Our second trip of the year was to Fifers orchard down in Camden- Wyoming, Delaware. Sitting on over 3000 acres the Fifer family has been farming here for four generations and what it looks like now is different than how it all started out when it was 1/10th the size. Bobby Fifer gave us a tour of the orchards and around the property. While we were looking at the various crops of pumpkins, apple, kale, where the tomatoes, and straw berries being planted Bobby told us about the management and labor practices they use. Disease and pest prevention and eradication is a big part of their operation and a big challenge they face. After looking at the packaging line and the giant refrigerators, Bobby’s brother Kurt joined us and talked to us about how they market their product.
The Fifers produce is sold at many locations. Some is sold in their store on the farm, some is sold to grocery distributers such as Giant, some is sold to a third party distributor, and some is sold through a Community Supported Agriculture program.
After our learning we stopped by the farm store and enjoyed some apple cider donuts, apple cider, apples, kettle corn, and pickles. When it was finally time to go we loaded on to the UD bus and got all of a quarter mile from the entrance when the bus broke down. We all ended up making it back to UD eventually. It was a eventful ending to the end of a fun trip.