'We Want To Be Here': How Cherry Hill's Springdale Farm Has Withstood The Test Of Time

CHERRY HILL, NJ — While many visible characteristics of Cherry Hill have changed in the past 75 years, Springdale Farm has pushed through.

Springdale Farm began its 76th market season on Friday, withstanding decades of development and suburbanization in the township's post-World War II population boom. Although township officials are working to bring more agriculture back to South Jersey's retail hub, Springdale currently stands as Cherry Hill's last commercial farm.

The key to that resilience has been their stubbornness, according to Clayton Jarvis, whose grandparents Alan and Mary Ebert bought the farm in 1949.

"To do what we're doing, especially where we're doing it, you have to want to do it," said Jarvis, who is part of the third generation managing the farm. "You could list 100 reasons to not do it. But at the end of the day, it's because we want to be here."

Clayton Jarvis and his siblings have certainly wanted to do it. He, Michala and Alan Jarvis helped out at the farm throughout their childhoods.

Each of them went on to study different fields that have helped them carve their roles at the farm. Clayton, who studies plant biology at Rutgers University, manages the fields. Michala, who studied culinary arts, runs the bakery. And Alan, who went to school for mechanical engineering, has taken up many of the technical aspects.

They've been steadily assuming greater responsibilities from the prior generation — their parents Mary Ann and Tom Jarvis and their uncle, John Ebert.

"Mary Ann, Tom and my uncle John built the farm up to what it is today," Clayton said. "And now my siblings and I are stepping in and running a lot of the big day-to-day operations. They're still very much in charge, but we're all working together at this point."

The siblings didn't necessarily set out to cultivate a wide range of agricultural specialties, but it wasn't a total coincidence either. Their passions developed as they spent time on the farm with family members in the generations before them.

In this era, that resilience may be more important than ever.

New Jersey went about six weeks without rain last fall, marking the driest period in the state's recorded history — and an issue that environmental officials believe will be prevalent in the coming years because of climate change.

During that period, Springdale Farm maintained its crops through irrigation. But Clayton Jarvis says their supply was stretched thin until rainfall returned.

The farm's operational costs have also been rising since the COVID-19 pandemic. Although their costs plateaued a couple years ago, new tariffs on fertilizer in the nation's quickly evolving trade war have brought new challenges to farmers.

"I don't know how it's going to be in the middle of the year with the current tariffs," Clayton said. "I mean, we deal with a lot of fertilizer trade with Canada and Mexico, so you don't know how that's going to affect it."

But Springdale Farms has proven before that it can continue to serve the community in a rapidly changing world.

"We like farming and doing what we do and holding that place in the community," Clayton said. "It's a lot of work to keep after it, a lot of long days. But really, at the end of the day, you have to love it to keep going. So I can say that's why I do it anyway."

The Springdale Farm Market is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 1638 Springdale Rd.