Agriculture has been an integral part of life and commerce in Cumberland County. It is known as the “Garden Spot of the Garden State.”
The original people of Cumberland County, the Lenni Lenape, established their tribes near streams. The cleared the land to be able to farm the land. When the Lenape burned off the forest, they turned the ash into the soil to fertilize it. They grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, and melons.
Farming expanded until 1776 in Cumberland County. That is when many of the farms were destroyed by the British in the American Revolution.
After the war ended, the farms were rebuilt. With hard work, many farmers became prosperous in their communities. The oldest farm under continuous ownership is the Sayre-Howell farm in Cedarville. The farm was started in 1697 by Joseph Sayre. It is presently operated by James Howell, a descendant of Joseph Sayre.
An important contribution to 20th century agriculture in Cumberland County is the Italian-American farming community. Many came to the coal mining areas in Pennsylvania and saved their money to buy farms. They settled in the Vineland area of Cumberland County.
Charles F. Seabrook was a famous person associated with agriculture in Cumberland County. He was a pioneer in corporate agriculture in South Jersey, the commercial freezing of vegetables, and in the development of the nursery industry.
In 1933, Seabrook founded Seabrook Farms Corporation. Until the mid 1970s, this firm was one of the largest farming and frozen foods operations in the United States. It controlled production of over 30,000 acres of vegetable crops. One of the most famous nurseries in the United States, Koster's Nursery. Many other local nurseries were founded by Koster’s that are still here today.
Three grandsons of Seabrook built a new $9.2 million frozen vegetable processing plant in Upper Deerfield Township in the late 1970s. The plant freezes a variety of vegetables, of which ninety-five percent are grown in Cumberland and Salem Counties.
The New Jersey Tomato Council built a state-of-the-art packing facility in the county to handle all their skate-tomato production in New Jersey.