Our Farm was started on a 12 acre parcel of land in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey at the turn of the 20th century by Max Landgraef. The land was cleared by hand and farmed organically. It was a small family farm which supported the Landgraef family through the Great Depression. They would barter their vegetables with other small family farms for milk and eggs. They also sold some produce from a stand on the roadside and wildflowers were sold to hotels in Atlantic City.

As the years went by the family grew and the land was subdivided between the Landgraef children. My grandparents Matthew Bruckler Sr. and Kay(Landgraef) Bruckler along with their son Matthew Bruckler Jr. maintained the last 3 acres of the farm. Matthew Sr. took special pride in his hobby farming from the time he retired to the day he passed on. His Son Matthew Jr. grew a crop of Pine trees which he sold and I, Matthew Bruckler III am here farming the same land. My children Gabrielle and Benjamin are the 5th generation of our family to be on this land.

I am married to Linda(D’Agostino) Bruckler and we run JAH’S CREATION Organic Farm. We started growing organic greenhouse crops back in 1997 and then became a NOFA-NJ certified organic farm in 2001. At that point, I started growing vegetables in the same field that my great grandfather grew his crops in. I watched my grandfather working in his garden all my life and saw pictures of my great grandfather and his family and it just seemed to be the right thing for me to be doing.

I have worked very hard to develop a market for our produce and we now have some more land in Mays Landing that we started farming in 2008. That land is also old family land which is owned by my Aunt Ginger and Uncle Sanford Fisher. The Mays Landing property is a 9 acre farm which was my Uncle Sandy’s grandfathers place. They too were sustenance farmers back in the olden days.

So you see there are a lot of old roots here and we want to keep those roots nurtured. I am now building this small farm into a lifestyle which I can enjoy for the rest of my life. It is wonderful to be a CERTIFIED ORGANIC FARMER.