because there weren’t too many people when I went, but hurry! I’m sure many more people are on their way to pick blueberries already! Picking blueberries is a fantastically family-friendly activity, and when you pick them yourself, they will taste better than store bought blueberries. One of my friends, Alice, was at Terhune with me, and picking blueberries is her favorite thing about Terhune. She felt proud filling her bag with blueberries. I’ll let you in on my personal rule of thumb to find the best blueberries: pick the ones which are medium to large, and blue all the way through. Typically the small blueberries and the blueberries that aren’t very blue aren’t ripe. Instead, they’re quite tart! Picking fruits yourself also allows you to choose just how many you want – you have control over every single one of them blueberries!
While I love blueberries, I’m sure that blueberries aren’t everyone’s favorite fruit. Despite this, there’s a time and place for you at Terhune Orchards! They grow apples and nectarines, which are available in the fall. You can also just travel there to admire the flowers, even if you don’t buy anything, but I know you will. You can’t properly go to Terhune without making a pit stop at their farm store. There, they sell a great assortment of treats, including donuts, slushies, and wine from their very own brewery, for those of you who are of legal drinking age (not me!). Alice and I love the cider donuts and their apple cider. In all manners, Terhune Orchards preserve good quality fruits, and if you don’t have time to pick them yourself or have concern about hygiene issues, online purchase and delivery is also available on Terhune Orchards’ official website for you to choose.
When I went picking, the entire farm was enforcing the rules of social distancing, as every sensible business should. Safety measures permit visits at amazing local businesses such as this one which give our towns unique flair. Independently-owned businesses also provide one-of-a-kind goods and more personalized service than you would receive from a large corporation. Terhune’s blueberries are surely fresher than the ones you might get in a generic supermarket. Even more importantly, small businesses account for nearly half of private-sector employment, hiring locally, generally providing better working benefits than large corporations, and enriching the local community by cycling local money back into local communities. For all these reasons and just a fun and safe family outing, please go support your favorite local businesses!
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