The MidAtlantic Women in Agriculture program hosted its 2021 annual Fall Farm Tour on Tuesday November 9, 2021. The tour included over 30 participants from various parts of Maryland and Delaware. The group visited four different agricultural and food service businesses between Caroline County, Maryland and Sussex County, Delaware.
The tour began at Seaberry Farm located in Federalsburg, Maryland. Owners Drs, Wenfei and Richard Uva showed members of the tour around their 36-acre farm. At Seaberry Farm the Uva’s grow a selection of woody cut stems as well as a variety of perennial and annual cut flowers, and other specialty fruits. This site is one of the largest field cut flower producers in the Mid-Atlantic region, and supplies supermarkets around the region, including some Whole Foods and Wegmans stores.
The next stop on the tour was the Evans Farms, an on-farm produce market with a sister business The Frozen Farmer located in Bridgeville Delaware. At this site members of the tour toured the general store area where customers can shop for locally produced groceries including local produce, all-natural meats, milk and eggs, locally roasted coffee, jarred items, produced soaps and more.
Following this, Jo Ellen Algier fondly known as “Mamma Jo” showed the group around the on-site confectionery known as The Frozen Farmer. On this site, the Evans family takes imperfect fruits they would be unable to sell on the farm stand and creates Sorbet and Frobert (a blend of ice cream and sorbet that has less fat, calories and sugar content than traditional ice cream). While sampling these frozen treats the group learned about The Frozen Farmer feature on the hit show “Shark Tank” where "Shark" Lori Greiner first invested in the company last year.
For lunch the tour visited the Caroline Culinary Arts Center at the Caroline Schoolhouse. The Chesapeake Culinary Center, an organization which provides students and adults job training, cooking classes and support for local farmers. Beth Brewster, the supervisor of food services presented to the group about recent updates, and the history of the Chesapeake Culinary Center. After lunch the group toured Shore Gourmet, a public eatery and retail shop housed within the Caroline Schoolhouse and the community kitchen, a location in which small food-based businesses are able to rent spaces for food production and preservation.
The last stop on the tour was Cawley Family Farm located just outside of Denton Maryland. This 12-acre farm of choose and cut Christmas trees has been in the Cawley family since 1996. On this site the family also sells fresh hand-made wreaths, tree stands and garlands. Owners Charles, and Jane Cawley, along with their daughter Amy Cawley showed the group around the plots of various live trees including White Pines, and Douglas Firs.
After the COVID-19 pandemic led all MidAtlantic Women in Agriculture 2020 farm tours to being held virtually, group organizers and attendees were elated to finally be back together in person!
MidAtlantic Women in Agriculture is dedicated to providing knowledge and resources to women who share a passion for agriculture. Farm tours enable women to stay engaged, educated and empowered. Additionally, farm tours offer various perspectives that women can apply to their own operations.
For more information on the farms visit their websites at:
https://evansfarmsproduce.com/
https://carolineculinaryarts.org/
For more information on the Mid Atlantic women in agriculture program visit: www.go.umd.edu/womeninag