Marolda Farms offers conventional and organic produce
Marolda Farms offers conventional and organic produce
VINELAND, NJ — When The Produce News visited Marolda Farms in early May, the volume of New Jersey-grown fresh produce items on hand was less than normal. Like everyone else involved in agriculture in the Garden State and in many areas of the eastern United States, Marolda Farms was feeling the effects of the brutal winter of 2013-14, which had pushed back the harvesting dates of most items by many weeks.
But with some warm weather certain to come, the farm soon would be harvesting a wide variety of both conventional and organic vegetables, which has distinguished the company for more than three decades.
Marolda Farms, here in the southern part of the state, is owned and operated by Richard Marolda Sr. and his wife, Sherry. As it says in a company brochure, “They have been partners in business and life since they married in 1980.”
The company farms about 400 acres, of which about 15 percent is organic, and it is “gradually converting a little acreage every year from conventional to organic,” Richard Marolda Sr. told The Produce News on a bright and sunny May 6.
The organic component to Marolda Farms comes from Sweetvine LLC, a 60-acre organic farm owned by the Maroldas’ son, Richard Jr. As their son was growing up, “Richard Jr. could be found by their side learning from and assisting his parents and carrying on their standards of quality and excellence,” a company brochure states.
Richard Jr. graduated from Temple University in 2005, “returned to the farm and began to develop a certified organic farming division, which continues to grow in scope, acreage and product line each year,” according to the brochure.
All of the organic product is packed in the “Rock & Roll Organics” label.
Of the total volume farmed by Marolda Farms, about one-third goes directly to S. Katzman Produce Inc., a wholesale company at the Hunts Point Terminal Market in the Bronx, NY, another third is sold through the Vineland Produce Auction, and the balance is sold to other distributors such as farmers’ markets and restaurants, according to Richard Sr.
On the personnel front, Tom Pease joined Marolda Farms in mid-April, where he will be assisting Sherry in the office and assisting Richard Sr. in the packinghouse as well as providing assistance in the area of food safety.
