Rooted in the Past, Producing for the Future

COURT HOUSE – Farming’s face in Cape May County has changed through the years, yet the soil still yields its bounty.
Some farms proudly retain the name of their original owners while newer ones may have no name.
An estimated 12 percent of the county is currently devoted to farming, according to the county’s 2008 Farmland Preservation Plan.
Gone are the many dairy farms that once dotted the landscape, many closer to Delaware Bay than the Atlantic Ocean.
No longer is humid summer air heavily laden with the smell of freshly-shelled lima beans on their trek to processing plants. Hereford cattle that once summered on barrier islands are remembered only in name by an inlet and a lighthouse, both in North Wildwood. Rhubarb, once a popular spring treat to some, has fallen from favor while the strawberries that accompanied it in pies and other dishes remains high on shoppers’ lists, although strawberries are readily available throughout the year, but not from local farms.
In place of pumpkin fields and acres of corn and blueberry bushes, nurseries raise bushes and saplings. Sod has become more valued than edible crops. Grapevines cling to supports as they ripen their fruit just above soil that once grew tomatoes and soybeans.
Although their face has changed, Cape May County still supports 36 farms. Some of those are equestrian centered, others raise evergreens revered as Christmas trees, and still others harbor hogs and sheep. One cultivates delicate day lilies while another produces salt hay mulch.
Interest has been rekindled among some farmers to plant over 10,000 of beach plum bushes, a natural in the cape’s sandy soil. Those bushes have been put to agricultural as well as environmental applications, according to the Cape May County Beach Plum Association. That nonprofit 501(c) 5 organization was established in 2005. Its goal is the promotion and cultivation of that fruit. In fact, the beach plum has been named Cape May County’s official fruit by freeholders.
In the 1989 November election, county voters approved, by a 2:1 margin, a ballot question that established a trust fund to preserve agricultural and open space land. That fund is perpetuated by the Open Space Preservation Tax of one cent per $100 of assessed real estate value. The fund takes in about $5 million annually.
According to the county’s Open Space Program Guide, “From 1989 to 2013, the county was successful in purchasing 1,218 acres of open space ($26,096,075 spent) and deed restricting 3,148 acres of farmland ($32,961,622 spent). This has resulted in the permanent preservation of 4,325 acres through the utilization of nearly $59 million of Trust Fund dollars.”
One facet of the program allows for acquisition of farmland or acquisition of development easements for farmland preservation purposes. Thus many acres were spared from development at a time when real estate ventures would have made sale of those farms worthwhile.
County officials have long recognized the importance of farms to the local economy. To continue those efforts, the County Agricultural Development Board meets every other month to discuss problems and prospects. Members include George Brewer Jr., chair, James Hazlett, Leslie Rea, Sue Anne Wheeler, James P. Hand, Warren Stiles and Agricultural Agent Jenny Carleo.
Freeholder Will Morey, who oversees the county’s economic development, routinely briefs his peers on the developments that affect agriculture.
In 2013, when the state proposed revamped Agricultural Management Practice guidelines governing direct marketing on farms, including wineries, the county submitted “extensive comments” regarding that initiative. In many cases, the ability to market directly was deemed a necessity by county officials to permit the farms to survive and thrive.
Morey also cited a February meeting with state Farmland Preservation Program Executive Director Susan Payne. He also noted that she discussed availability of funds for use in the farmland preservation program. He cited “positive indications that between $1 million and $1.6 million will be gained by the county in cost-sharing as a result. The fund will continue to replenish each year as well, he added.
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