by Kelly Ann Butterbaugh

 

            It’s spring and the robins have returned to the fields of Freddy Hill Farms in Lansdale, PA.  Three generations of the Seipt family have watched the robins return to these fields as the Canadian geese leave each spring, and three generations have prepared for the upcoming season at the farm.  Yet, this family business is more than a farm; it’s also a dairy store and a family fun center. 

            Like any dairy farm, Freddy Hill requires year-round attention.  The herd of Holstein cows needs milking twice a day regardless of the season.  The 160 acres of land need to be farmed in the warm weather, and the farm machinery requires tune-ups during the winter months.  Both are now ready for this year’s work, and the farm wakes from its winter slumber.  As the days continue to get longer and warmer, ice cream sales will grow, and the activities on the farm will keep the family busy.

Warm weather also means that activity is beginning at Freddy’s Family Fun Center as well.  In addition to the farm’s dairy store and farm zoo, the fun center offers to its visitors golfing, batting cages, a snack bar, and a soon-to-opened pro shop.  Add to this the hand dipped, premise-made ice cream offered at the dairy store, and there’s something for everyone at Freddy Hill Farms.

“There’s nothing else in the township like us,” Vernon Seipt, one of the co-owners of the farm, says proudly.  Seipt and members of his family work together as owners and managers of the farm.

 

Visiting Freddy Hill

            A visit to Freddy Hill Farms is a fun one.  Those who work there greet visitors with smiles as they work.  The third generation of the Seipt family can be seen feeding cows in the afternoon, and the pictorial farmland can be seen behind the golfing center.  Located on Sumneytown Pike (Rte 63) in Lansdale, Freddy Hill Farms’ dairy store is open year round with the fun center opening in spring and remaining open through autumn. 

“We try to stay open until Thanksgiving,” says Seipt who grew up with the farm.  “We open again when the weather gets warm and we have some nice weekends.” 

While the fun center’s operation depends on the words “weather permitting,”  the dairy store and ice cream parlor welcome visitors indoors during rough weather.  The sign outside the dairy store encourages winter visitations with the words, “It’s never too cold for ice cream.”

             

The Dairy Store

The original dairy farm began its transformation in 1972 when the dairy store opened.  At the time most family farms housed a small store in some form to sell the farm’s wares.  It was Fred Seipt and his wife Joanne who built and opened the store, offering fresh milk and hand-dipped ice cream to their customers. 

            “Mom and Dad made a big investment in building the store,” Vernon Seipt says. 

            The investment paid off, and most of Freddy Hill’s business today returns to the ice creamery.  Miniature golf, fall festival activities, and visits to the farm zoo naturally begin or end with ice cream cones.

             “No matter what the price of milk, you buy it.  But ice cream—we like it; we want it,” Seipt says of the creamery’s success.

Today, the ice creamery boasts thirty-two flavors of hand-dipped, premise-made ice cream as well as milkshakes and homemade ice cream cakes.  The creamery also boasts the title of “Best of Philly” given by Philadelphia Magazine.  Originally, however, the ice cream was not made on the farm but brought in from another source and served at the dairy.  Then, in 1988 after learning the process of ice cream making at Penn State University, the Seipt family began to make its own hand dipped ice cream from the milk gotten from its dairy cows.  From there the store grew, and an addition was added to the dairy store to allow for indoor seating. 

The milk from the farm’s cows not only is used to make ice cream, but it is also packaged and sold in local stores as well as the farm’s own store.  The typical varieties of white milk are offered in addition to chocolate, strawberry, and the unique flavors of banana cream, orange cream, and coffee. 

Cakes and typical small store items are available in the dairy store, and during the spring months bedding plants and vegetables fill the front of the store. 

 

The Farm at Freddy Hill

Milking is done twice a day at Freddy Hill Farms, and visitors are welcome to view the process in the afternoons.  From 4-6pm milking is done by one employee in the carousel style milking parlor.  The parlor is an enclosed round room that operates just as its name suggests.  While watching through the glass viewing deck, the machinery can be seen milking eight cows at a time.  The cow enters from one door as another cow exits from another.  Her milking equipment is affixed, and milking begins.  By the time the cow moves in a complete circle her milking is finished and she exits to the barn.  The worker moves from stall to stall attaching and detaching the milking equipment from the cows as they rotate around him.

Just behind the milking parlor is the farm zoo, and the high pitched bugle of the bull elk tells visitors that they’re approaching the pens.  The elk is joined by his fellow inhabitants including a domestic turkey, Sika and white tail deer, a curious llama, a quiet buffalo, a miniature donkey, and Scottish Highland cattle.  Free to all guests of the farm, the zoo adds traditional farm animals in warmer weather such as goats, miniature horses, and pigs.  Often these warm weather friends are borrowed from neighboring farms for the season since they do not stay at Freddy Hill Farms year-round.  By autumn the pigs are trained to run pig races at the weekly Freddy’s Fall Fest.  What is their motivation to complete the course? The Oreo cookies given to the winner of the race are motivation enough.

 

Golfing at Freddy Hill

Freddy’s Family Fun Center was added alongside the store and farm compound in 1991.  A strolling walkway connects the fun center to the store, allowing visitors to enjoy everything that the farm has to offer. 

It is Matthew Seipt who is credited for the idea of adding golf to Freddy Hill, sharing an enjoyment of golf with his brother Bill.  At the same time of the golf addition, batting cages were also added to create the complex known as the family fun center.  Here, some of the driving range is covered with a protective roof and offers on-site instruction.  A pro shop is in the future for Freddy Hill this season with the beginnings of construction already in view. 

It takes a lot of dedication for a farm to give up crop land to make a golf center.  The story is reminiscent of the movie Field of Dreams, perhaps because both saw success.  Vernon Seipt explains that this option allows the farm “to stay viable as a family business.”  With no neighboring golf courses, the driving range is convenient to those nearby while the miniature golf courses bring more family oriented entertainment to the center. 

It wasn’t easy for the family to build the golf center.  Planning and development caused some roadblocks that almost put an end to the idea altogether.  Originally, the request was denied by the township officials, but it was overturned literally minutes after it was refused.  As the golf center received the go-ahead, individual contractors were brought in to design the smaller projects like the batting cages and the pavilion.  The two miniature golf courses were designed by a professional course designer, and they reflect a style seen in courses from the southern states.  Both courses being distinctly different from one another provides the fun center with thirty-six different holes of miniature golf.

            “The golf center was a big step, but not all that big,” a modest Vernon Seipt says.

            While the choice for the location of the golf center was obvious—the field next to the parking lot—it was not easy to give up the crop land for golf.  The field allowed easy accessibility to both the ice creamery and parking, but it happened to be the best soil.

            Seipt admits, “The farmer in us was sorry to see this field go to development.”  He explains that the family replaced the lost land by renting a few more acres each year; renting additional acreage each growing season is a normal practice for the Seipts.

           

The History of Freddy Hill

            To understand Freddy Hill Farms, one has to look at the evolution of the farm.  There never was a plan to convert the farm into something more commercial.  Rather, it was a gradual transformation that occurred more out of necessity.  Vernon Seipt admits that it is difficult for the family farmer to survive today on farming alone.  How did one family create a balance between economic success and a working farm?  The answer was to expand the idea of the farm in creative ways that met the consumer demands of the area.

            Even the farm’s name reflects and preserves its family beginnings.  When asked where the name Freddy Hill Farms originated, Vernon Seipt smiled.  “Well, Dad’s name was Fred,” he said grinning, then waved his hand behind him.  “And there’s the hill.”    

            His pride is evident by his detailed explanation of the farm’s life.  Like the operation itself, the name seems to have evolved as well.  The original Seipt family farm, known as Oak Leaf, makes up half of the current farm.  Fred Seipt purchased the then adjoining land and eventually joined the two farms into one. 

The name change officially occurred when Oak Leaf farm converted its herd of Guernsey cows to its current herd of Holstein cows.  That’s when the registration got tricky.  To register a dairy cow, the name of the cow must be preceded by the farm’s name, and Oak Leaf was already used by another farm for registered Holsteins.  As a result, Freddy Hill Farms was born.

 

The Future of Freddy Hill

This spring marks another year for the Seipt family and their farm.  While each generation changed the farm, they also preserved it with their innovative changes.  What else is in store for Freddy Hill Farms? 

Only the future, and its generations, can answer that.  For now, the future of Freddy Hill looks to be filled with fun, festivities, and farming.

 

What to do at Freddy Hill…

 

·         Driving range

·         36 holes of miniature golf

·         Batting cages

·         Annual Easter egg hunt

·         Spring bedding plants and vegetable sale

·         Ice cream parlor

·         Dairy store

·         Free farm zoo

·         Freddy’s Fall Fest weekends include: free corn maze, carnival games, pick your own pumpkin, pony rides, and pig races.

·         Fall weekday school tours

 

Freddy Hill Farm and Family Fun Center

1440 Sumneytown Pike

Lansdale, PA  19446

215-855-1205

www.freddyhill.com