Sunday, October 22, 2023: Even though I have visited the New Jersey Pinelands for much of my life, I had never been to Chatsworth, NJ. According to the author of the 1968 book, The Pine Barrens, John McPhee called Chatsworth “the capital of the Pines.” I read the book a few times, and one of the chapters covered Chatsworth and especially Buzby’s General Store, 3959 Main Street (Route 563) (609-894-9529). If you arrived in this town at any other time of the year, aside from the traffic on Main Street, Chatsworth would be a quiet town, and the place to go to would be Buzby’s. (Nowadays, new owners run this place, and it’s mainly a restaurant, but they do sell a few food items for retail on the side.) On the other hand, during the third weekend in October, however, it would be a different story! That’s when the largest cranberry festival in NJ happened: Chatsworth Cranberry Festival. Even though we arrived around opening time, already several blocks along the street where free parking was allowed were filled. Therefore, we found it worthwhile to pay the $10 to park at certain parking lots (car parks) located much closer to the festival. Anyhow, I did plenty of walking, and I also observed that most of the vendors were similar to those I’ve seen at different flea markets. Nevertheless, I noticed that some vendors sold cranberries and products made from cranberries, and other vendor tents displayed arts & crafts. If you were pressed for time, I would suggest looking at the sales tables in front of the Whitehorse Inn, the headquarters of the group running this festival. Here, they sold several cranberry products: jars of food, baked goods, and ice cream, as well as commemorative festival items of shirts, aprons, and tote bags. Overall, I found this event was definitely worth visiting once. (Believe me, this area is surrounded by cranberry bogs.)
