GUILDERLAND — The man who “was the farm,” according to his family, died on April 17, 2015, after a long battle to recover from a stroke. He was 85.

John Hauf Gade Jr., better known as Jack, the long-time, third-generation owner of Gade Farm, “loved his family and the farm, and the two were inextricably linked throughout his lifetime,” wrote his family in a tribute.

“The focus of our life has been Guilderland, forever,” said Mr. Gade’s sister, Nancy Hollomon.

Mrs. Hollomon and Gade’s grandfather, Peter Gade, founded the farm in 1878, on Guilderland’s Great Western Turnpike. Jack Gade was born on Jan. 3, 1930, to John Gade Sr. and Elizabeth Thornhill Gade, and was raised on the farm. He lived his entire life within a few miles of the homestead.

Mrs. Hollomon talked of their childhood on the farm.

“Everyone worked; we all did something,” she said. “When you were really little, you rode on the tractor with your dad, and, as you got older, you learned to drive the tractor yourself.”

She spoke of picking beans and berries and shucking corn.

“You learned how to go into the cornfield and determine which ears were ready to eat, learned to pick vegetables so the plants weren’t harmed, and learned to care for the fields,” she said.

“You learned how to take care of the soil, to drain and fertilize it, how to rotate crops, what grows best on sand and what needs soil,” said Mrs. Hollomon. “You learned these things and, as you grew, they became a part of you.”

Jack, she said, was his grandfather’s favorite. You would often see them walking the farm together side by side.

There were hard times growing up, Mrs. Hollomon said, especially during World War II.

“After October, you had no money coming in, so you lived all winter on what you grew in the summer,” she said. “Asparagus and peas were the first crops to come in spring and you looked forward to them, not only because they tasted good, but, because they were the first sign of income.”

At one point during the war, said Mrs. Hollomon, the farm had roughly 10 British soldiers who spent a summer volunteering.

Their ship had been sabotaged in New York Harbor, and they spent several months working on the farm.

“They were thrilled to have fresh air and fresh food,” said Mrs. Hollomon.

When not working on the farm, Mrs. Hollomon said, entertainment included things like picnics, square dancing, and hanging out at the swimming hole on the Gades’ property.

“We didn’t have television, and no one had money for fancy entertainment,” she said.

After World War II, Helderberg Baseball was formed.

Jack Gade loved baseball, and played centerfield for the Guilderland Indians.

“He was a perennial power in the Helderberg League,” according to his family.

“Everyone in town would come to watch the games on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays,” said Mrs. Hollomon. “It was very adventurous at that time to schedule anything on a Sunday after church.”

The baseball players were responsible for taking care of the fields themselves and Jack would bring the plows and the mowers over himself, she said.

By the time Jack was 16, said Mrs. Hollomon, he knew he wanted to stay on the farm.

“Dad said he had to go to college,” she said.

He attended the state’s University at Cobleskill for two years and received an associate’s degree in agriculture.

“He came back and said he wanted to stay on the farm,” Mrs. Hollomon said. “Dad said, ‘No, you need to know there are other choices.’”

Jack went and worked for a farm machinery company for two years, before coming back and again, saying that he wanted to stay on the farm.

“Then dad was so happy to have his son on the farm,” said Mrs. Hollomon. “He knew it was a conscious choice he was making.”

Jack was full of ideas, said Mrs. Hollomon.

He developed a type of greenhouse that used plastic sheeting instead of glass, heated by warm air piped in along the ceiling.

“I think it was the first greenhouse of its kind in the area,” said Mrs. Hollomon.

Jack also wanted to start a farm stand, back when Gade Farm was primarily a “trucking farm,” meaning it grew the produce and then trucked it to market.

“Dad said, ‘OK, you plan it and you build it,’” said Mrs. Hollomon. “And he did, and it grew and grew and grew.”

He first put things out to sell on the farm, in a wagon by the barn, in the 1960s.

“People would drive by and take what they wanted and leave the money in a can,” said Mrs. Hollomon.

It was also in the 1960s that the farm began to grow and sell flowers and not just produce.

In the 1980s, Jack built the first retail greenhouse on the farm, and it has grown since then into the store and nursery it is today.

Today, the 115-acre farm consists of one acre of greenhouse space and 30 acres of tilled land, where the main crops grown are sweet corn, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and peppers. The store also sells goods from local vendors.

In 1980, on Jack’s 50th birthday, Gade Farm received the New York State Century Farm Award, which honors farms in continuous operation on the same land, by the same family, for 100 years or more.

“It was like a lifetime achievement award for him,” said Mrs. Hollomon.

When Jack had children of his own, he “always had one or two of them on his lap,” said Mrs. Hollomon.

He would take them into the fields and for tractor rides.

“He taught them the wonders of how things grew,” said Hollomon.

Jack’s son John Gade III, who co-owns the farm now, with his brother, Jim Gade, said their father taught him to “take pride in producing something from seed all the way to market.

“He taught us that, if you can enjoy what you do and develop a pride in it, it isn’t work.”

John III said he worked with his father for many, many years, and never heard him complain.

“Even though farming is hard, physical labor, with long hours, and no vacations, he always enjoyed it,” said John III.

“I always thought, as a kid, that everyone worked like that,” he said.

Jim Gade said his father demanded a lot from his family and his employees.

“It was an attribute of his personality,” said Jim. “He always wanted you to do better, and he always wanted himself to do better.”

Mrs. Hollomon said the same about Jack.

“You were always expected to want to do well,” she said. “There was so much work to do on the farm so you never wanted to do the same thing over.”

Though he was demanding, he was fair, said Jim, of his father.

“If you did a good job, he let you know it and, if you didn’t do a good job, he let you know it,” he said.

At Jack Gade’s funeral, a gentleman who once worked on the farm in the summers talked about learning leadership and work ethic from him, because of the high expectations he had.

The demands were not without their rewards, as the former worker recalled Jack sitting him down at the end of his first summer and telling him how well he had done and that he had a lot of potential.

Although Jack had high expectations, he never put pressure on his children to stay on the farm.

“He always told us, ‘If you don’t want to be in it, don’t be in it,’” said Jim. “He said there was nothing worse than working at something you don’t enjoy.”

John III said he learned very early to enjoy life on the farm.

“I never filled out a job application, never wrote a résumé, and never punched a time clock,” he said. “And I never will.”

Jim said his father was always open-minded.

“When my brother and I got into the business and had ideas, he was always receptive,” he said.

“He encouraged us to try new things,” said John III. “He was open to new technology and new retail ideas.”

He said he was hoping to teach the next — fourth — generation to enjoy farming the way his father taught him and his siblings.

Jim said his two oldest sons had worked at the farm when they were not in college, and his younger sons also help out. A nephew and niece had also worked there when they could, he said.

“To see two of his sons and his grandchildren working there, and learning, and having their own gardens, it made him so happy,” said Mrs. Hollomon of her brother. “One of the things that made him proud was that he believed there would be a fifth generation and a continuity of the farm.

“Fathers work with sons, brothers work with brothers, wives work with husbands, and aunts and uncles, and nieces and nephews,” she said.

“The farm was his life,” Jim said. “It was in his blood; it’s in our blood.”

“He was very proud of his family and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for us,” said John III. “He was a remarkable man.”