Research plots of cranberries were a highlighted at the Rutgers Marucci Research Center. Photo by Kate Brown.
Matt Duffield of Duffield’s Farm in Washington Township, Gloucester County explains strawberry varieties grown on his farm. Photo by, Michelle Infante-Casella.
The North American Strawberry Growers Association visited New Jersey on August 15 and 16 for its annual tour. Executive Director of the North American Strawberry Growers Association Kevin Schooley, based in Ontario, Canada, organized the tour with suggested stops from Rutgers Cooperative Extension Agricultural Agents, Bill Hlubik, Peter Nitzsche and Gary Pavlis. Tour stops included farms in Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington and Monmouth Counties. Accompanying the group for the tours were Agricultural Agents Michelle Infante-Casella, Bill Bamka, Rick VanVranken and Gary Pavlis. Rutgers Agricultural Program Associate, Kate Brown also assisted with discussions on the tour.
Jerry DeFiccio explains the importance of machine harvesting blueberries to save on production costs that increase when using labor for hand picking fruit. Photo by Michelle Infante-Casella.
Rutgers Cooperative Extension hosts provided information about each farm and highlighted topics about NJ Agriculture to participants. Agent Infante-Casella provided an overview of Rutgers strawberry research and outreach at Duffield’s Farm in Washington, Township, Gloucester County where the farm is participating in growing the new Rutgers strawberry variety ‘D’Light’. Matt and Dave Duffield explained their operation and hosted a wagon tour of the fields. The second stop on day 1 of the tour included a tour of Stoney Creek Blueberry Farm in Hammonton, New Jersey. Tour hosts Joe Berenato and Jerry DeFicco explained their blueberry operation. Gary Pavlis spoke about blueberry production in New Jersey and work being conducted at Rutgers for this crop. Rick VanVranken spoke to the group on tour bus while traveling to Walking Bird Farm where Jen Lamonica and her husband Ryan discussed pick-your-own strawberry production and marketing. The tour next went to the Rutgers Cranberry and Blueberry Marucci Research Center in Chatsworth, NJ where researchers explained work being conducted on these two fruit crops. The last stop on day 1 was to Sharrott Winery in Hammonton.
Jennifer Lamonica, Owner/Operator of Walking Bird Farm in Atlantic County, NJ explains her strawberry production system to tour goers. Photo by Michelle Infante-Casella.
Day 2 started off at Specca’s Pick-Your-Own Farm in Burlington County, NJ. Here Dave Specca showed the group the farm’s production system for strawberries and the various crops grown. The second stop was to Johnson’s Locust Hall Farm where Pete Johnson spoke to the group about the importance of strawberries in agritourism and direct marketing in New Jersey. Stop 3 was to Fernbrook Farms where Larry Kuser greeted the group and explained their CSA operation. Stop 4 on day 2 was to Kube Pak Greenhouses in Allentown, NJ to see strawberry plug production. Last but not least, was a stop to Screamin Hill Brewery in Cream Ridge, NJ, to see on-farm craft beer production.
The tour participants included over 30 farmers, researchers and industry personnel from all over North America. Strawberries can be an extremely profitable crop for NJ farmers and farmers throughout North America, if weather conditions cooperate. New Jersey strawberry farmers who hosted the tour stops agreed that the 2023 strawberry season was one of the best quality and highest yielding crops in recent years. Most NJ producers sell either pick-your-own or retail sales of their strawberry crop. It was discussed that very few wholesale strawberry producers are left in the Garden State and capturing the retail dollar from consumers is very important in overall farm profitability.
Tour participants visited the farm of Joe Berenato in Hammonton, NJ. Photo by Mrs. Schooley.
By Michelle Infante-Casella, Agricultural Agent, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County
