The Bajor Farm

photos and historical information courtesy of the Allendale Historical Society, Jim Wright, Leslie Young, and the Bajor granddaughters, Patricia Cooper and Marie Breen

The area that is now the Celery Farm Nature Preserve includes portions of what was once the Bajor Farm as well as the area that includes Lake Appert last owned by the McBride, Inc. enterprise, purchased from Arthur Appert in 1943.

The Bajor Farm is visible in the 1953 aerial photo in the three narrow rectangular fields in the upper left of the image with the farm buildings visible in the northwest corner. The farm buildings occupied what is now Fox Run.

(The larger fields towards the lower right were farmed by the Appert family and later under McBride, Inc. The dark rectangle in the lower right is a pet store fish hatchery located in what is now Meadow Lane, a section that McBride, Inc. sold off earlier.)

You can listen to the Bajor grandchildren talk about growing up on the farm in this video:

Remembering the Bajor Farm

An interview with Patricia Cooper and Marie Breen

John Bajor and Bertha Skowronski both emigrated by themselves from the same area of Poland to join family members already here. She was only 13 but gained entrance by misrepresenting her age. They met in Bayonne, married, and came to work on the Appert farm.

They had been working here for a number of years when they began looking for a farm of their own in the early 1920s. They were looking nearby, but they stayed on when the Apperts offered to sell a portion of their farm. The Bajor farm eventually consisted of three parcels acquired over time with the third purchased during the Great Depression. All told the farm covered 18 acres.

John and Bertha had 8 children, Mike, Jennie, Stella, Ann, Lucy, Vince, John and Bertha (aka Cookie). After WWII Stella married John Lukazewski, who grew up in Paterson, and they were the parents of the sisters Patricia and Marie who were interviewed by Jim Wright, as well as siblings John, Paul, and Walter. The family lived in the house across from Barking Dog Corner, which they called the Bungalow.

Their Uncle Mike did much of the farm work when they were growing up and drove the truck all the way to Philadelphia to the market there as well as to Hunts Point when that opened. Their Aunt Ann helped out, going along on the long trips to market, keeping him awake. And their Aunt Bertha is the one who taught the girls to skate on Lake Appert.

Celery was the primary crop, but they also grew tomatoes, peppers, corn, zuchinni, and even kohlrabi. They kept a cow in the barn and they had about 200 chickens, some pigs, rabbits, and horses. The celery needed to be washed to remove the dirt and the girls were employed to scrub the stalks in a large tub of well water before they were packed in crates and loaded onto the truck.

The Bajor cow barn stood on the far side what is now the Pollinator Meadow that is next to the Butterfly Garden. They usually kept a single cow that was always named "Bessie." There was a second barn a short distance beyond that to the right where horses were kept. The cow pasture was back towards Franklin Turnpike. It shows on the the Celery Farm Map labeled "Bajor Farm Section." The old tractor that remains today is parked close to where the barn was located.

The greenhouse visible to the left of the barn was heated with coal all through the winter to provide a warm place for chicken chicks and give the seedlings an early start. The cinders were deposited along the berm.

The tractor was manufactured by the Cleveland Tractor Company using their own design, giving rise to its name Cletrac. It was one of 4 tractors on the farm. The other tractors had wheels.

Panes of glass with wooden frames called sash frames were placed over the celery seedlings in early spring to protect them from the cold after they were taken from the greenhouse and put in the ground.

The remains of the sash frames shown in the photo may be seen next to the Black Rail Trail section between Kickypoo Corner and Barking Dog Corner (named by those who originally walked the Celery Farm Nature Preserve trails — refer to map).

The Appert and Bajor farms would sometimes cooperate to combine their produce to fill an order. John and Mike Bajor and Arthur Appert were good friends.

The Bajor farm was actively worked with the help of Mike's children until it was sold in the late 1990s. A portion of it became the Fox Run development and a portion became part of the Celery Farm Nature Preserve.

You can watch a video narrated by Patricia Cooper describing what it is like for her to walk around the memory lane that is the Celery Farm here.