DOT opens transportation training facility on Dunns Mill Road

Center intended to give trade and engineering professionals practical experience in their field

New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Diane GutierrezScaccetti recently announced the opening of a new transportation training facility in Bordentown.

Located on Dunns Mill Road, the facility previously served as the New Jersey National Guard Bordentown Combined Support Maintenance Shop.

DOT acquired the property from the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs in 2016 and converted its three buildings and surrounding land into a purpose-built training complex that caters specifically to the evolving needs of professionals working in the transportation infrastructure field.

“The New Jersey Department of Transportation recognizes the critical importance of a well-trained, highly skilled workforce to build, maintain and improve our transportation infrastructure,” Gutierrez-Scaccetti said in a media release. “The skills taught at this innovative and modern facility will directly impact motorists throughout New Jersey, because excellence in training translates to expertise, efficiency, and enhanced safety on the job. Today marks an exciting milestone as we continue to invest in NJDOT’s most valuable asset, its employees.”

The original buildings’ footprints and floorplans were retained throughout the design and renovation process, with minimal need for demolition and new construction. The facility includes specialized classrooms and adjoining labs outfitted with real roadway structures, traffic control components, and vehicle maintenance equipment. DOT says the spaces allow trainees to gain hands-on experience in a safe and controlled setting without adverse weather or road hazards.

A mock roadway was constructed on the premises and features a signalized intersection, crosswalks, overhead signs, and a railroad grade crossing to present trainees with the conditions and structures they will encounter on the job.

In addition to a lecture hall, multiuse classrooms, computer training labs, offices, conference and breakout rooms, and locker room facilities for instructors and trainees, the training facility offers unique, hand-on training areas including two full-motion Commercial Drivers’ License (CDL) truck simulators; a Construction, Landscape and Roadway Training Lab with in-ground model of drainage inlets connected by a culvert; an Electrical and Sign Training Lab with real traffic signal control cabinets and in-ground pull boxes; an Automotive Training Lab with working model of truck brake system; an Equipment Training Bay with welding area and space to work on large vehicles; and a Radio Shop. cal CSA program, residents who live in the area of a local farm pay an upfront fee in exchange for a weekly share of that year’s harvest, spring through fall.

DOT says that the facility is also equipped to serve as a centralized disaster recovery location for roadway operations during emergency events.

Corrections and clarifications: In the May issue of the Bordentown Current, there were several errors in a story about Leaping Dog Art Studios in Bordentown. One is that the business was incorrectly referred to as Leaping Dog Art Studio.

Leaping Dog Art Studios offers weekly art classes throughout the year. It offers a fall session, winter session, spring session and a summer session.

Open Studio Times are for enrolled students who would like additional time to work on their ceramic projects. Leaping Dog Art Studios no longer offers walk-in times to the public. Anyone who would like to experience what Leaping Dog is all about and make drawings or paintings or things out of clay can enroll in an art workshop or weekly art class, or book a private art lesson or party.

Owner Jennifer Szeto’s mother did not work in fashion and interior design, and Szeto says that her uncle was not an “early influence” on her. The article may have also given a mistaken impression that Leaping Dog Art Studios offers classes for handbuilding and throwing, which it does not. Leaping Dog Art Studios has also never participated in PorchFest; this was erroneously reported.

Back in 2005 farms like Fernbrook, in Chesterfield, offered members a workshare option. They could work at the farm, helping with the harvest, in exchange for a reduced CSA fee. That is how Francis came under the influence of Jeff Tober, who was the farm manager at Fernbrook for many years before starting a farm of his own.

“I learned a tremendous amount from Jeff, which is kind of why we took it on our own from there,” Francis says. “First, when you join a CSA, you want the good food, and then you realize there’s a lot to learn (about agriculture). Once you get hooked, it’s hard to go back to what you did before.”

Once the herbs and native plants were thriving in Francis’ greenhouse, she started selling them at local farmers markets. “That’s all we had,” Francis says. “We would take thousands of plants every year to a couple markets, and it kind of grew into other things.”

In 2008, Francis began raising animals as well. Today, she raises chickens, goats, lambs, pigs and cows. She gets eggs from some of the chickens and milk from some of the goats. The rest are raised for food.

“People would ask, ‘Do you have sheep? Do you sell lamb? Do you have pigs? Do you sell pork?’ From then, it just kind of grew and grew to where we are now,” she says.

Where they are now is at a variety of local weekly farmers markets: Pennington, Mount Holly, Burlington City, Marlton, Princeton and, starting this month, Robbinsville. They sell different things at different markets, depending on what other vendors are there and what agreements are in place with the markets. But they always have plants through July, and they always have goat’s milk soap and a variety of jams on offer.

One market where you won’t find The Shepherd’s Pasture is the Bordentown Farmers Market. “Bordentown is on Sunday. Sunday’s our family day,” Francis says.

The soap and jam are made at the house in Bordentown City, which the Francis family has owned since 1987.

Most of the produce that The Shepherd’s Pasture sells is grown on their 16-acre farm in Sussex County. Some of the produce that they sell at market comes from other local farms.

They grow a variety of popular herbs to sell, including mint, oregano, basil, chamomile, lemon balm, winter savory and catnip. They also grow a number of less commonly found herbs, including com- frey, horehound, spilanthes, valerian and wormwood.

The animals are pasture raised at Fernbrook Farm, per an agreement that Francis has with the Kuser family, which owns the farm. Francis is there every day to tend to the animals, and sometimes also to teach Fernbrook’s day or summer campers in the Children’s Garden at the farm.

Francis started making and selling jams and preserves last year, and she says that part of the business has really taken off. “Right now (in June, when we spoke), it’s the centerpiece of our stand, aside from the plants,” she says.

What’s available depends on what sells the most, as well as what’s in season. In June, jams available from The Shepherd’s Pasture included apple pie jam, blueberry jam, onion jam, carrot jam and orange marmalade.

If there is an abundance of a crop, Francis will look for ways to utilize it. Last year, for instance, the rhubarb crop came in strong. The Francises don’t grow strawberries, but they were able to procure some from a local farm to use in some strawberry rhubarb jam.

“We had an abundance of carrots last year, so we made some Mexican pickled carrots,” she says. “The demand was there, so we started to think outside the box, think, if we grow more of this we’ll have a little extra to make something canned out of it. And that definitely took off at most of the markets.”

Summer crops should start reaching maturity this month, which means The Shepherd’s Pasture will have many familiar Jersey favorites at the markets soon: zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli, cauli- flower. They have planted some 30 fruit trees on the Sussex County farm, but they are not ready to bear edible fruit yet. In the meantime, Francis obtains locally grown fruit from other farms to sell at market.

Francis says that becoming a farmer has had a profound effect on the way her family lives today. “We eat differently,” she says. “We eat what’s in season and if we have extra, we preserve it. We have meat from our animals — I don’t think I’ve bought meat from a grocery store in 15 years. We have our chickens, we have our eggs — we really have a lot. Coffee and half and half. I have to go to the grocery store for that.

“When the winter comes, if we haven’t preserved it, there’s not a lot we would buy out of season. We grow a lot of our own food, but there are farms that have winter produce in New Jersey, too, and they’re not far away. A lot go to the markets that we go to, so we are still able to get local vegetables throughout the winter. It’s a lifestyle.”

Francis grew up in Cream Ridge. She worked in the banking industry before opting to stay home with her children. She and John have three daughters — Heather DiLapo, Amanda Warden and Victoria Wicker — and son Jonathan, who is the youngest of the four. The Francis children were all homeschooled.

“My daughters give me a lot of support,” Francis says. “They do behind the scenes things. One daughter edits my newsletter. Another works in the greenhouse. She was an apprentice at Fernbrook. I get a huge amount of support from them.”

Among them, they have 11 children, the eldest of whom is 13. Sometimes even the grandchildren can be found helping Francis at the market.

Son Jonathan, 18, is a farmer in his own right, he spent many years working with the animals for The Shepherd’s Pasture before taking a job last fall with Spring Hill Farm in Hopewell Valley.

“I kind of lost him in the fall, which was very unfortunate. He was my best, he really was. Jonathan was on farm with the animals, always feeding, picking up hay et cetera,” Francis says.

John worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense before retiring last year. In the absence of Jonathan, he is picking up some of the slack both at home and at the Sussex County property.

“My husband is helping me,” Francis says. “He’s working on the organizational part, on the marketing, since he is very good at it. Since he started a couple months ago, he’s really pushing the marketing end for me and putting stuff online.”

John will also be flying solo at the Princeton and Robbinsville farmers markets this year, since Lydia will be at other markets on those same days of the week.

On the web: thefarmboard/ theshepherdspasture.

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