Look Inside: Times Farm - Union, NJ

Times Farm

Owner: Benjamin Lee

Opened: 2003

Cooperative: none

Location: 324 Chestnut St, Union, NJ

Photographed: July 2020

Yesterday's Seabra's Market was just across the street from today's store. Times Farm is a small produce market located at Five Points right across from GHI. Now, if you're not from Union (which I am -- despite not having lived there for over 10 years), that sentence will make no sense. There's no landmark known as Five Points on Google Maps, nor will you find a listing for GHI. But the classic burger and hot dog stand with the best French fries in Union County known as Galloping Hill Inn is on one of the corners of the five-way intersection of Galloping Hill Road, Chestnut Street, Tucker Avenue, Walter Avenue, and Delaware Avenue -- and Salem Road, but that's a little off to the side. Growing up, my family was always disappointed in the quality of produce sold at the two A&Ps nearby (see Seabra's above and here), and the nearby ACME  had decent quality but an incredibly tiny selection. So we came here for produce.

The 2900 square foot produce market always was and continues to be a great place for fresh produce of any kind, as the quality and selection was always much better than any of the alternatives. Today, the Magie ACME is closed (we'll see it tomorrow on Grocery Archaeology), Seabra's has very good produce, and the new ACME has good produce, but Seabra's and ACME have expensive produce. This remains the spot for cheap, fresh, and high quality produce in the Five Points area. And hey, you just learned some Union, NJ slang. Go impress your friends.

One more thing before we head out. Is this a Grand Union cart? The dark green, beige, and red color scheme is spot-on, and so is the red circle seen in the middle. But I'd have a hard time identifying it for sure. Is it too farfetched to say that this cart came from the former Grand Union in this very shopping center, all of 66 feet from Times Farm's front door? Hard to tell for sure, especially since I don't have a clear idea of when that Grand Union closed, but definitely check out today's other post on it here -- plus a former Safeway a few blocks away here!