Photo credit: RH Farms LLC

By Steve Sears

Michele Hildebrant, owner of Hackettstown’s RH Farms, looks at her 24-year-old twin daughters, Aspen and Hunter, and says, “This farm would be lost without these two.” Both young women share the farm market chores. “I don’t make decisions; they make decisions.” And their mom yields to their decision making. “They have foresight. They’re down here with the people and know what they need. They’re catering to the customer base, and I have no say – unless I want one particular flower and they get me a seed,” she says while laughing. She then reflects. “Roy was 15, and you guys,” she says, nodding at the sisters, “were 16 when you took this over. I put all my trust in them.”

Michele’s husband, Roy, died of melanoma at the age of 49 in August of 2012, leaving behind his wife and their 6 children – and a 56-acre farm with a lien on it called Iona Hill Farm.

Initially founded in the depression era as a dairy farm by their great grandfather, it had passed through three generations to the current fourth, and daughters Bailey (27), Grae (26), twins Hunter and Aspen, and sons Roy (25) and Forrest (22) refused to let the farm and its long history come to a close.

Iona Hill Farm became RH Farms LLC in 2012, but a huge part of the prior farm, and Roy Hildebrant, lives on, therefore the new name bearing his initials. Bailey left school for a year to keep the farm going, with Grae as well pitching in heartedly along with the remaining siblings. “We all work out in the field,” says Hunter, “but if I need the boys on the front, they come up front, too.”

Roy and Forrest, during a sizzling, 95-degree summer day, have been fertilizing and planting while also changing a problem tire on a tractor. “We always helped out when we were younger,” Roy says of he and his sibling’s younger years on the farm. He now handles primarily irrigation and fertilizing, and he and Forrest partner on the rest of the outdoor duties.

“I’m about to release a turtle,” says Forrest, displaying a tiny turtle found hours earlier outside the barn. “A little guy. I’m just going to put him down by the pond over there.” After bemoaning the sun on warm days like the current, he recalls with a chuckle the time when a uninformed customer witnessed him transplanting. “Somebody came back and said, ‘I didn’t know you planted all your produce.’ I said, ‘Yep, right back there.’ Then they asked, ‘Where are your fields?’ I said, ‘Right over there.” And regarding the days after his dad’s passing. “We figured it out. We worked together. We didn’t want to lose it (the farm).”

“It was daunting,” says Michele of the aftermath of her husband’s passing. “I had a lien on the farm, my husband didn’t leave me with any financial security, so I had to declare bankruptcy. I paid back everything in five years. It was tough, because we practically lived on nothing for five years.” The family and the farm survived, and she attributes it to her kids. 

“And the Lord,” says Hunter with a smile.

“And the Lord,” agrees her mom.

RH Farms is located right on Route 46 and also near routes 80 and 206. The drive from routes 10, 15, and 183 are more distant, but certainly doable. Customers that frequented the former farm and called the late Roy Hildebrant a good friend return to shop and see his wife and children, a fact the family greatly values. 

The Hildebrants in January are in the greenhouse, starting seeding for flowers, and the sowing for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, melons, onions, cucumbers, zucchini and greens is done post-Mother’s Day. “Roy really plans out a well-laid field, to make sure everything fits,” says Michele of her older son. 

The Hildebrant children don’t currently take vacations, but Hunter says, “When you have a good time, wherever you are, it really doesn’t matter.”

Aspen adds, “When you’re picking back in the fields and it’s a gorgeous day, and you look up and you like throw a tomato at each other, that’s fun.” After laughing, she says, “We are so lucky to have this place and we would never trade it in for anything. And our customers are what make it. Without our customers, there would be nothing – no RH Farms.”

RH Farms is located at 500 Route 46 West in Hackettstown. For more information, visit www.rhfarmsllc.wixsite.com/rhfarmsllc.