A century of living high on the hog: Somerset NJ Farm thrives after 4 generations and counting

Star Ledger ^ | 11.17.05 | JEANETTE RUNDQUIST

[Coleus]

George Dealaman Sr.'s father sold his first pig in 1905, back when Warren Township was a farming community of small villages and dirt roads, when dairy cows dotted the sides of the Watchung Mountains and Route 78 was not even on the map.

Nowadays, the township is a wealthy Somerset County suburb. The median household income tops $100,000, an average house sells for about three-quarters of a million dollars and shiny corporate buildings, not cows, dot the landscape along the interstate.

Amid all that, more than 100 years after they began raising and butchering pigs there, Dealaman's farm is still in business.

"The family's all here. In how many families do you find that?" asked Dealaman, 87, standing among blue-gray barns, the slaughterhouse and other buildings on the farm started by his father, Fred. A fourth generation, the octogenarian's grandsons, now works for Dealaman Enterprises.

Begun on another Warren farm, the business will celebrate its centennial Saturday with a catered party for about 200 invited guests, including elected officials, friends and customers, at a Warren restaurant.

"This will never be sold as long as I'm here," said Dealaman, the business's president. "It took a lot of hard work and long hours."

A family farm reaching the century mark is not unheard of in New Jersey. At least 81 farms have been recognized for doing that since 1976, with the state Department of Agriculture's "Century Award."

But to keep a farm going that long -- in a town where most others have disappeared, in a state where development pressure and rising costs drive many farmers out of business and an era when many families scatter -- is an accomplishment.

[bybybill]

So what happens when somebody wants to build condos on the farm? Higher taxes you know.