Basking Ridge Family Plants Roots In Town, Opens Dogwood Farms

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The Knox family is planting roots in their hometown of Bernards Township with the opening of their Dogwood Farms store in the Liberty Corner section of town.

Jon Knox, a graduate of Ridge High School, grew up on a property covered with Dogwood trees in Basking Ridge — which is how Dogwood Farms got its name.

The family-run business consists of Jon, his wife Kim, their 5-year-old daughter Ginny, 18-month-old son Duke and their Labrador Border Collie mix dog Rita.

"Rita is the mascot of the farm," Knox said. "She is there all the time at the store and greeting people and letting kids play with her."

Knox had grown up not too far from the seven-generation family farm, English Farm, at 3625 Vallery Road in Liberty Corner.

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Jon and Kim had initially been leasing land at Dukes Farms in Hillsborough to run their business at the farmer's market. That changed when Caro English of English Farm, who was running the farm store for years, asked Jon if he would be interested in working together.

The Knox family jumped at the opportunity to have a their own store front.

"We were real excited about this," Knox said. "It offers us a real physical barn and retail shop that we can have throughout the year."

Dogwood Farms raises chickens and lamb and also sells eggs, vegetables, pork products, milk and dairy products, sauces, marinades, fresh pasta, pesto and more.

"It's going to be a big transitional year regardless with COVID on top of it. It will been interesting," Knox said of opening during the coronavirus pandemic. "We are seeing a resurgence of people getting in touch with farms and we are excited to see that."

Keeping in the mind the coronavirus, the farm store has social distancing protocols in place including: all employees have to wear masks and gloves at all times, the store is opened with one-way traffic, they are limiting capacity, and provide hand sanitizer.

Along with the farm store, Dogwood Farms also offers home delivery to the greater Central Jersey region including Somerset, Union, Mercer, Hunterdon, Morris, Essex, Middlesex and Hudson counties.

The store is open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information or to order delivery visit dogwoodfarmsnj.com or facebook.com/DogwoodFarmsnj or instagram.com/dogwoodfarmsnj.

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