Linvilla Orchards
A variety of fruits, including berries, peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and apricots, and vegetables, including tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins and sweet corn
Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA, is one of the last working farms in the Delaware Valley. The farm has been in the Linvill family since 1914, when the grandfather of the present owners bought the property. He immediately turned it from a dairy farm into an orchard with mostly peaches and apples. He started out taking the apples to town, then gradually began selling from the front porch of the farm house, and then finally opened a Farm Market in the Octagonal Barn. Today the Farm Market is open 7 days a week, 51 weeks out of the year (It closes only for the first week of January).
Linvilla's 300 acres are devoted to providing a farm experience for its customers and thousands of area schoolchildren. Each year 40,000 kids are able to learn a little bit about agriculture and see how a variety of crops grow. An educational and entertaining visit to Linvilla might include a moonlit hayride, a farm tour, visiting the farm's animals, a fishing trip, the Pumpkinland Harvest Festival, and the chance to cut your own Christmas tree in addition to shopping at the well-stocked Farm Market. A shopping trip gives you the opportunity to pick up not only fresh produce, including a wide variety of apples, but also homemade baked goods, jams, jellies, and honey, and many gourmet food items. During the harvest season you can also "Pick Your Own" strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, apricots, plums, blackberries, apples, grapes, nectarines and pears. (Check their website for dates.)
Norm Stolzfus has been the farm manager at Linvilla for 7 years. He enjoys his position there so much because of Linvilla's long season. Because they grow so many different crops, the most rewarding part of farming - harvesting - lasts all season long, from May through November. He is also thankful for Linvilla's good location, which enables it to be so successful at direct marketing. Linvilla is also always looking to do new things. For example, in the past year or two, they have introduced trout fishing and a cut-your-own Christmas tree operation. While some farms stagnate, Linvilla remains vibrant by being so innovative. Linvilla's success is also due to its diversification. While it used to be that a farm could successfully focus on one main crop, these days a farm dependent on direct marketing can't be so limited by the harvest period of only one crop. Linvilla's customers are eager for a farm experience, but they don't want to be restricted by season. Since people don't have as much of a sense of season as they used to, Linvilla's especially long harvest season suits their schedules well.
This success, however, will never get rid of Linvilla's biggest challenge, Mother Nature. To counteract the other challenges for small family farms, Norm recommends Linvilla's approach of direct marketing and pick-your-own. With wholesale prices so low, this cuts the middleman out of the equation, and allows the farmer to keep a larger percentage of the profits. The Linvill family is grateful for their success and strives to give as much back to the community as they receive. The owners still make decisions by consensus, which helps to keep the family together.
Anyone who hasn't tasted Linvilla's fruits and vegetables should prepare themselves for a unique and delightful experience. When you purchase local produce, you're receiving crops that are grown based on flavor, rather than shippability. While varieties grown locally are selected for how great they taste, varieties grown across the country must be chosen for durability and how well they ship. While most people are familiar with different varieties of apples, they often don't understand that the same principle holds true for all other fruits and vegetables as well. Once they taste the right varieties, however, they realize why locally grown produce is such a better product.
