The Asian Fruit Wine Specialists

Chestnut Run Farm is a small farm and winery in beautiful Salem County, New Jersey.  Bob and Lise Clark have owned and operated this farm since 1986.  For many years we were growers and packers of specialty produce such as Asian pears, gourmet apple varieties, yellow tomatoes, purple, lilac, orange, yellow and red bell peppers, ornamental Indian corn.  Our produce was featured in fine markets and restaurants all along the eastern seaboard.   

Globalization of the produce industry made it difficult for a small family farm like ours to compete.  Since Asian pears were our real specialty, we experimented with different value-added products and found we could make good wine from these fruit.  Since 2006, all of the fruit grown here has been used to make Asian pear, Fuji apple and Japanese plum wines.  Chestnut Run Farm uses only fruit grown right here on our own farm to produce these delicious wines.  

Over the decades we have been here, we have also grown livestock on the farm. We started with Charolais beef cattle, then went to Boer goats, and finally to Katahdin sheep.  Now we raise only Katahdins. Our ewes are grazed on grassland pasture and raise their lambs in this natural setting.  Grazing sheep is a way to keep the fields in production while having low impact on the environment.  This results in extraordinarily good habitat for songbirds, raptors and other creatures.

You'll see a number of photos of cats on the site, as they are used for rodent control on the farm and are our well-loved friends.  Lise is dedicated to the well-being of feral cats and does lots of TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) of feral cats throughout Salem County. 

You'll also see photos of mandolins, which are Bob's hobby, including playing the mandolin in the Rob Roy Duo  and building the mandolin-family instruments shown on this site.

Chestnut Run Farm is a 22 acre, permanently preserved farm located at the headwaters of Chestnut Run, from which the farm takes its name.  This small stream runs along the farm's North border, through nearby Woodstown to the Salem River and ultimately into Delaware Bay.   This contributes to the ecological significance of this farm.

In 2001, we added this farm to the growing list of permanently preserved farms here in Salem County.  In fact, most of the fields and woods in the area surrounding the farm are now also preserved.  This preservation ensures that development will not take place here.

This assurance is especially important since the farm is an active breeding site for American Kestrels, North America's smallest falcon.  Great Horned Owls also rear their young here, and Bald Eagles are frequent visitors.

In addition to our Asian pear, Fuji apple and Japanese plum orchards, much of the farm is now grass pastures on which our sheep and lambs graze, as well as grass fields on which we produce the hay our sheep eat during winter months.  This is ideal habitat for Kestrels and other birds.

Since 1986, Bob and Lise Clark have grown tree fruit on Chestnut Run Farm.  We currently grow several varieties of Asian pears,  Fuji apples and Japanese Shiro plums.  All our fruit is used to make our wines, and only fruit grown on our farm is used in these wines.  We buy no fruit, juice or concentrate, choosing instead to grow our own.

This gives us the ability to ensure that only top-quality fruit are used in our wines and that these fruit are picked at their moment of perfect ripeness.  It also means that we are not using 'drops', packing line rejects or otherwise inferior fruit in our wines.  Only the very best fruit are used in Chestnut Run Farm wines.

As we entered the 21st century, we sought to preserve our farm for generations to come.  Chestnut Run Farm has a permanent deed restriction stipulating that this land can never be developed.  It will stay in agriculture in perpetuity.  In November 2022, as I was replacing the 'Preserved Farmland' sign, I noticed two 'visitors' in the pasture behind the sign.  See them in the photo?  Two Bald Eagles which are now regular inhabitants of Salem County.