During the 2011 holiday season, generous FruitGuys’ customers provided thousands of people fresh fruit at 22 community-based organizations across the country.

“The produce donation went over very well this holiday season! We handed out the product in our Grocery Center to our HIV/AIDS clients as an extra special holiday treat,” said Mike Coughlin, purchasing manager at Project Open Hand in San Francisco.  “They were thrilled to receive such high quality produce of a variety we don’t normally see here.  They absolutely loved the bananas. Years ago we always had bananas available to our clients, but with a steady increase in pricing this is something we can no longer offer on a regular basis.”

Charities ranging from regional food banks to homeless shelters to those that support seniors and people with serious illnesses received from 16 to nearly 3,000 servings of fruit. The FruitGuys Donate-A-Crate program allows clients to pick a charity group in their region and send their fruit to it rather than cancel deliveries during the holidays.

During the months of November, December, and early January, 130 companies forwarded 232 crates, ranging from 16-piece boxes to 100+ bananas, totaling more than 8,000 piece of fruit.

“We have the most amazing customers in the world. This year we had a 15% increase in the amount of produce donated to organizations and people in need during the holidays,” said FruitGuys CEO & founder Chris Mittelstaedt. “On behalf of all the charities that you helped, thank you.”

The Donate-A-Crate program is just one part of the company’s GoodWorks program, which provides weekly donations to food pantries in San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia (more than 300,000 pounds in 2011) and its Farm Steward program, which promotes environmental stewardship and small farm sustainability through micro-loans, grants, and donations of owl and bat boxes, plants, and bees.

Staffers reported that their clients were thrilled with the fruit.

“Everyone enjoyed the fruit! Thank you for sending,” said Chef Godfrey Peters, of the Jackie Robinson Senior Center in New York.

“It was such a pleasure to have quality fresh fruit and vegetables on a semi-regular basis during the holidays, which made for a wonderful and healthy alternative to the plethora of holiday sweets that were bestowed upon our organization,” said Ken Sommer, Director of Advancement at George Mark Children’s House, a San Leandro, CA-based non-profit that serves families with children who have serious medical illnesses.

Additional charities that received fruit included The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Family House, Inc., YEAH!, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Launch Out into the Deep Christian Center, Greater Boston Food Bank, Preston’s Paradise, Dayspring Center, Westside Food Bank, UMOM New Day Centers Inc., SHARE-Philadelphia, SHARE-D.C., Westie Rescue of OC and Beyond, Atlantic City Rescue Mission, Family House, Loaves and Fishes, Philabundance, and Bethany Homeless Shelter.

Paying it Forward
By Pia Hinckle

In a year when more people continued to struggle with less, The FruitGuys GoodWorks program responded to the realities of the continuing hard economy by making micro-loans to farmers; increasing donations of fresh produce to food pantries; and promoting fresh food access for all communities, especially those experiencing hunger.

In 2010 the percentage of U.S. households that were deemed “food insecure” was 14.5%, or nearly 49 million people, including 16 million children, according to statistics from the Department of Agriculture.  Single parents with children had the highest rates of food insecurity in 2010.  And single women with children made up 20% of those with very low food security, in other words they went hungry at times. Meanwhile food prices are expected to rise about 3% next year, according to the USDA Economic Research Service.

“I have a deep-seated belief that if you have been lucky enough to succeed in business that you have a responsibility to try and make the world a better place and help those in need,” says Chris Mittelstaedt, The FruitGuys founder and CEO. “I’m very thankful for our customers whose business with us allows us to grow our GoodWorks program and fulfill this mission. But there is always more to do.”

The GoodWorks program has two core missions: to help farmers become more environmentally sustainable and economically secure and to give fresh produce to those who otherwise would not be able to get it. The company has two main programs that fulfill these goals: Donations & Farm Steward.

Donations

Weekly Donations: Each year The FruitGuys gives more than 300,000 pounds of fresh fruit and produce to organizations that serve the needy, including St. Anthony’s Dining Room in San Francisco (about 2,000 pounds a week), Philabundance (about 2,000 pounds a week) and Nationalities Service Center (about 600 pounds a week) in Philadelphia, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository (about 1,100 pounds a week) in Chicago, and about 300 pounds a week in Phoenix.

Each of The FruitGuys regional hubs in San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Phoenix cultivate relationships with local organizations that serve the needy and then arrange to donate leftover fruit. The fruit is perfectly fine but does not meet “visual standards” for customers’ boxes: it may be sized improperly, slightly misshapen, or have too many natural blemishes, common in produce from small organic farms.

“Fresh fruit is so important because over 70 percent of our guests do not have access to kitchen facilities, there are no grocery stores in the Tenderloin, and fresh fruit is very difficult to come by,” says Shari Roeseler, Executive Director of St. Anthony Foundation. St. Anthony’s serves nearly 3,000 meals a day, including fresh fruit, 365 days a year.  The FruitGuys is St. Anthony’s largest donor of fresh fruit and the only regular weekly donor, making it the backbone of their fresh fruit program.

Somethin’ Fresh: Back in 2006, Chris Mittelstaedt partnered with San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point Family, a non-profit that supports youth and their families, to start a young entrepreneur group to hatch a local produce delivery service in the food desert of the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood. Somethin’ Fresh was started by two young women, Tiffany Williams and Ashley Avalos. Mittelstaedt provided the initial business mentoring and free fruit to get the business on its feet. In 2011, it is still going strong, run by Ashley and Candace Pearson. They serve about 50-100 customers each week in the neighborhood charging from  $5-$10 for a bag of fruit. The FruitGuys still subsidizes the business with weekly donations of 300-500 pounds of fruit. “Before I came into the Somethin’ Fresh thing, I had no idea about running a business,” said founder Ashley Avalos in 2006. “Fruit isn’t my passion — it’s the community. It feels good doing something healthy for the community.”

Donate A Crate: Since 2008, generous FruitGuys customers have donated some 400 fruit crates through our Donate-A-Crate program, which allows clients to forward their box to organizations in their communities that help people in need.

One 2008 recipient was the Sophia Project in Oakland, CA program that serves children and families who are at risk of recurring homelessness, told FruitGuys News, “Our families received the fruit and were very grateful for it. In these very distressing economical times, having wonderful fresh fruit is the treat of treats,” Peterson added, “We are grateful for the opportunity to be able to encourage their fruit consumption at home. In some cases, our families were able to share with their extended families and with their neighbors, so the circle of your generosity was wide indeed.”

Farm Steward

Farm Steward: Got bees? The first Farm Steward project was in April 2008 when Torrey Olsen of Gabriel Farm, a fabulous grower of Asian Pears, in Sebastopol, CA, mentioned that he was having trouble with pollinating his orchard and had to pay to have pollinators trucked in. Next scene: four beehives are being installed at Gabriel Farm and Torrey has become a beekeeper! The Farm Steward program helps farmers become more environmentally sustainable and economically stable. Past projects have included donating and installing owl and bat boxes for natural pest control at farms on the East and West coasts.

• May 2011: FruitGuys volunteers and employees from IDEO helped plant tomatoes at Baia Nicchia farm in Sunol, CA.
• March 2011: FruitGuys volunteers joined Cub Scouts from Santa Rosa and participants from the Volunteer Center for Sonoma County at Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA to plant and mulch about 500 trees that will provide habitat, nectar, and pollen to native insects and hopefully boost their declining populations.
• October 2010: Twenty raspberry bushes and edible trees and shrubs including hazelnuts, elderberries, blackberries, heavenly bamboo, and a rose bush that produces edible rose hips at Walnut Hill Community Farm with the Philadelphia Orchard Project in Philadelphia, PA.
• April 2010: Herb garden planted at Blue Moon Organics in Aptos, CA.
• March 2010: Owl Boxes are donated and installed at E & M Farm in Vernalis, CA and Kauffman’s Fruit Farm in Bird-in-Hand, PA.
• Donated and helped plant heirloom apple trees at Lehman’s Orchard, Niles, MI.
• February 2009: FG team helps plant and graft Asian Pear trees at Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA.
• October 2008: Bat boxes donated and installed at Jelich Ranch in Portola Valley, CA.
• April 2008: Four honeybee hives donated and installed (48,000 bees!!) at Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA.

Micro-Loans & Grants: It is harder than ever for farmers to get loans to invest in their businesses or get them through the harvest season. Many small family-run farms are run on a financial knife’s edge where a bad stretch of weather, health crisis, implementing new regulations, or wrong market price could be enough to force them to shut down.

• 2011: $3,000 no-interest loan to Baia Nicchia in Sunol, CA. Baia Nicchia is a family farm, run by Fred Hempel and Jill Shepard, that grows heirloom tomatoes, squash, peppers, and herbs. “Without pre-pays from FruitGuys and others last summer we would not have been able to make it through the year,” says Fred Hempel of Baia Nicchia.  “We didn’t have farm loan options, and some of our investments into variety development, etc. have not yet paid a return yet. The loan was critical for keeping us going prior to harvest of our main crops.”
• 2010: $1,500 grant to Blue Moon Organics in Aptos, CA, for strawberry planting.

“In the last couple of years we’ve been able to nearly double the amount of fruit we can give away,” said Mittelstaedt.  “While it’s hard to track the individual servings, 300,000 pounds of a year translates into more than half-a-million servings of healthy produce for people who otherwise would not have access to that food.”

Pia Hinckle is publisher of The FruitGuys Almanac.

Disclosure: the author is married to Chris Mittelstaedt, The FruitGuys founder.

Photos courtesy of Nationalities Service Center

Happy about apples!

PHILADELPHIA–Every Monday morning Adam Forbes travels to The FruitGuys’ Philadelphia warehouse to load his pick-up truck. Apples? Check. Bananas? Check. Citrus? Pears? Check. Adam brings the fruit, and any other produce that wasn’t used in customers’ crates that week, back to the Growing Home Community Garden, an urban farm project and food assistance program run by the Nationalities Service Center (NSC), a Philadelphia-based nonprofit group founded in 1921 to aid recent immigrants and refugees in the Philadelphia area.

Fruit donations lined up and sorted, ready to be handed out by volunteers from the garden!

When I visited in November 2011, a group of volunteer translators helped unload the fruit, each taking charge of a particular commodity, to make sure guests received a variety of produce to bring home to their families. Many refugees are newly arrived from Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma. Most weeks between 75-100 people will line up and each person leaves with 20-25 pieces of fruit. “The fruit and vegetable donations that The FruitGuys provides have played an incredible role in the health and nutrition of our refugee families in South Philly,” says Adam, the NSC Community Garden Manager. “Over 75 families line up every Monday to eagerly await the astounding array of fresh produce. Without this regular support many of our families do not have any access to fruit. The weekly donation not only provides much needed produce – but also brings together the community and provides us with a time to organize other community events addressing health, nutrition, and safety. This direct service would be impossible without the kindness and generosity of The FruitGuys.”

After getting their bags of produce, a few people went to the garden to pick fresh cilantro, the last of Fall’s bounty, to garnish their meals; others headed immediately to the community center around the corner for that morning’s English as a Second Language (ESL) class.

Neighborhood gardeners showing off some newly harvested greens.

The community garden allows refugees to grow vegetables used in their traditional home cooking, such as collard greens, kale, eggplant, Thai basil, bitter melon, cilantro, and cucumbers. Adam says families are being introduced to new fruit through the FruitGuys donations. “We are still teaching families about kiwis, but a lot tried them the first week and are now happy for them.”

I first found out about NSC and its community garden from an appeal for produce posted by Adam on the Philadelphia Urban Farm Network listserv.  I thought the community garden was a great fit – not only to grow healthy produce, but to create a welcoming community space for a vulnerable population. Deliveries began in August and each week The FruitGuys gives about 600 pounds of fruit and produce.  In addition to providing food, Growing Home provides a gathering space for the community and helps them adjust to a new way of life. “I cannot tell you how grateful the recent refugees are,” says Adam. “Their faces light up when they see the fruit unloaded. Clients constantly ask where it all comes from and want to [say] a thousand ‘thank you’s—ek lakh danyabad—in Nepali.”

Besides the weekly donations by The FruitGuys, NSC also encourages its families to attend the Fresh for All free farmers’ markets run by Philabundance, another FruitGuys Good Works partner in the Philadelphia area. NSC has cobbled together this gleaning network to make sure these families don’t go hungry while they wait for identity cards to be issued or enrollment in government benefits programs.

Kim Jordan is The FruitGuys Eastern Regional Manager. She lives in Philadelphia.

St. Anthony’s Dining Room Nourishes the Needy

Photos courtesy of St. Anthony’s Dining Room

SAN FRANCISCO — Andrew Hudson is holding a pear in his left hand and wearing a big smile. “I love fruit! Oranges, plums, nectarines. Fruit is good for you!” Called Dancer by his friends, the 59-year-old Atlanta native is a regular guest at St. Anthony’s Dining Room, which serves free hot meals to the needy 365 days a year. “Bring more nectarines!” Andrew says.

Three times a week the Dining Room picks up donations of fresh fruit, much of it organic, from the South San Francisco warehouse of The FruitGuys, a farm fresh produce delivery service. Founder and CEO Chris Mittelstaedt says St. Anthony’s was the first group to receive donations in the company’s early years and set the tempo for its expanding GoodWorks philanthropic program. “We had been giving away leftover fruit to people on the street but as we grew it was too much,” says Chris. “I knew of St. Anthony’s and we started donating to them. It must be at least 10 years now.”

Eleven years and seven months, actually. The first donation was received on May 8^th, 2000. Four cases of bananas to be exact.  Now anywhere from 40-70 boxes of mixed fruit are being donated each week. At about 40 pounds a box, that’s around 2,000 pounds a week, and more than 100,000 pounds a year.

“Without [The FruitGuys donation] we wouldn’t have any organics,” says Char Marsden, 48, one of the Dining Room’s four paid chefs. “We really appreciate that.” Born in Sydney, she is also an organic farmer who has been working for St. Anthony’s off and on for the last ten years. Char says she uses the soft fruit, such as bananas, berries, and ripe pears, for the senior breakfast. A lot of the guests have dental issues, such as missing teeth and gum disease, which makes eating hard fruit like apples difficult or impossible. “Sometimes I make apple sauce or mix the fruit with rice pudding.” Hard fruit (apples, oranges, hard pears) is offered whole at lunchtime and/or used for bag lunches. She says they use about 2,000 pounds of fruit a day.

Alfonso Salas is a prep chef who receives the fruit donations each week. “We wash and sort the fruit and I set aside the soft fruit for the seniors. Bananas are a big hit,” says Alfonso, who says he has a special affinity for the guests because he used to be one himself.  He says it is a huge help to Dining Room logistics to know they are getting large amounts of fresh fruit every week. “We know every week we are getting something. The other [fruit] donations are more random,” says the Salinas, CA native whose dad was a field manager for a lettuce farm. “I know about produce and this is good fruit.”

Chris of The FruitGuys says the fruit that is set aside for St. Anthony’s is perfectly fine fruit but doesn’t meet their “visual” standards for customers’ boxes: it may be sized improperly, slightly misshapen, or have too many natural blemishes, common in produce from small organic farms. “I have a deep-seated belief that if you have been lucky enough to succeed in business that you have a responsibility to try and make the world a better place and help those in need,” says Mittelstaedt. “I’m very thankful for our customers whose business with us allows us to grow our GoodWorks program and fulfill this mission. But there is always more to do!”

Each day the Dining Room serves up to 3,000 hot meals to men, women, and children who get a number on a slip of paper and then wait to be called in to eat. Seniors and families with children can come between 10-11:30; anyone can come from 1130-1:30pm. The profile of the guests is a mix of seniors on fixed incomes who have no money left over for food after paying their rent; homeless people; people suffering from mental illness and/or addiction; families that are working poor; recent parolees; people who are long out of work or on disability; and those going through a rough patch. One out of four is a Veteran (dating as far back as World War II). Since the economic downturn in 2008, they have seen a 7% increase in guests, or about an additional 300 people a day. They are also seeing more families. It is open 365 days a year.

Founded October 4, 1950 by Father Alfred Boedekker, at the time the Franciscan pastor of St. Boniface Catholic Church down the street, the Dining Room is now the gateway to an array of supportive social services run by the St. Anthony Foundation, including housing assistance and social workers, medical care, clothing, computer access, and job training. 2010 marked the Dining Room’s 60^th anniversary and 37 millionth meal served.  The Dining Room also serves as a community center and hosts two monthly food distribution programs in conjunction with the San Francisco Food Bank.

The menu on a day in December, hand written on a blackboard, says “Sloppy Joes, Salad with Mushrooms, Fruit.” Each day they need at least 50 volunteers to assist the small paid staff in prepping, cooking, and serving the food, as well as greeting guests and busing tables. Some ingredients and food is donated, other food is purchased from suppliers.  “The FruitGuys is our biggest donor of fresh produce and our only weekly donor,” says Karl Robillard, St. Anthony’s Senior Manager for Communications & Outreach. “It really is the backbone of our fresh fruit supply. Knowing it’s coming every week and that the fruit is seasonal takes some of the “Iron Chef” element out of the cooking and menu planning.”

“Fresh fruit is so important because over 70 percent of our guests do not have access to kitchen facilities, there are no grocery stores in the Tenderloin, and fresh fruit is very difficult to come by.  Our founder, Fr. Alfred always said, ‘If there is a true need, the money will come.’  In this case, the true need is nutrition for thousands of guests who eat at St. Anthony’s every day.  FruitGuys is proof positive that this same spirit is alive and well today,” said Shari Roeseler, Executive Director of St. Anthony Foundation.

During the week of Dec. 17-24, St. Anthony’s will be accepting curbside donations of gently-used and new winter clothing and pantry items at 105 Golden Gate @ Jones Street, San Francisco. Donations are accepted year round of personal or family-sized portions of fresh fruit, vegetables, canned and dried goods at 150 Golden Gate Avenue, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Large deliveries of bulk food items can be brought directly to St. Anthony Dining Room deliveries at 65 Jones St., everyday, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Call (415) 241-2600 or see their website for more information.

Pia Hinckle is Publisher of The FruitGuys Almanac.
Disclosure: The author is married to FruitGuys founder Chris Mittelstaedt.

This last year Farm Shop has attended two lively health festivals sponsored by San Francisco HeartBeets at San Francisco General Hospital. Following these fabulous events, we invited Denise Goitia, HeartBeets’ Nutrition Educator, to share more about our partnership and their inspiring work!

HeartBeets is an initiative of the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation that seeks to inspire the consumption of natural, locally-grown foods. Since its launch in 2009, HeartBeets has grown and flourished into an active community-based organization. Within San Francisco General Hospital, we foster a healthy food environment for patients and staff through our seasonal festivals, FarmShares deliveries, and cooking demonstrations at the hospital’s newly developed Wellness Center. HeartBeets interns and the hospital gardening team partner to provide leafy greens and fresh herbs grown on site to out-patient classes on diabetes, cardiovascular health, and smoking cessation.

Beyond the hospital walls, the work of HeartBeets is to inspire communities most affected by diet-related chronic illness through learning about natural foods, developing the skills to prepare them, and increasing food access. Our community education programs reach low-income families, the formerly homeless, and at risk youth. Simple, nourishing recipes and basic nutritional information are used as a prompt for fostering self-care and collective healing.

Each quarter, HeartBeets hosts a seasonal festival devoted to celebrating and promoting health and wellness through locally sourced, whole foods. Capay Valley Farm Shop has made it possible for HeartBeets to bring seasonal food-based celebrations to San Francisco General Hospital’s patients and staff. This year’s Fall Fest featured a lively Bollywood dance class, a bi-lingual coconut curried winter squash soup demo and tasting, and various displays on multi-cultural fall celebrations including Diwali (the Indian celebration of lights) and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). HeartBeets interns provided education on healthy, low cost alternatives to Halloween candy. Hospital dieticians educated attendees on hidden sugars in common beverages, while serving low sugar alternatives such as fresh fruits and cinnamon tea.

Thanks to the generosity of FarmShares members, Capay Valley Farm Shop made in-kind donations of produce and products totaling over $1500 to support the past two seasonal festivals which have reached over 500 people. We hope to continue our relationship with Capay Valley Farm Shop to bring high quality produce to our community cooking and nutrition classes.

Like with any great project, we could never have accomplished so much without the generous contributions of staff from SF General Hospital, SF State interns, the financial support from the Hospital Foundation and the donations from Capay Valley Farm Shop.

Check out HeartBeets at: www.heartbeets.org or visit our blog at sfghheartbeets.blogspot.com.

By Pia Hinckle

Microloans were pioneered in India and other countries to help farmers and small businesses have working capital to be successful or to expand their businesses and then slowly re-pay the money.

As part of The FruitGuys’ Farm Steward program, we recently financed a $3,000 no-interest loan to one of our farms, Baia Nicchia in Sunol, CA. Baia Nicchia is a family farm, run by Fred Hempel and Jill Shepard, that grows heirloom tomatoes, squash, peppers, and herbs. “We really appreciate this,” said Fred.

The credit crunch has hit small farms perhaps worse than even small businesses. Banks aren’t interested in small loans and credit is very tight and hard to come by. Farms tend to operate on a thin margin and unforeseen events like the weather can quickly change a farm’s business prospects.  Fred just needed a few thousand dollars to plant more tomatoes and get through the summer growing season to harvest time.

FruitGuys CEO and Founder Chris Mittelstaedt said that the loan represents a new initiative for the company. “Most of our farm steward projects up to this point have had to do with direct purchases that benefit the farmers or help them with sustainable agriculture projects. This marks a new initiative for us and one that we are interested in developing further,” he told the Almanac. “What I love about the microloan idea is that, because we are buying directly from these farmers, we are helping them fund the costs of growing and at the same time committing ourselves as a buyer of their goods.  As we pay them for the product, they can then pay the loan back to us.”

Mittelstaedt said the terms of the loan are a no-interest loan with an agreement to pay it back in small installments through the harvest season in 2011.  “We are making a commitment to the crop’s success in the short term and an investment in the farm’s success for the future,” said Mittelstaedt.

The FruitGuys first experiment with microloans was a $1,500 loan in 2010 to Blue Moon Organics in Aptos, CA.

Rodents, such as gophers and voles, eat the roots of the fruit trees which can damage or kill the trees, so rodent control is a big issue for farmers. Owls are predators that can control rodent populations in orchards naturally without the use of pesticides and chemicals.  So how do farmers sign up owls for the job? Install owl boxes. As part of The FruitGuys Farm Steward program, we donated owl boxes to an east coast and west coast farm to encourage owl residency.  Here is a video we made of the installation of an owl box at E & M Farm in Vernalis California, an organic white peach and white nectarine farm, with farmer Ed Magee and his family. The owl boxes were made by the woodworking department of a local school.

As of June, there are four owl boxes installed on E & M farm and we are happy to report that all have been inhabited by barn owls.

According to Dan Mummert, a Southeast Wildlife Diversity Biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who we worked with during our installation of an owl box on Kauffman’s Fruit Farm in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, barn owls typically pair up, one pair per house, or barn, then they mate and raise their baby owls. Once the baby owls are old enough, they fly off and find a new home, mate up, and the cycle continues. Ed doesn’t think that any of the couples in his boxes have reproduced just yet at E & M Farm. They were probably youngsters themselves when they moved in.

Farmer Ed Magee says that putting the owl boxes up has certainly increased the diversity of the farm’s eco-system. He can hear the owls flying around, and the owls are extremely effective at pest control, eating gophers and voles. Ed, his wife Melissa, and their kids check the owl pellets to see what the owls have been eating. The owls are nocturnal, so it is hard to take photos of them but Ed says theyy can hear the owls screeching and making clicking noises to communicate with each other. Occasionally, they will peek out of the owl box window when Ed drives by in the tractor, but they are mostly reclusive.

We asked Ed how hawks that also live in the area interact with the owls. Ed says that since the owls are nocturnal, there doesn’t appear to be any territorial issues between the two birds. The boxes are designed for barn owls only, there is a board inside after the entry window that helps to protect them and their baby owls from predators. Hawks, as well as great horned owls, will hunt barn owls. The Magees also have six cats on the farm, and the owls don’t seem to bother the cats either.

On the west coast, we’re looking forward to enjoying E & M Farm organic peaches and nectarines in a few more weeks. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this video of Ed’s ingenious approach to mounting the owl boxes on tall poles using man power and leverage.

On a sunny Northern California morning in April, volunteers gathered at picturesque Baia Nicchia Farm in Alameda County to plant heirloom tomato seedlings. When the tomatoes are ready to eat, we’ll enjoy knowing that we had a hand in the process, as well as eating them.

Baia Nicchia is a small farm and nursery located in Sunol, California on farmland leased from the San Francisco Water District. Fred Hempel and Jill Shepard own and run this organic farm, with help from Jill’s son Zach who is studying agriculture and economics at U.C. Santa Cruz. Fred and Jill are best known for breeding fabulous gourmet tomatoes. They grow a variety of crops using innovative sustainable farming methods.

We started the day with some hot tea made from mint and other herbs grown on the farm, and met the other volunteers. Diem Ho, a FruitGuys customer from IDEO, was there with his brother and cousin, as well as a crew of FruitGuys. The FruitGuys supports Baia Nicchia by purchasing their unique organic produce for our TakeHome boxes.

We planted the tomato seedlings at a relaxed pace, and basked in the beauty of the land and the sunshine. The first thing I noticed while planting was that the dirt was full of plant matter—big bits of Daikon radish, basil, stems, etc—and there were ladybugs and earthworms that I tried not to disturb as we put the plants into the ground in neat rows near irrigation drips.

After the planting, Zach gave us a tour of the farm. He explained to us that Daikon is a great cover crop for a number of reasons: the roots take up space and when they are pulled up, they leave a nice area for water and new plant roots. The plant matter feeds the soil and creates a sort of “glue” as it decomposes, which makes the soil clump, so it does not blow away with the wind in between crops—a big problem for farmers in some areas that use chemicals instead of cover crops to replenish their soil. Plus, the flowers of the Daikon are delicate and a delicious addition to salads! Same goes with the flowers of arugula. The other main cover crop Baia Nicchia used this winter was Bell Beans, which take nitrogen from the air and transfer it into the soil, leaving the soil rich and fertile. Together, Daikon and Bell Beans make an ideal cover crop so the tomato plants should grow happily there without the need for any chemical fertilizers.

Cover and complementary crops also attract beneficial insects that keep the harmful insects at bay. Zach showed us a tall post they put up to attract hawks, which will help keep down the squirrel and rodent population, always troublesome because they eat the roots and plants.

After this informative and interesting tour, we had a delicious lunch of bread and brie cheese with herbs, squash soup, a beet and grain salad, and pumpkin bread that melted in our mouths.

After lunch Fred showed us some plant innovations they are working on with an Ethiopian chef and talked about their tomato breeding projects. They have an internship program that sounds perfect for city dwellers that want to connect directly with where their food is grown. For four hours on a Saturday, you spend the first hour learning about food, the farm, and farming practices, then get your hands dirty with the rest of the crew for the next three hours.

You can read Baia Nicchia’s farm blog to learn more about their projects.

We left with herbs, lettuce, and a seedling to grow in our home gardens. Being at the farm and taking an active role in the growing of delicious and healthy food on a sustainable farm was a rewarding experience for us volunteers. It can be a big help for the farmers too! If you’d like to join The FruitGuys on a future farm trip to lend a hand, just send an email to info@fruitguys.com and let us know you’re interested in signing up for future Farm Steward volunteer projects.

Baia Nicchia has a few rows of special “FruitGuys” tomatoes, bred especially to delight our TakeHome customers. Sign up in time for summer at fruitguys.com/home so you can enjoy these tomatoes at their peak ripeness.

The FruitGuys in the Dirt: A Farm Steward Story

By Amanda Pineault

On Saturday, March 12, 2011 a small contingent of FruitGuys joined Cub Scouts from Santa Rosa and participants from the Volunteer Center for Sonoma County at Gabriel Farm in Sebastopol, CA (Sonoma County).

Noelle Johnson consultancy of Gold River RCD shows off pre-made beehives.

The theme for the day was pollinators! Before we could get our hands dirty, we first got a lesson in the importance of bees and other insects from Noelle Johnson, conservation planner at the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District (RCD), 134,000-acre district in western Sonoma County, and a lesson in agro-ecology from Rose Roberts, founder and Chief Steward of Farm Stewards, a sustainable agriculture consultancy.

Rose Roberts of Farm Stewards explains how insects affect our food production

Honey bee populations worldwide are declining and farmers everywhere are doing what they can to help to preserve these essential members of our food system. Habitat loss, pesticide use, and disease all contribute to the declines of bee and insect populations worldwide but as more people are made aware of these problems, conservation efforts are springing up everywhere.

Torrey Olson talks about his organic farm to Cub Scouts from Santa Rosa.

At Gabriel Farm, owners Torrey and Lucy Olsen adhere to organic farming practices and have been working with Noelle and Rose on a pollinator project to increase natural plant habitats on their farm. In April 2008, The FruitGuys donated 4 beehives and 48,000 bees to Torrey and Lucy in an effort to help introduce new bee populations to the area. In March we gathered to help plant some pollinator-attracting border plants.

FruitGuys Betty, Amanda, Julie and Candace are ready for a fun day of planting.

After going over the rules and regulations, we all set out to plant and mulch flowering shrubs and trees meant to provide year round habitat and pollen for the bees and other beneficial insects. Rose, Noelle, and Torrey had already laid the groundwork and pre-placed the plants (still in pots) at appropriate spots around the 14-acres farm of Asian pear, apple, and persimmon trees.

FruitGal Erin getting her hands dirty.

By the end of the day, we had planted and mulched about 500 trees that will provide habitat, nectar, and pollen to native insects and hopefully boost their declining populations. The progress of the plantings, as well as, the abundance and diversity of the insect populations will be monitored by Noelle and her staff at RCD.

FruitGals Candace and Amanda start with some seeding.

We look forward to all of the bountiful fruits these pollinators will help produce. For more information about polinators and how you can get involved, visit the Pollinator Partnership website. Many thanks to FruitGuys VP of Operations Erin for the great photos.

FruitGal Betty finds the best place for her shrub.

Click here to read more about native bees and about what you can do to provide food and habitat for them in your garden.

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Check out this San Francisco Chronicle story on how CA commercial honeybee populations are doing much better.

FruitGal Julie diggin' holes.

FruitGuys Fruit Buyer Jessica gets ready to plant raspberries.

The farm was reclaimed from the urban landscape this past spring through a partnership between The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation (TEC-CDC) and Philly Rooted, led by farm managers/directors Nic Esposito and Erica Smith. Nic and Erica teach sustainable farming skills to West Philadelphia youth and help them market and sell their produce at the Clark Park Farmer’s Market and local businesses such as Milk and Honey Market.

FruitGuys Production Associate Shawn pitches in.

Nic and Erica founded Philly Rooted “to grow community and support the local food economy by developing urban farms” and to promote the incorporation of urban agriculture into local policies.

The FruitGuys sponsored the October 29, 2010 planting by purchasing the planting materials, including more than twenty raspberry bushes and edible trees and shrubs including hazelnuts, elderberries, blackberries, heavenly bamboo, and a rose bush that produces edible rose hips.  POP’s orchard director, Phil Forsyth, sourced the plants. The FruitGuys team also brought along some fruit to help keep volunteers energized.

Fresh fruit that we brought for snacking.

I enjoyed working with fellow FruitGuys Jessica and Shawn, Erica and Nic of Philly Rooted, Phil from POP, Greg Heller and Imanni Wilkes, managing directors of TED-CDC, and about 30 other volunteers from the community, including members of Phi Kappa Psi, a social fraternity at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, representatives from TED-CDC Street Teams and members of The Philadelphia Urban Food & Fitness Association (PUFFA).  Thanks to all the volunteers who joined in to make this day a huge success. We are excited to be partnering with all of these groups and individuals to help grow healthier communities in Philadelphia.

Happy and windblown FruitGuys - Bridget, Shawn and Jessica post planting.

The blustery fall day encouraged an efficient pace as we worked to keep warm, clearing away stony, literally, rubble-filled soils, to make way for nutrient-rich beds full of compost to give the berry bushes, edible trees, and shrubs a good start.  I am already looking forward to the day when The FruitGuys can purchase fruit from this community farm for our customers to enjoy.  If you live in the area are interested in volunteering, please let me know so that we can invite you to participate in our spring orchard planting!

- Bridget Meigs bridget@fruitguys.com