Owner, David Earling, grew up along the river, in Titusville, New Jersey, with farmers as neighbors and friends. He went off to NYC to find fame and fortune and then returned home with his own family to start Gravity Hill Farm. The name is for the famous section of Pleasant Valley Road where nature defies gravity and pulls your stalled car UP the road! Read about Gravity Hill here.
Like other teens in the area, David thought it was "way cool" and always took his dates to experience the phenomenon, including future wife and farm co-owner, Maria Nicolo. Now they both think it's "way cool" to have their farm defying gravity and can't wait til their kids grow up to appreciate the wonder of it all.
Amy Elisabeth Scott arrived in Titusville, NJ by following her wandering farmy heart all the way from Los Angeles, CA. While she was still a city dweller she went through the Master Gardener program and quickly realized that she was going to have to get away from the land of cement to places where she could play with soil, hang out with trees, and eat real food.
She left her work as a food pantry manager in Pasadena to apprentice at a small diverse family farm near Santa Rosa, CA, and though California is swell for lots of people, Amy knew that her next direction would be East! Last year she apprenticed at Glynwood Center's CSA in the Hudson Valley and now equipped with enough experience under her belt, Amy is thrilled to be taking on the responsibility of co-managing Gravity Hill Farm.
When she's not farming (which isn't often) you can find Amy romping in the woods, on her yoga mat, and fermenting and preserving delicious foods and beverages. |
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Fern Hickey has spent the better part of the last decade working on farms in New Mexico, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, and Maine. Having uprooted far more times than she cares to count, she's excited to settle down for a while at Gravity Hill Farm and to join the ranks of those who put the garden into "garden state."
Though she loves to farm for farming's sake, Fern is also committed to the challenge of making fresh local food accessible across income levels and to engaging people in the process of growing a more just and sustainable food system.
When not growing food (or thinking about it), she can be found cooking, reading, dancing, biking, or beating people at card games.
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Before the industrialization of farming started in the 1940s, all farming was essentially "organic" and farms were local and family-run. Consumers knew where their food came from and who grew it. Our farm is built on those traditions and we designed the buildings to honor those customs: barns of red clapboard and white trim and split wood fences dividing growing fields from grazing pastures. Only when you look at the roof do you see the solar panels generating electricity.
FOR MORE INFO ON OUR ORGANIC FARMING PRACTICES, CLICK HERE.
For us, the animals on our farm are a way to establish a pace of life that values time differently, that teaches care and responsibility and simple joys. Plus, now that our kids are in school, we have lots of ready-made science projects!
Like any 9 year-old boy, John decided the most interesting project would be about all the different kinds of poop you find at the farm. Here he is with his collaborator, David, demonstrating the compost potential of donkey and llama poop. |
Rose still has her incubator and hatched 7 chicks in her bedroom as part of her science project. Unfortunately, 5 of the 7 were roosters which is 5 too many roosters for Gravity Hill Farm. (To see a chick being born in the incubator, visit our Animals Page.) |
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