MONTVALE—If you like picking your own strawberries, you might find a visit to the borough’s soon-to-be-acquired 8.4 acres of farmland to your liking.
Mayor Michael Ghassali told residents at the Sept. 14 council meeting — and via email — that the borough hopes to preserve the farmland it will acquire soon by turning a portion of it into a pick-your-own strawberry field, and maybe other crops, after it hires a farm operator.
The borough has plans to acquire 8.4 acres of DePiero Farm property on Summit and Craig avenues for $5.15 million in bonds, which were approved in May. The borough and DePiero’s, and another private purchaser, are in negotiations to close on the farm property.
The mayor told residents Sept. 14 that local officials had formulated a plan to run the soon-to-be-acquired farmland as a pick-your-own strawberry patch and to use part of it for a community garden.
Why strawberries?
“Why not? There isn’t another pick-your-own strawberries farm around. And maybe it’ll be more than just strawberries,” said the mayor, who pushed to acquire the 8.4 acres earlier this year, for possible recreation use and to prevent development there.
Ghassali told residents, “This is exciting as we will have the only Pick Your Own Strawberries Farm in Bergen County and it will open up opportunities for farm grants to the borough in the future.”
Montvale Landscaping is also acquiring 6.5 acres of DePiero Farm property to expand its operations there.
Borough Administrator Joseph Voytus told us the borough hoped to close on the property by the end of 2023 and possibly go out to bid for farm operators in early 2024. He said the strawberry fields proposed may not come until 2025 due to a condition allowing DePiero’s Farm and Farmstand to operate in 2024.
Voytus said one condition of acquiring the 8.4 acres will include allowing the DePiero family to operate the farm through 2024, which will mark the family’s 100th year in operation in Montvale.
“2024 is DePiero Farm’s 100th anniversary and we will celebrate it together,” read Ghassali’s email.
The mayor noted, “The main thing is to keep it as a farm.”
Voytus said that future farmland preservation grants may also be available to Montvale. Meanwhile, Ghassali emphasized that the farm operator may include other crops such as pumpkins, as well as space for residents’ community gardens.
In May, we reported that Ghassali said the $5.15 million in bonding would cost an average household $70 yearly over a 25-year term. He noted the borough’s $4.6 million acquisition last year to purchase 28.4 acres at 127 Summit Avenue cost an average $64 yearly. He said that’s “less than $6 a month for each of the properties.”
Earlier this year In an email to residents, Ghassali wrote, “Over the past year, we have been engaged in efforts to try to preserve this last remaining farmland in the borough. We reached out to County and State officials to find out if there were funds available for farmland preservation; unfortunately, we encountered limited funding and a general lack of interest from individuals who wanted to continue the use of the property as farmland.”
He added, “Faced with no better alternatives, we believe that acquiring this property for future active and/or passive recreation purposes is in the best interests of the borough. As part of this deal, the DePiero family will continue to operate the greenhouses for at least the next year. There are also some residential leases on the property that will need to be honored until they expire.”
He said, “However, this property is ideally suited for future development as sports fields or courts, a community center, or any number of other uses by the borough.”
See “Borough looks to buy DePiero land; bond proposed,” Michael Olohan, May 1, 2023, Pascack Press.