PLUMSTED – The Hallock family of New Egypt, which operates Hallock’s U-Pick Farm, Fischer Road, received the Neil Robson Farmers Against Hunger Award at the recent New Jersey Department of Agriculture convention.
The Farmers Against Hunger Award is presented in memory of Neil Robson, according to a press release from the Department of Agriculture. The award was presented to the Hallock family by Farmers Against Hunger Chairman Jim Giamarese.
In a press release, the Department of Agriculture said the Hallock family once again opened its farm to gleaning volunteers and contributed 85,300 pounds of produce which was harvested by volunteers.
Teams came to the farm on multiple occasions during the fall and the Hallock family plowed potatoes, loaded the wagons and stored the produce.
The Department of Agriculture said the produce provided thousands of families with Thanksgiving meals and produce through the holiday season.
“The Hallock family goes above and beyond, offering us a chance to get as much as we can and often we are chasing the clock with frost right up until the end of the season. The very last gleaning of the season, held right before Christmas, hit a record for us of 18,000 pounds of cabbage gleaned in two hours with less than 20 volunteers,” department officials said in the press release.
Neil Robson farmed nearly 1,200 acres of crops in Burlington County. He and his wife, Jean, were the proprietors of Robson Farms and Greenhouses in North Hanover and Robson’s Farm Markets, according to the press release.
Robson preserved more than 500 acres of his property to be maintained as farmland forever. The department said Robson was a humanitarian who donated produce to New Jersey Farmers Against Hunger and opened his farm to gleanings.
