Von Thun’s Country Farm hosts Cranbury Mother’s Club
By:Sarah Winkelman
It was a chilly, damp Tuesday morning, but that didn’t stop the Cranbury Mother’s Club from heading into Dayton to pet the animals and pick vegetables at Von Thun’s Country Farm Market on Ridge Road.
The moms, Tara Guidi, Kim Gorden and Penny Lecky, brought their kids to the farm to learn about pigs, lambs and baby goats, take a hayride and tour some of the farm’s 90 acres.
The kids, decked out in windbreakers and goulashes, listened intently as tour guide Florence Zelazny told the kids that baby goats are called kids and that the farm’s baby cow, named Fluffy, weighed 80 pounds when she was born.
"That’s more then most of you guys weigh now," she said. "When she is fully grown she’ll start producing milk and she’ll drink enough water in one day to fill up a bathtub."
Ms. Zelazny also showed the children a black sheep named Gemini that had a thick fur coat.
"The fur keeps her warm in the winter," she said. "But in the spring she needs to get a haircut so she doesn’t get too hot. Then we make the wool into hats, sweaters and mittens to keep us warm."
The kids had a chance to feed the goats hay and chase the farm cats before jumping into wagons pulled by a tractor driven by farm owner Bob Von Thun.
Mr. Von Thun said his family bought the land in 1913 and started growing potatoes and grain. In 1986 the farm changed its focus to vegetables and small fruits and added a farm market with "pick your own" fields for strawberries, raspberries, sugar snap peas and pumpkins.
He said the farm has been doing the tours for school children since 1987.
"Our goal has always been to educate the public," he said. "We want people to understand how the stuff they eat every night is grown and all the work involved in getting that food to their tables."
He said the tours are geared toward children ages 2 through 9, but said they give tours to students in middle school as well.
"We just bump up the educational level of the information we give them if the kids are older," he said. "We’ll focus less on petting the animals and more on the technical side of growing crops."
In the spring and summer months, the tours consist of petting the farm animals, seeing the way plants grow, potting a plant to take home and going on a hayride to see what crops are growing in the field. Mr. Von Thun said some tour groups also pick a fruit or vegetable, use the farm’s activity center or picnic area.
In the fall, children have a chance to pick pumpkins and wind their way through the maize maze.
"We get a lot of people coming through during each season," he said. "Last year we had more than 12,000 kids tour the farm."
Mr. Von Thun drove the tractor over the bumpy farm roads and showed the kids and their moms the rows of crops. He said the farm grows sweet corn, tomatoes, beans, peas, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, squash, onions and cucumbers.
"Right now we’re harvesting the last of the broccoli crop and once that’s done we’ll plow the field and plant pumpkins and squash," he said.
Jordan Guidi, 2, leaned over the railing of the wagon and pointed out all the vegetables to her mother while 4-year-olds Finn Lecky, Jake Gorden and Grayson Billitti knelt on the hay bales in the front of the wagon and tried their best to get sprayed with mud from the huge tractor wheels.
Mr. Von Thun also showed the children rows of spindly trees that he said were apple trees the farm planted last year.
"These trees will take another year to grow," he said. "Once they grow big and strong we can harvest apples next September and October to make cider and apple pies."
Once the trees are producing fruit, Mr. Von Thun said, the farm will have "pick-your-own" apple days on weekends.
At the end of the hayride the children were given green baskets and let loose in the green bean field. Underneath the wide canopy of leaves the children found hundreds of ripe beans just waiting to be picked.
"Look how many beans I found," Finn said, holding up his bucket of green beans.
Jake and Grayson preferred jumping over the rows of beans while 1-year-old Emma Gorden grabbed fistfuls of beans and stuffed them into her mouth.
Hunter Billitti, 2, picked beans as fast as he could eat them and pronounced them "sweet and yummy."
The farm also has a market that is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information about arranging a tour, visit their Web site at www.vonthunfarms.com or call (732) 329-8656.