Albright Farms

Our patriarch, Tom, was born with an entrepreneurial spirit and strong roots in agriculture. As an 8-year-old boy in 1964, a 4-H laying hen project led him to sell eggs to neighbors for 50 cents per dozen. Within two years, Tom had also started a 4-H gardening project and began selling his produce, as well as some fruits and berries from his family’s orchard, on the very spot our Sweet Air Road Farm Market stands today. By the age of 14, Tom was farming full-time on his own. Even before Tom’s first entrepreneurial adventures in AG as a young boy in the 1960s, the Albright family had strong roots in the community, calling the Jacksonville/Phoenix area home since 1845. Many of our customer favorites today have been Albright family farming traditions for generations. Tom’s grandparents raised turkeys starting in the 1920s. His grandparents purchased their first farm (what we now call “Uncles Farm” for the fond memories Tom has of his uncle farming this land when Tom was a child) on Sweet Air Road in 1911. In 2014, Tom purchased Uncles Farm from his cousins and today, it is home to our beef cattle and hog farm, as well as some field crops. The Albright family also had a grass-based dairy farm before transitioning to raising dairy heifers for local farmers in 1985. As early as 1970, we recognized our unique responsibility as farmers in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed to care for the land, air and water we are entrusted with and have implemented no-till and other farming practices to be good stewards. As our business has grown, our commitment to protecting not only our own properties, but the soil, water and air across our communities, our county and our state, has only grown with us. In the more than 50 years that have passed since Tom’s first 4-H project-turned-business venture, Tom’s work, along with strong partnerships with his sons, Jonathan and Jesse, have brought the Albright Farms vision to life. Jonathan and Jesse have played important roles in the growth of the business in recent years. After spending some time at West Virginia University, Jonathan returned home to the farms in 2011 and loves the freedom of farming, along with the vast array of skills you need to farm these diversified crops and animals well. Jesse graduated from Mount Saint Mary's University in 2014 with dual degrees in Finance and Economics, and returned to the farm because it was his favorite place in the world - it was home. He enjoys working in the fields. Jonathan and Jesse can both be found working the farmers markets. While getting up at 3 a.m. to load the trucks for farmers markets is not their favorite task, they attend the markets because they enjoy getting to know their customers and visiting with their fellow farmers.