Our farm was started in 1955 by twin brothers Donald and Harold. Here we are in 2020 celebrating our 65th anniversary! Read on for an article about the Hollabaugh family, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going!
“Since 1955” appears iconically in the center of our logo’s apple tree. But for Hollabaugh Bros., Inc., the story starts long before then, when twin brothers Donald and Harold were just boys. Their mother was a homemaker, kept busy raising seven children right in the town of Biglerville, PA. Their father had a long-standing career with CH Musselman Company, owned today under the umbrella of the Knouse Foods Cooperative. As boys and through adolescence, Donald and Harold both grew up working on farms in the area picking potatoes, tomatoes, cherries, and other fruits. At 10 years old, they were paid 3 cents per bushel for harvested produce.
Their father wanted them to pursue other careers – even encouraging Harold to study Architecture. But after graduating from high school in 1950 (when teachers still couldn’t tell them apart), both Donald and Harold continued to pursue their love of the outdoors by working on farms after graduation. Soon after graduating from high school, Donald and Harold started discussing the possibilities of going into business together growing fruit. And the search for a farm began.
After searching the Upper Adams County region for possibilities, Lloyd Garretson’s farm located just north of Biglerville became available for sale, after Lloyd had spent all of his time and resources caring for an ailing wife diagnosed with cancer. Lloyd bragged that his farm had never had a damaging hail storm. And so, in 1954, a partnership between twin brothers was formed, and their first farm was purchased. Made up of 50 acres outfitted with good cherry orchards, apple varieties like York Imperial, Golden Delicious, peaches, and some woodlot, the twins borrowed money from York Bank to make the purchase for $38,000. The brothers shared in the day to day business operations, with Harold focusing on record keeping, insurance, and finances, while Donald managed the purchasing of chemicals.
The little farm stand still sits across the road where the brothers originally sold their fruits and vegetables to customers passing by. It was from that stand that they made the money they used to feed their own families. Most of the other income from the farm went right back into it to help it to continue to grow. At the same time, the processing industry was booming, and Donald and Harold started to build a following with wholesale customers who would take baskets of produce to Baltimore on the back of a pick-up truck.
In 1962, Donald and Harold invested in building a new farm market across the street. A built-in cold storage saved time and expense and improved the shelf life of the produce. Attending a Horticultural Society trip to New York in 1962 opened Harold’s eyes to the world of dwarf rootstocks, and soon after the twins started planting them in Biglerville, too. Plantings started to shift to varieties like Red Delicious, McIntosh, Stayman, and Romes. Harold recalls growing Golden Delicious apples “as big and as smooth as a baby’s butt”.
Then in 1965, another neighboring property came up for sale, helping the brothers to create economies of scale in the operation. With the added acreage came added expense, as woods needed to be cleared for more plantings, ponds needed to be built to hold water for irrigation, and tractors and ladders were needed for management of the orchards. Even with the additional expense, the brothers were able to pay off the investments in just two years – something Harold still looks back on with pride.
With the expanded acreage, Donald and Harold could market to more wholesale customers. The twins got out of the business of growing cherries – which “cost as much to pick as to sell”, and shifted their focus to growing peaches instead. The Hollabaugh’s famous “bin porch” in its original form made its debut at the new retail market in 1965, where customers could purchase apples directly from the bulk bins into which they were harvested. In 1972, the brothers planted Nittany apples on a new parcel of ground they acquired.
Harold remembers when Donald’s young children started helping out on the farm, and when they became old enough to work as adults on the farm. Harold recounted that adding in more owners was hard, but they were a good help with the business as it continued to grow, and some of the additional parcel purchases were “strategically done to generate income to help support the second generation’s involvement in the business”.
With tears in his eyes, Harold reflects on the life he and his brother shared through the farm: “We grew up together, built a business together, and did well together. We enjoyed hunting and fishing. I miss him.” Donald passed away in 2016.
Harold is “most proud of the land we [Donald & Harold] bought and took care of and that is still here today. I hope it is here for a long time in the Hollabaugh name”. His goal from the beginning was to grow the business. And with the cooperative help of his partner and brother, grow it they did.
The story pauses here for now. Check back soon for more of the family’s history as we delve into the second generation’s story!