Farms Do No Harm: Volume II - Renninger's Farm

Renninger’s Farm joined the 2nd Avenue streetscape in Royersford back in 1932, with a focus on raising dairy cows. The original owners’ son, Jay, took over the farm in the 1980s, knowing well that once Route 422 construction finished, residential developments would pop up around him. He soon saw that the farm would only survive if he adapted it into scenery brimming with fresh food, as agriculture in the area dwindled each time older generations died away and estates took to settlement.

"Once the population changed, every new house was a potential customer," Renninger said.

In 1996, the last cows were milked. Over time, Renninger began to raise as much produce on the land as he could. It is now downsized to 17 acres stretching away from his house and another 17 non-farmed acres across the road, parallel to the Norfolk Southern rail line with its freight trains roaring past the family homestead.

When his parents bought the land in Royersford nearly 80 years ago, it came with 120 acres, which had to be sold off when he took the reins of the farm for himself. Before that, including rented fields, his family farmed 700 acres around the region.

Realizing that he couldn’t keep up with raising enough food to meet his customers’ demands, given that his farm market is one of the only of its kind in the Royersford area, Renninger connected with a larger-scale farmer in Lancaster years ago. It began with fields of corn raised just for Renninger and has now expanded to a good part of his selection of seasonally available produce.

He travels about 30 miles to load his freshly picked farm food in Lancaster, but fortunately, despite their labor intensity, Renninger and his family still have time to raise heirloom tomatoes which are a much-treasured summer delight for many of those stopping in to scoop up ingredients for dinner.

The market sells a healthy variety of flowers in hanging baskets in spring, along with vegetable plants, annuals and perennials.

The food supply bulks by summertime, with a cut-your-own flowers option luring in a good number of those looking for the heart-happy persuasion of mood-perking petals. Zinnias are the most popular by far per clipping, Renninger said.

In the fall, the many gourds Renninger and his family raises in his fields are grabbed up quickly. Pumpkins are regularly reached for in those cooler, refreshing autumn days.

Behind the main market, a few chairs, a table, a big plastic tunnel for children to climb through and toy dinosaurs and trucks sprawl between perennials, as Renninger said the space is sort of a community area where parents will often sit with friends to talk and catch up while their children play.

Set further back where the actual farmland begins, especially social chickens, goats, potbelly pigs and a few beef cows await the hands of visitors who excitedly bring them feed to nibble on throughout the day.

"We give them pretzels to feed to the goats," Renninger said, beaming that the cows have their own particular preferences for cantaloupe and watermelon.

"Too many generations are too far removed from the farm," Renninger added, noting that a lot of those who stop in to buy food often gravitate to the chicken coops, their demeanors clearly happier just from seeing and connecting with animals up-close.

Renninger revealed that customers come up to him three or four times a day just to thank him for keeping his farm market in the locale. While he doesn’t quite look it, he said he feels his age, 70. His mornings start at 4 a.m., with his workload not usually ending till 8 p.m.

Looking back on how different life and spending was when his parents owned the farm, Renninger pointed out that an ear of corn cost just 3 cents in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, the going rate for an ear of corn at the stand is 50 cents, but people still love the iconic summer cob and husking for themselves.

"There was nothing else I wanted to do," Renninger said about how he has always felt drawn to the dirt, the land and the challenge of growing a small seed into food for his own family and neighbors. "I always knew I wanted to farm."