Another stop on the Brown Bag suppliers tour!! Ever heard of Kreider Farms? No? Bet you know all about Lancaster County, Pennsylvania though, right? Did you know that LancasterCounty has the most productive, non-irrigated land in the United States? Did you know that it has more small, family farms than any other county in the United States? Ninety-nine percent of the farms in LancasterCounty are small, family-owned farms! That includes one of our favorite suppliers, Kreider Farms!
Kreider Farms is a third generation family-owned farm that has grown from 103 acres, 200 hundred chickens, a dozen cows, and assorted crops to over 2,500 acres with 5 million egg-laying chickens, 2,000 cows, a milk-bottling and ice cream plant, 320 employees and a public farm-tour program since 1935. Kreider Farms began when Noah W. Kreider and the former Mary R. Hershey bought the farm (which had been in Mary’s family since 1739) from her father, John B. Hershey. They moved onto the farm with their two sons, Richard and Noah Jr.; and as the boys grew and married, they began buying adjoining farms, and Kreider farms began to grow. In 1972, they expanded their dairy business by building a processing plant and opening a retail store where they sold their milk and ice cream. Egg producing took off too; and eventually, Kreider Farms became the largest egg producer in the state of Pennsylvania.
In 2008, Kreider was awarded the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association’s “Family Farm Environmental Excellence Award” for its innovative handling of byproducts. The farm uses its chicken and cow waste products to produce compost which is then used to fertilize the fields in which the farm grows its corn, alfalfa, rye grass and grass hay that eventually feeds the dairy cows. Kreider Farms also uses the water from their egg washes in the egg-packing house to water the fields. In addition to these environmentally friendly practices, the farm has also updated its manure and lagoon treatment system to reduce ammonia emissions from the treatment system and reduce the concentration of nutrients in the waste water, which means that less phosphorus and nitrogen are sprayed on the fields during the irrigation process. This treatment facility is the first of its kind in the state of Pennsylvania.
All in all, Kreider Farms
- Composts and recycles over 50 tons of manure each day
- Bags their own special blend of dehydrated chicken and cow manure for home use
- Has fenced off the streams on its property to protect the water passing through on its way to the Chesapeake Bay
- Delivers environmentally-friendly, fresh milk, eggs and ice cream from Virginia through Boston
We’re happy to have found a supplier that couples great products with a commitment to the environment. Come in and sample Kreider Farms’ fresh eggs in one of our specialty breakfast items. Omelet, anyone?
