THE BERRY FARM: AN APPRECIATION

William Parker
Director, ccSCOOP

10-28-10 - If I could count the times I've walked into the Berry Farm for one thing and left with sixteen, I would - but the issue isn't my impulse-buying habits or my lack of discipline when I go there. It's that everything you see there is an expression of our place in the world. Superb produce from the fields behind the store, hydroponically-grown basil, field greens year-round, lushly flavored fresh raspberries on the vine in summer and fall, huge bunches of sunflowers by the door, along with annuals, perennials, herbs, Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas trees, soba noodles, dried-and-fresh chiles, smoked bacon, red and black currants, gooseberries and herring in cream sauce. Maybe you can exercise better control than I.

Joe Gilbert is a Delaware Valley College grad, the father of three and the owner of a real working farm that he's kept going for 30 years. He is the recipient of the Victoria A. Simons Locavore Award which was presented to him at this year's Columbia County Fair.  He is proof-positive of how the Food Economy and Green aren't some catchphrase but reality. He has made the Berry Farm the showcase for local meats, poultry and dairy products. What he sells isn't sprayed with or dipped in chemicals. He lives by the seasons but has embraced technology, thereby widening the seasons. And he was doing it long before people started talking about Locally Grown. The Berry Farm is and hopefully will continue to be here for everyone and reminds both local people and visitors that food has everything to do with our well being, our economy, and our identity.

From ccSCOOP's archives: The Berry Farm uses Green technology to grow fresh greens year 'round.