SPRING FORWARD
Truth be told, spring is my favorite season in New Jersey. Colors begin to pop in the Garden State as the landscape changes from gray to green and they are sure to be dazzling come April and May. It’s a palette we all need after this long, cold, and grey winter.
Spring always brings a sense of new, a new view of the future, and I hope we’ve captured some of that feeling for you in this issue with articles on the new Caviar Farms in South Jersey, a fun look at retro kitchens, a round-up of new cafés and eateries, a guide to native seeds, and more. It’s also time to join your 2026 community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. There’s no better way to support our NJ farmers than by signing up for those shares of colorful fresh-from-the-field produce.
The turn of the seasons usually heralds change in other ways, too, and this season brings a big change to Edible Jersey as one of our most outstanding team members leaves to pursue other creative ventures.
A magazine’s strength and effectiveness is only as good as the person visually conveying its content. When I ran into Debra Trisler one hot summer Sunday in 2009 at the Summit Farmers Market, I knew I had hit the jackpot. Debra and I remembered each other from our days commuting by train into Manhattan where she had worked as design director at a number of magazines, including Food Arts, Cigar Afi cionado and later, New Jersey Life from her studio in New Jersey. She has been the design genius behind Edible Jersey ever since that fortuitous encounter. Her grace, patience, calm demeanor, commitment, and good humor—combined with her incredible design sense—made Edible Jersey (and us!) better with every issue.
This will be Debra’s final issue on our masthead and I will miss her. Working our way through 91 issues and more, she and I have shared the highs and lows of life, death, world events, and kids growing up, while also debating if that typeface was better in hot pink or spring green or if that pull quote needed another comma. (Debra was always right.)
We wish Debra all the best always— and we wish you a wonderful spring.
Sincerely,
Nancy Brannigan Painter
Editor & Publisher
