Organic Harvest for Local Schools

Opal Creek Farm has been harvesting organic tomatoes for public schools in Santa Cruz and Pajaro Valley. These school districts collectively serve over 20,000 students! This is the peak of our season, and this year’s tomatoes are as sweet and nutritious as always. We’re so excited that this year’s crop is being served to students in their school salad bars. And Pacific Elementary in Davenport will make organic early girl tomato soup next week!

At the end of July the first fruits became ripe. It’s important to pick the fruit at this point to “caliente la mata” or heat the plant. This primes the plant to focus on fruit production instead of vegetative growth. We now have an extremely abundant crop of delicious tomatoes. 

Tomato harvest is a time intensive process as the fruits are small and delicate. We take care to handle the tomatoes gently as they’re taken off the plants and packed into their containers. 

Our dry farmed tomatoes are still vibrant and drawing the moisture they need from the soil. The sugars are concentrated in the fruit, which makes them very sweet. There are even flowers on the vines, green tomatoes, and more ripening tomatoes coming for another month or so into October. 

We are so excited to be recipients of the CDFA Farm to School Grant and to continue with our sales and education work in schools.