As Two River Times reported, the sign at Eastmont Orchards on Route 537 still read "closed for the season" in late July. Same in August. The farm has run pick-your-own peaches, apples, and pumpkins on that stretch of road since the Barclay family took it over in 1923, and by mid-summer it's usually three weeks into peach season. This year the gate stayed shut through the entire month most locals associate with Eastmont's busiest stretch, and nobody driving by knew exactly when, or whether, that would change.
It changed on September 18. But what opened wasn't the orchard regulars remembered. And less than two miles away, on the same road, a completely different kind of farm never missed a Saturday all summer. The reason those two outcomes look nothing alike says more about how Colts Neck's fall traditions actually work than any list of "what's open this weekend" ever could.
What April Actually Did
The short version, confirmed by Eastmont's own farm managers, Nick Basis and Ryan Fiore: an unusually warm stretch in early April pushed the peach and apple trees into early bloom, and two separate freeze events afterward killed the blossoms before they could set fruit. The first cold snap wiped out roughly 40 percent of the peach crop. Basis has described the second one plainly as the finishing blow. By the time Eastmont's team finished assessing the damage in mid-May, the numbers were stark: across the farm's 11 peach acres and more than 1,000 trees, crop loss ran over 99 percent. The apple trees fared only slightly better, with what little fruit survived not expected to meet the farm's usual quality.
That's a freeze story, not a drought or a pest story, and the distinction matters for anyone trying to guess what else in town got hit. A freeze during bloom damages the blossom itself. The tree survives. The wood is fine. What's missing is only this year's fruit, which is why Eastmont's trees are described as bare but healthy rather than damaged. It also explains why the farm's setback was specific to fruit-growing operations and not to Colts Neck's agricultural calendar broadly. Different farms with different business models sat through the exact same April weather and came out with completely different Septembers.
Eastmont Rebuilt Around What Was Left
Eastmont didn't cancel its fall season. It rebuilt it around crops the freeze didn't touch. Peaches and apples bloom in spring, when a frost can wipe out the whole harvest in one night. Pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, and sunflowers go into the ground later and mature through summer into fall, well outside that window. So when Eastmont reopened on September 18, running Fridays through Sundays, the farm brought back heirloom pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, honey, jams, hayrides, Indian corn, multicolor sunflowers, and a corn maze the team revived for the occasion. What's absent is the thing the farm is actually known for: there's no U-pick apple or peach harvest this year.
Basis has said he's hoping the weather cooperates through the fall weekends the farm depends on. That's a reasonable thing to hope for after a season that already took the two crops Eastmont built its reputation on.
Carm's Farm Never Needed the Trees
A short drive down 537 sits Carm's Farm, a petting zoo and farmers market that runs corn mazes, gem mining, a barrel train ride, and an apple cannon alongside its market stand. Carm's doesn't grow fruit trees. Its fall calendar isn't built around a harvest that can freeze in April, it's built around attractions and events that run on a fixed schedule regardless of what happened to anyone's blossoms back in spring.
That's why Carm's fall lineup didn't move at all this year. The farm has scheduled weekend Fall Festivals from mid-September into mid-October, with confirmed dates including September 19 and 20, September 26 and 27, October 3 and 4, and October 17 and 18. Same petting zoo, same corn maze, same gem mining table, same schedule Colts Neck families have used to plan weekends for years.
Delicious Orchards and Laurino's Kept Their Fall Offerings on Schedule
Two more names locals associate with fall in Colts Neck sit in the same category as Carm's, for a different reason. Delicious Orchards, despite the name, operates primarily as a market and bakery. It sources much of what it sells rather than growing all of it on site, which is exactly why its fall staples, apple cider, seasonal pies, the apple cider slush at the attached café, showed up on schedule this year with no interruption tied to the freeze.
Laurino Farm Market, the stand at the corner of Route 34 and Laird Road, operates on the same logic: a retail farm stand isn't exposed to a single crop failure the way a U-pick orchard is.
Here's how the four spots compare this fall:
| Farm | Business model | Affected by the April freeze? | What's different this fall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastmont Orchards | Grows its own peaches, apples, pumpkins on site | Yes, near-total loss of peaches and apples | No U-pick apples or peaches; pumpkins, sunflowers, corn maze, hayrides instead |
| Carm's Farm | Petting zoo, corn maze, market attractions | No | Running as scheduled, festival weekends from mid-September into mid-October |
| Delicious Orchards | Market and bakery, largely sources produce | No | Normal seasonal offerings, cider and baked goods on schedule |
| Laurino Farm Market | Roadside farm stand | No | Normal seasonal offerings |
Why the Split Matters More Than the List
It's tempting to read all this as a simple "who's open, who's not" roundup, but that misses the more useful thing the freeze exposed. Colts Neck's fall identity isn't one thing. It's at least three different kinds of businesses sharing the word "farm." Some grow what they sell and carry real weather risk every spring. Some sell what other people grow, and carry almost none. Some never depended on a fruit harvest in the first place. A single bad April can only touch the first category, which is exactly why one farm on Route 537 spent the summer with its gate shut while another farm less than two miles away never adjusted its calendar at all.
For anyone who's spent a decade of Septembers driving straight to Eastmont out of habit, that's worth knowing before the next trip out. The corn maze is back. The pumpkins are real. The apples aren't there this year, and that's not a scheduling issue that'll resolve itself with a phone call, it's a consequence of what happened to the blossoms back in April.
Planning the Next Few Weekends
A few things worth knowing before heading out:
- Eastmont Orchards is open Fridays through Sundays starting September 18, with pumpkins, sunflowers, Indian corn, hayrides, and the corn maze as the fall lineup. No apple or peach picking this year.
- Carm's Farm has festival weekends scheduled for September 19 to 20, September 26 to 27, October 3 to 4, and October 17 to 18, with its usual petting zoo, corn maze, and market open in between.
- Delicious Orchards and Laurino Farm Market are both running their standard fall offerings with no changes tied to the spring weather.
It's still worth a call ahead to any of these before a trip, since hours at working farms shift with weather and staffing in ways a website doesn't always catch in real time.
Colts Neck's back roads and farm stands are part of what makes this a place people stay in for decades, not just a place they pass through. If a fall like this one, watching one neighbor's business absorb a hit while another rides it out untouched, has you thinking more about the town itself, or about property here, Viggiani Property Group is always glad to talk through what's happening in the Colts Neck market. Reach out anytime for a free home valuation or just a conversation about the area.