When someone picked clean 65 peach trees at Holtzhauser Farms, Carrabba’s of Turnersville stepped in to help
By SEAN DEVLIN
The Sun
Thievery tainted the summer mood on a Mullica Hill peach farm after an unidentified person(s) picked clean 65 of Tom Holtzhauser’s white peach trees early in July.
Angry and upset, the farmer notified police who filed a report about the incident and the family has since installed further security systems on their South Jersey farm.
“It’s been a rough summer,” said Stacey, wife of Tom Holtzhauser.
Hours after the discovery, Tom Holtzhauser remembers saying, “It’s gone. I don’t have the peaches. I don’t have the money.”
However, just one month later, a concerned Gloucester County resident arrived at the Holtzhauser doorstep with kind words and a jar full of cash.
Nancy Pastor-Geigelman, of Turnersville, works at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Gloucester County as a bartender and server. She wanted to help the Holtzhauser family.
Astounded at the news, Pastor-Geigelman recalls saying ,“That’s in our county. Who steals peaches?”
She described the story as “incredulous,” stating she was saddened to hear someone would do this to a local farmer.
“You are not even sure if you heard it correctly,” she said.
After walking into work days after the incident, Pastor-Geigelman requested a raffle be setup in the restaurant. Through Carrabba’s Cares, the corporation’s community outreach program, a raffle was organized and patrons purchased tickets to win a basket containing three bottles of wine, a $100 gift certificate to Carrabba’s and $100 worth of barbeque items.
Feeling patriotic, she thought barbeque items were a fitting pick.
“Who’s more American than a farmer? He is putting the food on our table,” she said.
Pastor-Geigelman’s customers also knew about the peach theft and wanted to help.
“If I said it was a $1 to win the wine basket, they said ‘Yeah, I’ll take five [raffle tickets].’ If I said that it was a $100 gift certificate to eat dinner [at Carrabba’s], they said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take 10.’ If I said it was for the Holtzhauser farm — the peach farmer whose peaches got stolen — they said, ‘Give me 20.’”
She added, “Kids would say ‘I’ll give a dollar to the farmer,’ pulling out their little velcro wallets.”
Impressed and encouraged by the amount of money raised, Pastor-Geigelman and another employee made a surprise visit to the farm on Aug. 5.
“We knew nothing about it. We were blindsided,” Stacey Holtzhauser said.
She said her husband was “shell-shocked.”
Pastor-Geigelman read a letter to the farmer, and it said, in part, “As neighbors, friends and business members of this local community, we stand together, and neighbors helping neighbors is the choice we make today.”
Rather than taking the money to the bank to hand Holtzhauser a check, Pastor-Geigelman said she felt it more appropriate to give the family the jar with every single bill. The dollar amount was not discussed.
She said, “I want him to know he is supported by his community and his neighbors.”
“I just hope this can defray some of [your] costs,” she said to Holtzhauser.
