Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm

Attention people of Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Mesa, Peoria, Glendale, Buckeye, Avondale and points in between and across Maricopa county here in Arizona: a local all-natural farm is right here in your midst, with the best local vegetables you are likely to find. And this farm is called Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm.

Here we are moving quickly into summer and a cornucopia of fresh all-natural veggies exceeding the requirements and allowances for organic farming is happening right in your own backyard. Well, almost: all you need do is take a short drive to Tonopah on Saturdays to partake in this extraordinary harvest.

Farm tours allow you to see with your own eyes that everything for sale at the farm stand was grown right here on this very land; nothing for sale here has been imported or grown somewhere else. There are weeds here because weed killers are not used. You will find lizards, birds, bugs, even some animals I wish weren’t here such as squirrels, gophers, and rabbits – they are all alive and well because poisons used to rid the farm of pests would also kill the animals and insects I depend on to help this farm stay healthy. And if those poisons and insecticides can kill weeds, insects, and animals, then they simply cannot be any good for us people either.

If you see a fly or a small worm hole on a veggie here, you can rest assured that if it can live on my veggies then there clearly aren’t any harmful chemicals used that would otherwise keep those pests at bay. Next time you are shopping for supposedly organic veggies ask yourself, why do these fruits and veggies look so perfect if insects are part of the natural environment?

At Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm you are going to find some rather odd shaped veggies. Vegetables don’t grow to uniform sizes. Uniform and perfectly shaped or colored vegetables are what have been marketed to us as what we should expect as normal. So what happens to the odd shaped foods that are picked on conventional and even organic farms? Are those weird looking carrots dumped in the trash bin? Do the scarred eggplants get sold to food processors for making frozen Ratatouille? I grow some rather small peaches that are as sweet as can be, but I only see apple-sized perfect looking peaches in the stores. Are we as a society simply wasting what is not perfect?

If you buy veggies at my farm, you will find all shapes and sizes, shades and colors of vegetables you may not expect, but those purple carrots are awesomely sweet. Yellow roma tomatoes make a pasta sauce low in acid but with all the tomatoey flavor you want in a gourmet sauce whipped together with fresh garlic, basil, onion, and peppers you can get right here on my farm. Speaking of garlic, I grow more than I know what to do with, have you ever had really fresh garlic? Most garlic sold in your local supermarket was picked months ago and stored. Try adding Tonopah Rob’s garlic to your cooking, but be careful: a little goes a long way, as fresh garlic adds a punch of garlic goodness to your meal.

Summer’s harvest is upon us and I have a ton of vegetables about to be picked. This is the perfect time to roast summer squash with potatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, throw in some garlic, drizzle with olive oil and make fantastic roasted veggie sandwiches or bring it all together with some vine-ripened tomatoes that I pick Friday for sale on Saturday to make a roasted veggie ratatouille. With the current craze for foods inspired from the French Provence, this is the perfect time and opportunity for you foodies out there to grab the freshest of all-natural veggies to bring out your inner creative gourmet genius.

Many visitors to Tonopah Rob’s have read or are in the process of reading Michael Pollan’s best seller, The Omnivore Dilemma, a book that has been a boon for my farm. Every week, new visitors come from as far away as Cave Creek, Scottsdale, and North Peoria on their quest for local foods. This has allowed me to focus my efforts here at the farm on picking and offering veggies right at their source. My veggies do not travel 1000 feet to get to market, they are raised at the market. I am sure there are many people who have read Mr. Pollan’s work and have yet to act on what they know they should be doing. It is time to buy local Arizona and support the few farmers such as myself who are trying to make this work right here in the desert.

Bring your kids to check out the chickens and buy your family a dozen or two of the healthiest freshest eggs from happy chickens. Everyone can tell you that their chickens are free range, but can you visit their operation and see precisely what they mean by free range? You can here. Cage free can mean they live in massive pens where thousands of birds live in cramped quarters, just not cages. What do those chickens eat? Mine eat beet greens, spinach, squash, and a ton of other veggies along with grains, and oyster shell – providing calcium for healthy strong egg shells.

Many small farmers cannot survive with high land prices, new housing developments pushing out rural land, or skills that retire with aging farmers who cannot pass on their knowledge to a workforce that wants an easier lifestyle and job. Farming is not easy – it is fraught with fickle customers who want each cucumber to look perfectly identical to one another. The sun can burn and destroy a crop in a day. A change in winds can spread a fungus in a moment and 500 pounds of tomatoes and the effort to nurture them, water them, feed them, shield them from the elements is all for nothing as you watch them die off.

My farm, like many small farms across America, relies on you. Without your continued support my vegetables will go to waste. I would rather sell it to appreciative families and keep this farm a productive and vital part of our community. And there are more ways you can help: tell a friend to visit my website and help spread the word that tremendous local food is being grown right here, right now. If you have visited the farm over the winter, come back, take a summer tour and stand under the towering sunflowers. Check out the tomatoes turning red under the shade of deep green leaves. Try a fresh carrot; I sell white, orange, yellow, and purple carrots.

Customers begin lining up at my gate a half hour before opening. Every Saturday I receive yet another compliment from people whose children fell in love with a veggie for the first time after trying this farm fresh local goodness. Phone calls come in from folks wanting to visit the farm after finding my website complimenting me about the great photos – yes, every single photo on this website is taken right here on my farm, usually just a day or two before posting it. That’s right; my photos are as fresh as my vegetables.

The desire here at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm is to offer a wide selection of vegetables customers are accustomed to, but also to offer varieties not found in your local supermarket. Why only offer one type of green bean when I can grow half a dozen varieties and let people experience some of the unique subtleties the various types offer? I am not content to only grow green zucchini, you can try yellow zucchini, a yellow and white squash or a green and white striped variety you will never find at Walmart. Have you ever tried a purple and white bell pepper? Our beauty heart radishes were a hit this winter, these are usually only found in England, and now they can be found in Arizona too. Try to find purple or orange cauliflower in your store or sweet white beets. Every effort goes in to finding non-hybrid non genetically modified seeds to ensure you and your family are trying and benefiting from the bounty and variety of vegetables that mother-nature offers us.

This little farm in Tonopah exists because of the enthusiasm and continued support of our community and the people who find this website, hear about Tonopah Rob’s via word of mouth, or wander by and stop in to see what’s going on during these exciting Saturday morning markets at the Farm Stand. I welcome you, your family, your friends and neighbors to visit my farm. Your health, your community, our environment, and our earth will benefit by you taking time out of one of your next Saturday’s and visit us to check out the fresh all-natural fruits and vegetables that are growing out here. Come on people in and around Phoenix, put together a carpool, bring one and all to Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm and go home with your arms full of the best produce you will eat this year – guaranteed.