DURHAM, NC - Organic tomato opportunities are abundant thanks to Happy Dirt and the company’s robust portfolio. Taylor Holenbeck, Grower Services Coordinator, and Helen Rosen, Wholesale Coordinator, recently combined their wealth of expertise to give me an exclusive look at the supplier’s organic tomato program.
Happy Dirt's North Carolina organic tomato program is built on geographic range across three distinct growing regions in the state, transitioning across each region as the season progresses.
“Eastern North Carolina starts us early, where one of our farmer-owners runs organic grape tomatoes from late June through mid-August. In the Piedmont, soil-based greenhouse production gets us pallets of tomatoes in the first week of June, well ahead of the field season,” Taylor explains. “In the mountains, cooler nights and moderate days produce heirlooms with the color and structure buyers look for, and extend the season on the back end as the eastern crop winds down.”
As Taylor goes on to tell me, sourcing across three regions rather than one gives the supplier a longer runway than any single growing area could support, expanding opportunities for its retail partners.
Varietal depth is the second advantage in this dynamic equation.
“Across our farms, we grow a wide range of true heirlooms and hybrid heirlooms alongside mixed cherry, grape, roma, slicing, and specialty tomatoes, which together cover everything from snacking formats to premium slicers,” Taylor says. “Grape tomatoes come from more than one farm and more than one region, which is what lets the fastest-moving item in the set run from late June through October.”
The practical opportunity for retailers, Taylor explains, is that a full organic tomato set—from snacking formats to premium heirloom slicers—comes from a single supplier and one state. This supports a single cohesive display with real color variation. This also offers a glimpse into the farms and real stories behind each item—a value that continues to gain importance among shoppers.
“Everything is certified organic, one of our farms is certified regenerative organic, and quality is handled accordingly: on one of our heirloom farms, every tomato is picked, cleaned, and packed by hand by crews that have been with that farm for decades,” Helen adds, highlighting more strengths of the company’s tomato program. “We back the product with merchandising support, so nobody is building the story from scratch.”
Happy Dirt offers shelf talkers and point-of-sale (POS) signage, and is currently exploring larger footprint formats based on customer demand.
“We are listening. We take feedback from both our farms and our customers and build it into our planning program, so growing plans reflect real customer insight and demand while supporting farms that are passionate about the crops they grow,” Helen shares. “Helping growers explore what they do best and like to do most, and connecting them directly to the customers who want it, is how we build programs that stay relevant to growers and consumers alike.”
At the root of this strategy is the resounding importance of sharing grower stories.
“The farms themselves are the highlight, and we back them with materials retailers can actually use. Our grower services team spends the season on these farms and writes them up in Field Notes, our ongoing grower storytelling piece,” explains Helen. “Alongside that, we provide shelf talkers and POS signage for the floor, social assets, email content, and web copy for digital channels, and recipe content tied to the varieties in season. Retailers get named farms, real photography, and ready-made assets to bring that story to the shelf and to their own channels.”
More exclusive insights from the Happy Dirt team are on the way, so stay tuned!
