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Sunny Slope Greenhouses Page 4

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Photos and text by Debbie Roos, Agricultural Extension Agent.

Intro Page

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Rich prunes off empty fruit trusses in preparation for lowering plants. Removing the leaves and trusses helps reduce disease problems like Botrytis.

Dave does all the tomato harvesting. Tomatoes are picked at this stage of ripeness. All their years of experience have shown them that at this stage all the flavor has been captured, and you can’t tell the difference between fruit picked at this stage and fruit allowed to ripen fully on the vine. The advantage to picking fruit at this stage is the longer shelf-life. Tomatoes allowed to ripen fully on the vine bruise and damage very easily during picking and handling. Jim and Dave guarantee shelf-life for a minimum of two weeks.

Harvest begins the first week of March and goes til mid-July, depending on the weather conditions. Dave picks three times a week. These tomatoes are about three days away from being ripe enough to eat.

While Dave is picking, Jim is grading and packing. Each box contains 20 pounds of tomatoes. The tomatoes are stored in the greenhouse for three days in the same environment they were grown. It takes 40 hours a week to pick and pack tomatoes.

This is the finished product. Jim and Dave have been in the business so long that each tomato they pick already has a market.

Jim with Walt, the official ambassador of Sunny Slope! Walt thinks that the only reason they grow tomatoes is to attract people to the farm to pet him. Walt loves people, especially children, and he is the only creature on the farm that doesn’t like tomatoes!

Jim sells at the Pittsboro Farmers’ Market. Jim is one of the founding members of the market and serves as the chairman of the steering committee. They have many customers who have been buying from them for over 25 years, including many second generation customers!

Customers take their tomatoes home in special Sunny Slope bags, which Jim and Dave had made to help preserve the quality of the tomatoes once they leave the farm. They also serve to remind customers where they got their tasty tomatoes. Dave and Jim offer a product with brand-name recognition – people know to ask for Sunny Slope tomatoes!

Typical offerings at the farmers’ market – they like them at their ripest!

Dave with one of their shorter lines at the Saturday Carrboro Farmers’ Market, where they have been selling since 1980. Note the volume of tomatoes that this market consumes! People have been known to stand in line 20-30 deep at this market.

Dave at the Tuesday afternoon Fearrington Farmers’ Market. They were also instrumental in helping to start this market.

They do six different farmers’ market a week: Sanford, Pittsboro, Carrboro, Fearrington, Durham, and Southern Village. About 95% of their crop is sold directly to customers.

At the end of the season, when the crop is finished, it is time to solarize the soil. They remove all plants and plant material and equipment, moisten the soil, cover it with clear plastic, close all the vents, turn off the fans, and let the sun bake the greenhouses for a minimum of six weeks. During this time soil temperatures will exceed 150° F to a depth of 5 inches. This sterilizes the soil and kills off any disease organisms, weed seeds, and insect pests.
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Page Last Updated: 1 decade ago
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