Healthy and thoughtful meals hit close to home for the Quarry Hill family. While the 4th generation of apple farmers are still in preschool, the cafeteria lunch line is on the horizon and we’d like to see as much local produce there as possible.
We are on a mission to cultivate relationships with our local schools to not only to get farm, fresh, local apples on the lunch tray, but also to help our students connect with their food.
more than a transaction
We believe that in order to truly make an impact on the Farm to School movement, the relationship between the agricultural producer and the school customer needs to be TRANSFORMATIONAL, not TRANSACTIONAL. When you partner with us, our relationship extends beyond dropping off boxes of apples at your school’s loading dock. Here are our value added services that we provide at no additional cost:
- Classroom Taste Tests / Meet the Farmer Day
- Partnership with Feed Our Future to support Harvest of the Month programming
- Branded packaging for source identification
- Online ordering system
- Electronic invoicing and sales reports
- Educational posters, handouts, and teacher resources from Feed Our Future, US Apple, and Ohio Proud
- Social media and e-mail marketing resources
- SNA Chapter Meeting Presentations
- Participation in Farm to School Month and Great Lakes Apple Crunch
- School to Farm programs and farm tours (school buses welcome!)
WHOLE HAND FRUIT
Freestone peaches and nectarines are the first fruits available for your first week back at school. Please check our our Harvest Calendar for details on when our fruit is available. Our first picking of Galas in late August/early September (depending on the weather) is the first apple variety available after stone fruits.
We have on-site controlled atmospheric storage which is the industry standard for keeping our freshly harvested apples fresh all the way into the spring of the following year. Depending on our yields, we typically have fresh apples through the middle of March.
We have over 38 different apple varieties in our orchards. Kids love a choice, right? That’s why our program offers 10-12 of our favorite varieties that will work best in your school kitchens. This selection considers fresh eating, flavor, crispness, and shelf life. Our Farm to School Apple Offerings include Blondee, Gala, Ginger Gold, McIntosh, Jonathan, Empire, Jonagold, Suncrisp, Cameo, Fuji, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and other fruits like freestone peaches, nectarines, and bartlett pears. Our menu is dictated by what’s coming out of the orchard that will have the best taste, quality and freshness at the time of delivery.
delivery
We clean and pack fresh apples for schools on Mondays for Tuesday delivery, and Thursdays for Friday delivery. With a two week shelf life on our boxes of apples, we have found that a delivery to your school every OTHER week is ideal. We are open to discussion here if your school would require weekly deliveries. 
It is most cost-effective for us to deliver to the district’s central drop off location, however we are open to multiple delivery points if required. We will work together on establishing a consistent, reliable, routine delivery schedule.
We also have a strong relationship with Farm Fare – our transportation partner that works strictly with small to mid-size producers to co-aggregate local fruits, vegetables, and value-added products grown and produced in our community. If it makes more sense for our apples to arrive to your kithchen on the Farm Fare truck, please let us know!
pricing and pack-out
One cup or serving of fruit = one 125-count size apple (5.4 ounces and 2-3/4” in diameter). This is the standard size of apple included in our 40 pound bushel box (qty 125 apples). We have the ability to provide apples larger or smaller, depending on your needs. For instance, the elementary schools may want smaller apples, while the high schools want bigger. It’s your choice.
We will provide you with #1 apples – these will have good color, no blemishes, no marks, and minimal russetting.
Please send us an email to request more information about pricing and program details.
food safety
Along with many other Ohio fruit growers, we have partnered with California-based Primus Labs to assist in our food health and safety monitoring. The farm goes through lengthy annual inspections that address the orchards, our crew and our pack house to meet national industry standards for produce handling. Each employee must be trained on proper food safety procedures annually. Farmer Ben keeps up a rigorous “Good Agricultural Practices Manual” at the requirement of Primus to document our standard procedures and logs for various in-house inspections throughout the year. Visit our Safe and Healthy page for more details. Certificates from these audits are available upon request.
resources
Learn more about Farm to School from the National Farm to School Network and Ohio Farm to School
