By Joni Garcia
I had the pleasure of chatting with Mike from Solly Brother’s Farm this week and he’s been
doing this farming thing for a long time – his whole life, to be exact.
Solly Brothers Farm is a completely family run business, and it’s been around since 1920. The Solly Brothers started growing tomatoes, carrots, and parsnips for Campbell’s Soup Company when the company was located in Pennsylvania. While they’re no longer selling to Campbell’s, or any wholesaler, the enthusiasm of providing food to Pennsylvania’s residents hasn’t changed one bit. “My grandfather started the farm, but the whole family is involved – my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins…all of us. We keep doing it out of love,” says Mike.
Solly Brothers is also passionate about supporting healthy food access for people of all income levels. They grow a variety of plants and crops for the specific reason of donating them to senior housing sites and non profit organizations like Rolling Harvest, a group based out of Bucks County that focuses on providing domestic violence organizations, food pantries, homeless shelters, and other sites with healthy, fresh, and local food. Solly Brothers also accepts Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program vouchers.
Solly offers a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, homemade pies and other homemade treats. Mike proudly touted that the strawberries that he was selling this week (which were amazing, by the way!) were not treated with any kind of pesticide spray. He added that they are very cautious about the type and quantity of pesticides they use on their produce. They carefully monitor all of their crops and only spray if there is some sort of a problem with pests. And even if there is an issue, their pest management targets the specific pest; it’s very minimal.
Of all the things that Solly Brothers grows, the absolute favorite thing for Mike to pick is…. cantaloupe! “It’s my favorite because we pick them and then toss the melons around to each other,” Mike laughs.
And what about his favorite thing to eat? Peaches right when they are picked off the tree. “They are so warm and juicy and the juice runs down your face and arm!” I think that’s a summer fave that we can all agree with!
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