It's been one year since COVID-19 disrupted our lives, dramatically changing the way we live, work and play. This article is one in a series of stories detailing South Jersey's adjustment to the pandemic.
Come spring and summer, South Jersey farmers hope for perfect seasonal weather for their crops, but in 2020 they faced another uncertainty — the coronavirus pandemic.
Many farmers saw the impact coming because New Jersey's restaurants were closed for inside dining for three months in the spring due to a state-wide gubernatorial stay-at-home order. At the same time, mostschools also closed and were not serving lunches.
And when restaurants did open their doors, seating was restricted by the state to 25 percent of seating capacity, reducing commercial demand for Jersey Fresh produce and other farm products such asmilk andfarm-raised clams andoysters.
So how did farmers cope?
"Demand shifted during and after the shutdown to the fresh market because people still had to eat and were cooking more,” said Ed Wengrynof the New Jersey Farm Bureau.
“This saved farmers in New Jersey. Some fared very well, some fairly well and others got by, but we don’t know of any farmer — large or small — who went out of business because of the COVID situation. Farmers are resilient and adapt to change."
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Wengryn said farmersfunneled more products to consumers via food stores, municipal and county farmers markets, farm stands and other direct sales from farms like pick-your-own operations and community supported agriculture programs, or CSAs.
With lower commercial demand — and before realizing individual consumer demand would increase —some farmers planted less, while others pivoted the marketing of their businesses to meet consumer demand.
In addition, crop insurance and CARES Act funding helped to offset reduced income for some farmers.
Pivoting to where the consumers are
To better accommodate the fresh market and survive, farmers shifted marketing strategies, includingthe owners of Lone Wolfe Farm in Pemberton Township.
Sandy Wolfe and husband Rick were worried they would be unable to sell enough of their produce — andnot just because of the limited restaurant market.They normally provide the Robin’s Nest in Mount Holly with a wide range of in-season produce weekly, they said.
The couple plants white corn, tomatoes, beets, cucumber, baby watermelon, strawberries and asparagus and raise greenhouse flowers annually on their 75-acre farm, which also has a peach orchard.
“We didn’t know if the state would even let farm stands open, if the public would even risk coming to a farm stand like ours and we also wanted to let the the public — our costumers and potentially new customers — know we were there,” said Sandy Wolfe.
“So what we did was to add more produce and offer delivery or pick-up in the spring when people were afraid to go to a grocery storesand immediately loaded a lot of information onto our Facebookpage and into our website to make it more active,” she said.
“My husband spent hours doing it and by April we started to get tons of orders on the phone, website and Facebook. Some customers came from more than 15 miles way to pick up orders for several families,” she recalls.
Her farm also trucked their produce and flowers to an outdoor market where they are traditionally a vendor in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
“It was a good financial year, which was a big surprise. By July people were coming to the stand,” she said.
Wengryn said dairy farmers eventually were able to handle higher consumer demand for milk since schools were closed but not untilmanufacturersof packaging were able to switchfrom pint and half-pint cartons to larger containers for grocery and conveniencestores.
Big crowds at the farmers markets
The Duffield Farm and its year-round farm market in Sewell, meanwhile,had a record year ineverything from white corn to peaches.
“We had the best year ever to be honest with you. A lot of people supported us and we were just slammed we were so busy and had to have limits at times on how many could be in the market ,” said David Duffield Jr., whose staff also handled online orders for pick-up and instituted delivery service he said were implemented quickly in the spring in response to virus concerns.
“We were even able to do about 42 percent of our annual hayrides,” he recalled.
The Durrs in North Hanover saidthey suffered some losses in their floralbusiness but compensatedfor much of that in retail and wholesale produce.
James and Lisa Durr operate one of the largest family farms in South Jersey, encompassing 1,600 acresinNorth Hanover and Chesterfield. They raise a wide variety of vegetables, other produce and flowers and nursery plants for local markets. They growfor commercial markets ranging from wholesalers to supermarkets,caterers and evenother farmers who resell them.
“The flower market itself collapsed,'' said James Durr, whose farm is one of the largest suppliers of fresh flowers on the East Coast. "In New York City, weddings and other parties were cancelled or postponed through summer and some of the caterers and wholesale florists are now gone (out of business).
“But our business with supermarkets recovered,” he continued.
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Produce sales andcraft wreaths and centerpiecesmade by Lisa Durrhelped to offset major coronavirus-related losses in flower sales that started as they do every spring with puss* willows. “Overall, business was down 20 percent (from 2019),” James Durrsaid.
In addition, many of their30 full-time workers contracted COVID-19, which also presented difficulties, he said.
“We had to quarantine them for 14 days in my housing I provide for them and we took care of them because I love my men, most of whom have been with me for 20 to 25 years,'' he said.
"Only one [farm worker]was hospitalized for two weeks,” he explained, adding that hiring seasonal labor was a bit more of problem last year but not as much as he had anticipated when the virus struck.
The Durrs also are among the vendors at the Burlington County Farm in Moorestown, where Lisa Durr,son Zachary and other workers wait on customers.
Every Saturday the market was mobbed as were many other local farm markets in the region.
“It was an exceptional season at the market. Many of the the vendors reported it was their best season ever in individual sales,” said Mary Pat Robbie, director of the county department of resource conservation who oversees the Burlington market. “We set up a one-way route for then to follow around the market, everyone had to wear masks and we encouraged social distancing."
Robbie said the pandemic made people focus on buying local and getting it fresh. "They were more comfortable knowing where the produce came from and in buying it outdoors," shesaid.
Would New Jersey's shellfish crops be under water?
Aquaculture farming takes place in bay and seashore counties, where the clam industry thrived, but its oyster counterpart struggled.
“Oystersare a high-end, more expensive productusually served at restaurants raw on the halfshell, Rockefeller or in oyster stew," said Ned Gaine, owner of Bay Ridge Oysters. Hisoysters are raisedalongthe tidal shoreline of Delaware Bay on 800 state-leased acresin Cumberland Countyand in Middle Township, Cape May County, and also elsewhere in AtlanticCounty. .
"With clams you caneither get them at a restaurant or buy them to take home and eat on the half shell or steam them to open, but most people don't buy oysters because they don't wantto or have no idea how to shuck one,” the farmer added, referring to the oyster's more intimidating, gnarled shell.
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While the farmersurvived despite sales that fell by 80 percent as Eastern Oyster demand plummeted, Gaine said he is more concernedfor the future of restaurants than farmers.
"My No. 1issue is supportingrestaurants,'' he said. "They need more help than we do.
We havenot lost any aquaculture farms that I know of, but we have lost restaurants (to COVID-19)," said Gaine, a supporter of the Restaurants Act fiscal stimulus pending in Congress.
Matt Williams of South Bay Shellfish raises his Eastern Oysters in parallelrows in the tidal flatlands near Gaine's farm. Both farmers employ asophisticated farming technique found off the Normandy coast ofFrance.
South Bay Shelfish isa commercial farm that Williamssaid recovered somewhat later in the year though sales were off 40 percent.
"Last spring was really bad until restaurants reopened indoors in June,'' Williams said."Usuallywe sell 5,000 oysters in April and 10,000 inMay and supply Steve and Cookie’s restaurant in Margate and Cape May Fish Market, but we sold none in April and only200 in May.”
“To get around this we got aretail license and sold oysters out of the back of a truck on a farm my brother rented. We did pretty well with that and got by for the year.”
Farmers look to the future
The peach season also suffered lastyear, but not because of COVID-19.An April frost killed many peach blossoms at many South Jersey orchards.
“We had a total loss butwere saved because we had some cropinsurance and we didn't have to spray or hire labor," said Stacey Holtzhauser, who farms with husband Tom and sonTom Jr., in Mullica Hill and usually supplies the Blue Plate restaurant in that townwith seasonal peaches for the unique dishes chef owner Jim Malabycreates.
But as the world begins to open up a bit, farmers are hopefulabout this year.
“Things are perking up. I’m an optimist. I think we will be able to start selling lilacs and peonies by mid-April,” James Durr said.
With New Jersey restaurants now at 35 percent capacity and likely to reach50 percent in the near future, even oyster farmers are optimistic about their future.
Carol Comegno loves telling stories about South Jersey history and our military veterans. Her book, “The Battleship USS New Jersey: From Birth to Berth” is the definitive history of the battleship. If you have a story to share, call her at 856-486-2473 or email ccomegno@gannettnj.com.
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