Glenville Hollow Farms of Bridgeville honored with 2025 Environmental Stewardship Award

Glenville Hollow Farms of Bridgeville was recognized as the 2025 Environmental Stewardship Award winner during Tuesday's Delaware Nutrient Management Commission Meeting.

DOVER, Del. - A longtime Sussex County agricultural family was recognized for its commitment to top environmental practices during Tuesday's Delaware Nutrient Management Commission Meeting.

Glenville Hollow Farms of Bridgeville, owned by Steven and Cynthia Yingling since its formation in 1980, was recognized as the 2025 Environmental Stewardship Award winner for its work with vegetable row crops. They farm approximately 2,000 acres of grain and vegetable crops across Delaware and Pennsylvania. Their focus for their vegetable crops is to serve consumers through tailgate markets, mainly in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas. Cindy's management of fresh market vegetables is impressive as she considers the desires of her clientele to navigate her management practices. She intensively hand manages the weeds in her mixed vegetables acres to minimize the use of pesticides and herbicides. Glenville Hollow Farms also integrates cover crops, water use efficiency, and biological control measures to maintain a natural balance in the environment.

Glenville Hollow Farms received $1,000, along with an Environmental Stewardship recognition plaque and lane sign for its win.

"Since the beginning of the farm operation annual soil testing has been performed for accurate fertilization," Steven Yingling said. "Cover crops are planted annually on open fields for soil conservation and nutrient replenishment. Biological control measures are used whenever possible to maintain a natural balance in the environment."

The Delaware Environmental Stewardship Award represents a collaborative initiative through the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission (DNMC), with grain producers, poultry companies, turf management professionals, and various agribusiness organizations. This program recognizes farmers, nutrient handlers, and industry leaders who positively impact the environment and prioritize environmental stewardship as a core principle.

"Delaware farmers, representing both large and small operations, care about their land and take pride in their efforts to protect soil and water quality," said Nutrient Management Program Administrator Brooke Walls. "We congratulate Glenville Hollow Farms on this honor, as well as its fellow finalists, and are proud to work in a state where those in the agricultural community continue to make a difference every day through their best management practices."

For more than 15 years, the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission has sponsored Environmental Stewardship Awards. This year's category was vegetable row crops. The Commission is dedicated to recognizing all facets of Delaware agriculture and will be rotating categories amongst commodity crop and animal operations.

Glenville Hollow was selected from a group of four finalists by a four-person panel of industry professionals.

The 2025 Environmental Stewardship Award finalists included:

• Glenville Hollow Farms (Bridgeville)
• Fifer Orchards (Wyoming)
• Woodenhawk Farms, Inc. (Greenwood)
• Ramsey Farm, Inc. (Wilmington)

All finalists receive a recognition plaque and an Environmental Stewardship Award lane sign, along with a $500 prize.

Fifer Orchards is a fourth-generation Delaware Century Farm in Wyoming growing grain, fruits, and vegetables. They focus on wholesale markets for their fruit and vegetable production, with wholesale accounts with local business and nationwide grocery chains. Aside from crop production, they operate two retail stores and offer U-pick for seasonal crops. Fifer Orchards uses a host of Best Management Practices and is always willing to integrate new strategies, most recently benefiting from bio fumigant mustard. Fifer arranges its crop rotation to keep fallow periods to a minimum, utilize cover crops, reduce tillage, and utilize grassed waterways. Fifer's willingness to learn and desire to collaborate with other local farmers is a true example of leadership in the agricultural community.

Ramsey Farm, Inc., near the Delaware-Pennsylvania border, dates its founding back to 1860 as a dairy farm that now focuses on hay production and agritourism. Due to their location and terrain, they have uniquely shaped their operation to serve the local livestock industries as well as provide food and education for their local community. They are uniquely situated on national park land where conservation is at the top of their mind. Ramsey Farms implements a host of Best Management Practices, including cover crops, precision nutrient applications, and utilizing a no-till subsoiler to reduce commercial nitrogen use. They also plant their U-pick pumpkins into a rolled cover crop, creating a blanket of cover under the pumpkins, instead of a bed of soil. Ramsey Farms is a truly unique example of Delaware agriculture.

Woodenhawk Farms, Inc. is a diversified grain and vegetable crop operation in Greenwood. They grow an assortment of vegetable crops including sweet corn, peas, lima beans, watermelon and mixed vegetables for both processing and fresh market. The mix of processing and fresh market crops brings diversity to their operation, with a goal of stocking their retail farm stand, Little Wagon Produce. Through the years they have implemented crop rotation, no till practices, precision nutrient application and timing, and high tunnels within their vegetable crops. Woodenhawk Farms is an example of excellence in the agricultural community as they continue to care for their land and water resources, so they are available and productive for future generations.