Farm

The Vincentown Diner is situated in South Jersey farm country, which last week was flat and silent, the fields snow-patched and stubbled, still months away from planting season. It is at the confluence of Routes 206 and 38, about 13 miles east of the Ben Franklin Bridge, and it is the only diner you'll encounter in this stretch that has a splashy yellow roadside sign that says "Now using Organic Eggs" under the more typical tout for steaks, chops, and seafood. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, customers may choose the chef's three-course dinner, $15.99, which typically showcases the diner's claim to modest fame; it sources as many local foods as it can find, which is a challenge, of course, this time of year, halfway between harvest and planting: Local and seasonal don't always line up neatly.

The Goshenview Farms store is perhaps better-known by the name on its sign: "The Milk Store. " And as in the days when milk came in something other than cardboard or plastic, customers leave their glass milk-bottle empties on metal racks by the cash register and collect a new supply of fresh farm milk. "We always come in for their milk and the ice cream," said West Goshen resident Mary Price as she completed a purchase at the store, in East Goshen Township on the edge of the 199-acre Ira and Dorothy Hicks farm.

Putting the animals to bed" night at Springton Manor farm, sponsored by the county Parks and Recreation Department, gave little folks a chance to compare bedtime in the barn and in the pasture with their own bedtime experiences back at home. They discovered that the pigs don't squeal for one more story, and the calves don't beg to see one more TV show.

A historic farm in Birmingham Township is on its way to becoming a subdivision called Fieldpoint. On Monday, supervisors unanimously approved the proposed subdivision of the Beatty farm into single-family lots, open space and a small farmstead. The plan is the first filed in the township under a new "agricultural residential transition" ordinance. Under that ordinance, written specifically to cover the Beatty farm and a few acres to the south, farmland, community open space and single-family houses can coexist on the same parcel if certain conditions are met. The Fieldpoint plan calls for 55 houses, 27 acres of open space and a 67 acres of farmland.

Nicholas DiStefano wants Medford Township to condemn his father's farm. The township's interest in converting the 120-acre farm on Old Marlton Pike into a park or police station has killed the interest of every developer who has thought of building on the land, said a suit filed last week in DiStefano's behalf in Burlington County Superior Court. Bidding by developers for the farm - which the suit describes as one of the most important undeveloped pieces of land in the township - once went as high as $6 million.

BEAUFORT, Mo. - Spring arrived at Sam Wiseman's little farm with a huge to-do list. The fences were collapsing after a long winter; the chickens running amok, laying eggs everywhere. The weeds popped up in every possible spot, and trays of seedlings sat in the greenhouses, waiting for someone to plant them. Until the "crop mob" rolled in. On a recent weekend, a group of about 30 people flooded the 22-acre property, with shovels, wheelbarrows and goodwill, to help Wiseman as she tries to whip the farm into shape.

Like huge, bony puppies, the two calves come clopping eagerly out of their wooden huts as Quincy Jones approaches with the plastic half-gallon bottles of milk formula. Wild-eyed, the brown and white spotted creatures strain at the ends of their rope tethers. Jones, 17, halts, extends his arms and plunks a red, rubber nipple into each calf's pink lips. The little cows suck for all their worth, practically pulling the bottles from the teenager's hands. In less than 60 seconds they are done.

As the truck pulled away from the huge gray barn, the passengers settled back to enjoy a hayride through Linvilla Orchards before getting down to the real business of the day. Slowly, the truck rumbled toward the strawberry fields already dotted with pickers - young and old - who were determined to brave the stifling afternoon heat and select the best of the crop. It was just seconds after hopping off the truck that 5-year-old Courtney D'Ignazio-Sypher spotted what she was after - a large red, juicy berry.

A plan to build 81 single-family houses on a tract that has been farmed for more than 200 years has been recommended for approval by the Uwchlan Planning Commission. The plan, by Ashbridge Associates of Lionville, is for the 67-acre Dean farm at Shelmire and Dorlan Mill Roads. The firm plans to create Upper Welsh Ayres with the neighboring Congdon property, across Shelmire Road. In all, the development will total 144 acres. Ashbridge officials have said they will propose an additional 41 houses on the Congdon site sometime in early 1989.

This is likely the last September that Horace Mowrer will plant a winter crop in northern Chester County. For the last 40 years, Chester County neighbors have rented him their farms to plant and harvest as, one after the other, they have walked away from their own fields. Next month, once again, Horace Mowrer will plant the winter barley and winter wheat that he will harvest in the spring. Next summer, once again, Horace Mowrer will farm 104 of his own acres and more than 800 acres that 20 other landlords own, growing grain primarily to feed his dairy herd.

Five-cups-a-day coffee-drinker Paul Friel, the former Sunoco and Wawa executive who has run the Broomall-based Swiss Farms chain of drive-up dairy and convenience stores for the last three years, just picked up a second job: He's also the new CEO of the Saxbys Coffee shop chain. Investor Robert E. Brown Jr.'s MVP Capital Partners, the Radnor firm that's owned Swiss Farms since 2003, paid previous owner Joseph Grasso less than $3 million in cash and debt payments for Philadelphia-based Saxbys, according to people familiar with the terms.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Five exotic animals are back on the eastern Ohio farm where they lived months ago before their owner released dozens of wild animals into the rural community, then killed himself. The widow of Terry Thompson picked up two leopards, two primates and a bear from the Columbus zoo on Friday and returned them to their former home in Zanesville where 50 animals - including black bears, mountain lions and Bengal tigers - were released Oct. 18. Authorities killed 48 of the animals, fearing for the public's safety.

It has no street address, no sign pointing the way. Around here, it's known simply as "the farm. " Which sounds like a stretch. We're standing at 53d Street and Wyalusing Avenue in the Haddington section of West Philly, not exactly Green Acres. But here it is, an actual working farm — at the end of an unpaved driveway, beyond a chain-link fence, surrounded by a horseshoe configuration of rowhouses. You pretty much need to know where you're going to get here, which, in a way, is also true of Annie Preston, a young Temple University student who came to this improbable place in 2010 to try her hand at urban farming and, along the way, found her life's work.

A toddler was killed while playing near a piece of farm equipment in Berks County on Sunday, authorities said. About 4 p.m., authorities from the Berks-Lehigh Regional Police Department were dispatched to investigate the boy's death on a farm along Topton Road in Maxatawny Township. There were no other injuries, police said. Authorities did not release the 11/2-year-old's name or additional details about the incident, which is under investigation. - Darran Simon

A toddler was killed while playing around a piece of farm equipment in Berks County on Sunday, authorities said. Around 4 p.m., authorities from the Berks-Lehigh Regional police department were dispatched to investigate the boy's death on a farm along Topton Road, Maxatawny Township. There were no other injuries, police said. Authorities did not release the 1 1/2-year-old's name or additional details about the incident, which is under investigation. -    Darran Simon

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration's move to scrap a plan that would prevent some children from working in dangerous farm jobs drew sharp rebukes Friday from child welfare advocates who claim the president caved to election-year pressure from farmers and Republicans. The Labor Department spent more than a year working on the proposal to ban children younger than 16 from using power-driven farm equipment - including tractors - and prevent those under 18 from working in grain silos, feed lots, and stockyards.

WASHINGTON - The Senate has begun laying the groundwork for a half-trillion-dollar farm and food bill that would end unconditional subsidies to farmers, but House Republicans' resolve to cut its biggest component - food stamps - by $13 billion a year dims its prospects of passing Congress. The current five-year farm bill expires at the end of September, and the Senate Agriculture Committee on Friday released a draft of its plan to redesign safety nets that help farmers weather bad times while achieving $23 billion in deficit reduction.

In his muddy boots and pig-farmer hat, Dean Carlson looks like he's been raising animals a long time. But this is a new career for the owner of 355-acre Wyebrook Farm, which he rebuilt to raise "sustainable" cattle, pigs and chickens on Wyebrook Road in West Nantmeal Township, Chester County, and sell the meat in his new market, which he plans to open on weekends starting Saturday. Carlson, 40, spent 15 years as a securities trader in Chicago and Dublin, and as head of the convertibles desk at Bala Cynwyd-based Susquehanna International Group, which hires brainy math types and calculating gamblers and helps them get rich.

Aqua Pennsylvania Inc. will open its second large solar farm on Friday when Gov. Corbett and other officials dedicate a $6.5 million, 1.5-megawatt photovoltaic facility at the company's Pickering water treatment plant near Phoenixville. The solar farm will reduce Aqua's electricity purchases by 2.3 million kWh a year, generating $207,000 in energy savings and other revenue from relieving congestion on the regional power grid. The utility's first solar farm was a 1.0 megawatt array at its Ingram's Mill treatment plant in East Bradford Township near West Chester.

Emily Teel's introduction to the local food industry was as a volunteer. She worked at Reading Terminal Market's Fair Food Farmstand while it was still only a folding table. After a year, she wrote herself a job description and told her employer, "You need to hire me. " In 2005, she became the stand's first manager. "Food became an event," said Teel, now director of public programming for Greener Partners, an organization that supports and raises awareness of local food growers.