Firstfruits Farm grows, distributes fresh produce to SLO County food pantries 

Papery husks speckle the soil next to empty stalks. Yellowing in the sun between rows of melon and trellised cucumbers, they're evidence of recently harvested corn.

A quick glance toward the upper half of Firstfruits Farm reveals a tall green patch of stalks waiting for volunteers to do the same to them when the corn is ripe enough to pick.

click to enlarge

• Photo By Camillia Lanham
• RICH AND CLEAN Firstfruits Farm grows organic produce destined for the pantries of those living with food insecurity in SLO County. As part of its sustainability efforts, the nonprofit recently started growing some of its crops, such as lettuce, in raised beds.

"We try to do succession planting so we can stretch out the season on some of these things," said Ben Horton, Firstfruits' harvest captain, who's volunteered with the all-volunteer nonprofit for the past four years.

The field starts with tomatoes and bell peppers, moving onto cantaloupe and watermelon, which give way to cucumbers and zucchini, squash, beets, greens, and more. Since 2013, the small-scale operation has grown an increasing variety of produce for those in need—starting on a half-acre parcel near the airport that now holds its fruit orchard and later adding a 1-acre field behind Thousands Hills Pet Resort. Firstfruits became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2019.

And thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation of San Luis Obispo and the hard work of volunteers, the nonprofit has a newly built walk-in chiller to help that produce last a little longer. The chiller was completed just in time to deal with the summer heat, Firstfruits Communications Director Sara Allen said.

click to enlarge

• Photo Courtesy Of Firstfruits Farm
• VOLUNTEER-FUELED Firstfruits Farm is 100 percent volunteer-run, including harvest days and works days, such as this one where fresh compost is being added to raised beds.

She's been a volunteer board member for about a year, she said, but has volunteered with the organization for longer.

Horton said that when the temperature hit 100 degrees at the beginning of September, a cool place to keep recently harvested produce was "nice to have."

"Even having the greens out for 20 minutes, they were starting to wilt," he said. "Being able to cool them down helps them maintain their nutritional value and look good too."

As of September, Firstfruits was distributing produce to six local organizations that tackle food insecurity: God's Storehouse in San Luis Obispo, Estero Bay Kindness Coalition along SLO County's North Coast, People Helping People in Los Osos, Rock Harbor Christian Fellowship in Morro Bay, New Life Community Church in Pismo Beach, and Transitions-Mental Health Association. In 2023, the organization provided almost 17,000 pounds of fresh produce to an estimated 700 families.

"A lot of our partners do get food from grocery stores in the area, but a lot of the food they're getting is the stuff that's been removed from the shelves," Horton said. "And it's really rough."

"A lot of the food is at the end of its shelf life, and what we're donating is at the beginning of its shelf life," Allen added.

She said the goal is to give folks options, too, like they would have in a grocery store. The only thing the nonprofit doesn't grow is potatoes. Why? They have a little bit less nutritional value than other fruits and vegetables, and potatoes are commonly donated to food pantries and food distribution organizations.

Instead, FirstFruits reserves that precious field space to grow something like tomatillos.

"The population here is interested in them and you don't normally find them in a food pantry, so it's a treat to be able to give that to them," Allen said. "We try to grow a variety; we try to experiment with different crops every year. Some work out, some don't."

click to enlarge

• Photo By Camillia Lanham
• READY FOR DISTRIBUTION Shallots drying in the sun at Firstfruits field behind Thousand Hills Pet Resort in SLO are almost ready to be harvested and delivered to the nonprofit's partner organizations.

In 2023, the farm grew about 40 different crops. That was also the first year that Firstfruits harvested from a portion of its field year-round. Part of the planted acreage is being traditionally farmed this year—plowed in the winter and planted with a cover crop. But the raised beds in the upper part of the field will get turned over once the harvest is done and replanted with a winter crop.

"We call it flipping a bed," Allen said. "This is a much more sustainable practice of farming. ... The soil here is very hard, as you can see, so having these raised beds is much more effective for the plants."

The raised bed soil beneath the beet greens looks much richer, darker than the crumbled earth holding up cantaloupes a few rows down, and Horton said it's thanks to donated compost from Cal Poly and Kompogas SLO (an anaerobic digestion facility not far from the farm that turns green waste into energy).

"My gut feel is that we're getting three times the amount of produce from the same space," he said.

This new way of farming was dreamed up by a fellow Firstfruits' board member, one of several who are always trying to think of better, more efficient ways to accomplish Firstfruits' mission of growing produce to serve food insecure locals and caring for the Earth. The nonprofit grows organically, recycles, and is always trying to think of new ways of being sustainable.

Most of the board members have some home gardening experience, Horton said. Some members have construction backgrounds, so they can help with irrigation and infrastructure maintenance. Retired board members can spend more time honing the farming craft, and others, such as Allen and Horton, work full time in addition to the volunteer hours they dedicate to the farm (Allen is an engineering manager at MindBody and Horton works in IT security).

click to enlarge

• Photo By Camillia Lanham
• SMALL BUT MIGHTY Growing a variety of produce on 1 acre of land near the SLO Airport, Firstfruits Farm has the goal of offering those in need quality fruits and vegetables, such as cantaloupe and tomatoes.

All of the board members are currently sharing the duties of executive director until someone comes along with the right collection of skills, time off, and resources to volunteer for the role.

Harvesting bi-weekly on Tuesday mornings and Friday evenings, with farm work days on Saturday mornings and Monday evenings, also requires volunteers. How many show up depends on the day. Some come every week and there are others who appear once, never to return again. Glean SLO members often volunteer for the harvest, Allen said, which is how she found out about Firstfruits.

"I just fell in love with it and kept coming back. I kept volunteering with it instead of through Glean SLO," Allen said. "I grew up with gardens. I grew up loving to play in the dirt, and my day job is working in front of a computer all day, so it's fun to be out here, doing something that is volunteering outdoors and doing something that is great for the community." Δ

Editor Camillia Lanham is also harvesting fresh produce. Send seeds of change to [email protected].