Farmer Fred’s Farewell: One Last Season of U-Pick Apples Led By Mario

With this announcement comes mixed emotions, but for several reasons I have decided that it is time for Farmer Fred to retire from his most favorite business passion of farming.

I grew up on a real working farm, and at the age of 8 was tasked with daily chores and work responsibilities as the oldest child of a family Fruit and Vegetable farm owned and operated by my parents Samuel and Rose Sorbello. Dad was our leader and Mom would multi-task, preparing timely breakfast, lunches, and dinners because 30 minute breaks were exactly that. Everyone, including mom, went back to work once we ate. Life in those days was a bit different as we learned to help in as many ways as possible growing up. If you’re the oldest son on the farm (and BTW, my younger brother Sam was treated no different), it was expected. And on those hot summer days, 14-16 hour days in fields and pack-houses, you grew up fast. Then as a kid, I couldn’t say I loved it, but making mom and dad proud was everything to Sam and I.

In the mid 1970’s the farm grew under the name Hill Creek farms, and before we knew it, Dad built our first cold storage which is another story. That lone cold storage would someday become one of the Country and Worlds largest commercial Cold storage companies, it is who we are today.

Around 2004, it was important to me to restart the farm operation as a way to pay respect to the 2 generations before me, so we planted some 14,000 apple trees on an abandoned horse farm in South Harrison Township and started farming again to remind my 5 grandchildren that these are our roots, not the commercial powerhouse we are in the world today of Food distribution. In 2008 we opened to the public for U-Pick and from there it kept growing because of all our great clients. And yes, it was you who pushed me to take what was a simple farm to its current status, and for that I am eternally grateful. My wife Cheryl helped me start our commercial Apple Cider Company and is the founder of those great apple cider donuts that everyone loved best at HCF.

Of all my business successes, nothing measured up to farming, and all the memories it brought back to me of growing up on a farm. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t appreciate it then, but understand that the work ethic dad taught us is exactly what has propelled us to the life we live today.

Yes, I have new memories watching my children take our Food distribution business to even great heights, and they too started working at the early age of 8-year-olds, all 3 of them Dan, Alexandra and Nathan. Hopefully their memories of growing up in our Food business will be similar to mine with mom and dad as they were for me on the farm.

So with the kids so busy in our Food Distribution business, the farm we started in 2004 has become so demanding during those 9-10 weekends of the Apple Harvest, it’s time to call it a career. That plus all the bureaucracy of running a fun farm market where everything you do is so damn regulated. Yes, we may have pushed it too far, but the one agency who truly has made me say “no more” is the Board of Health and the demands they hold even a small family farm market for a 9-10 weekend operation (we are talking 28 days when you include Columbus Day).

To meet their demands puts this farm at a crossroad, either go big because of the added investment requirements and operate 10-12 months a year or simply say it’s time to stop.

To all of you, thank you. Thank you for making Hill Creek Farms the number 1 Apple U-Pick destination of this tri-state area. Thank you for always saying hello, thank you for making HCF your annual U-Pick destination and family tradition.

Good news, we will open this fall one more season but for U-Pick only. The BOH is asking too much, so for this season, we invite you to come one more season to pick some apples under the leadership of Mario Caltabiano but understand it will be U-Pick only. I refuse to deal with the Gloucester County Board of Heath here forward. And sadly, potentially another New Jersey farm lost. (the so-called Garden State).

Thank you all again, it was fun while it lasted.

– Farmer Fred