Farming: It’s A Long Story
The Bullocks have been growing crops in cream ridge since Abe Lincoln ran for president. Maybe that’s because they know how to change with the times.
Talk about deep roots. The family-run Bullock Farms in Cream Ridge has been in business for six generations—165 years. Brett Bullock became generation six in 2010, when he came home to help his parents, Martin and Janet, run the farm full-time. Before that, he had been working in plant nursery production, growing and selling different types of trees, after graduating with a degree in soil science from the University of Vermont.
The Bullock family bought land in Cream Ridge and established the farm in 1860, but their roots in the area run even deeper than that. “Before that, they were 15 minutes away in Chesterfield Towns-hip, on a different farm,” says Brett. “Our family has been farming in this area since the 1600s.”
It’s customary to describe an agricultural operation with the punning phrase “business is growing,” but over the years Bullock Farms has actually done some shrinking—going from 1,500 acres down to 300. The crops grown there have changed too. Says Martin Bullock, 77: “This whole area was potatoes for quite a while, up through the 1970s, before it became more econo-mical to get them shipped in from other places. After that, we did tomatoes. Then it was all grain. There’s been a lot of shifts in the crops, and we’ve needed to adapt.” Now the farm mostly grows soybeans and grains such as barley, wheat and rye—in addition to pumpkins.
“For most of my childhood, we were growing and harvesting pumpkins, sometimes up to 60 acres of them,” says Brett. “We would send them out wholesale to garden centers around New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It was our biggest business for a while, but then we started seeing more competition and falling prices. So we decided to try out ‘pick-your-own’ pumpkins instead.”
Like many small, family-owned farms, Bullock pivoted toward “agritourism.” In the fall, along with those pick-your-own pumpkin fields, families flock to the farm for corn mazes, hayrides, apple-cider donuts and children’s activities. In December the farm offers pick-your-own Christmas trees from the 12 acres dedicated to growing them.
“It was a big decision to let people onto the farm like that,” says Brett. “There’s a whole other set of difficulties that come with it. But right now everything is so customer experience-driven. People want the experience, they want to do something different, something fun. And this gives people that, plus it’s family-friendly, so they can bring their kids.” He adds: “Farms and agriculture are trendy now. When I was growing up, being a farm kid wasn’t treated as a cool thing, but now it is.”
Another “experience” on the farm comes from Screamin’ Hill Brewery, one of Brett’s main projects. Founded in 2015 by him and co-owner Ryan Cole, it’s the state’s first and only “farm-first” brewery—meaning that all the grain that goes into the beer is grown right in Bullock’s fields. “We’re a grain farm, so the whole goal is to grow as much as we can here,” says Brett. “We really focus on malt. We also grow some hops, and we use our pumpkins for our pumpkin beer, and our habaneros and tomatoes for habanero beer and heirloom tomato beer.” The taproom is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it draws even more people to Bullock. (If you stop by, Brett recommends the Bullock Lager.)
Legacy and family pride touch everything Bullock Farms does. “I’ve grown up here,” says Martin. “I’ve been here for 77 years, and a lot of people can’t say that.”
Even the extended family gets into the act. “We don’t need to hire outside people, really,” says Brett. “Aunts and uncles, cousins and cousins’ children—they all come down here during the fall and the holiday season to help. Everyone takes a lot of pride in it.”
“Monmouth County has been very helpful throughout the years,” says Martin. “The Made in Monmouth program promotes businesses like ours. And the state farmland preservation prog-rams have been a great thing; they really saved the area. Pretty much all the farms that surround us in the area are preserved. We still have those rolling hills. It’s pretty.”
What’s next for the farm? Martin looks forward to handing off more of the day-to-day responsibilities to his son. But he also says, “We’re going to keep it going. As with any other business, you try and adapt and do anything you can to keep making it work.”
