Del Cabo Farms: The Sweetness of Summer in Winter
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Del Cabo Farms Presents:
The Sweetness of Summer in Winter
by Mark Mulcahy, New Leaf's Produce Director |
thoughts of making a nice meal for your friend. Hmm, what will it be?
The vegetables begin to inspire you... maybe a Thai dish with some sugar snap and snow peas, basil, zucchini, and chili peppers. Or maybe fajitas would do the trick. That requires some sunburst or crookneck squash, red, yellow and green bell peppers, cherry tomatoes and a bit of jalapeño or serrano pepper for some spice. And the great thing about it all is it’s available —organic and in the winter!
It wasn’t always like this. When I first started working in the organic produce industry, the selection of organic items were far and few between from November to May. We had to be resourceful when
it came to keeping our racks full. Until one day in February 1987, I was shopping my morning rounds (12:30 am) at the San
Francisco produce market when suddenly I discovered beautiful ripe slicing tomatoes from a company called Del Cabo. I tried one and YES! They even tasted the way a tomato should. I had to have
some for my store, as I knew my customers would love them. It was the beginning of a whole new world for the organic produce market.
Who is Del Cabo? It was longtime local organic farmers Larry Jacobs
and Sandra Belin from Jacob’s Farm in Pescadero that started Del Cabo. Having created a successful organic farming operation here, Larry and Sandra headed south. In 1985, they encountered a community of struggling, subsistence-level farmers in Baja, Mexico, and that’s where they came up with the idea for the Del Cabo cooperative. Growing the type of products for the organic market that most of us had only seen grown conventionally in the winter months was a ripe opportunity for Baja farmers. Today, this collaboration between Jacob’s Farm and the Baja growers provides over 400 farming families with needed training in organic growing, harvesting, and handling, as well as start-up funds, farming technology, administrative training, and consistent distribution channels — ensuring the best return for small-scale farms. They still grow slicing tomatoes, but if you look around the produce department today, you’ll see a complete mix of cherry tomatoes, basil, zucchini, sunburst and crookneck squash, English, sugar snap, and snow peas, hard squashes, green beans, bell peppers, jalapeños, serranos, poblanos, and more!
LEARN MORE! Hear Del Cabo’s own inspiring story about farming south of the border! Larry and the Del Cabo team will tell their story, discuss organic farming in Mexico, answer your questions, and
let you try plenty of their tasty winter produce.
Thursday, February 25
6pm - 7:30pm
FREE, New Leaf Westside
Register Online or call 831.466.9060 x 126
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