Grasso Girls Farm Market Wins Award

Grasso Girls Farm Market in Mullica Hill and West Deptford was presented with the Tony Russo Farmers Marketing Award by the New Jersey Agricultural Society on Feb. 10 at the New Jersey State Agricultural Convention in Atlantic City.  Mary Grasso-Shiles and her daughter, Erica Shiles, accepted the award for the family. She owns and operates Grasso Girls with her brothers Rosario and Fred Grasso, as well as Erica and Fred’s son, Michael. The farm was a wholesale business until 2002 when Mary’s two daughters and five nieces wanted to open a little vegetable stand in front of their Mullica Hill farm. The girls ran the market and by 2006, a decision was made to build a permanent structure for their retail market. The fourth-generation farm family now grows a variety of fruits and vegetables at their two markets. They also sell honey, eggs, jams, jellies, bedding plants, dressings and Wagon House Winery wine. The West Deptford market was recently built on preserved farmland purchased by the family. Pictured left to right: New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher, Mary Lynn Shiles, Erica Shiles, New Jersey Agricultural Society Executive Director Kristina Guttadora and New Jersey Agricultural Society Vice President Robert Swanekamp.