Gourmet
Gift Boxes
Send
Gourmet Gift Boxes of USDACertified Organic Apples picked from
your adopted tree located in the pristine Chiricahua Mountains
of Arizona for $16.50 including shipping.
Make your Holiday Gift Giving inexpensive, memorable and personalized
(your tree, your fruit). Best of all, you will be using an earth-friendly
gift that is not only delicious but also inspires your recipients
to choose organic alternatives.
Each year for as long as the tree lives (apprx. 20 more years),
we will pick, store, and pack the apples from your very own
tree into 10-lb gift boxes and send them to you and everyone
on your gift list.
A Fun & Educational Family Activity
Families will be able to use our website to watch the status
of their tree, harvest, apple-storage, and shipments throughout
the year. They will learn why bees are so important to the health
and productivity of the trees, learn how we use sustainable
(certified organic) practices at the farm to maintain the high
nutrient level of our soil and water, and see live examples
of how math and science are used predict future harvest.
Great
for Nature Enthusiasts!
Tree owners can plan a vacation the Chiricahua Mountains to
visit their tree, learn about organic farming, and even pick
the apples from their tree. Then they can participate in various
mountain-activities and visit several tourist destinations in
the area.
Give a Desert Sweet
Organics Apple Tree -
the Unique Gift that "Gives" Year after Year
One-time tree cost: $200 - $250 (depending on the type)
Yearly Horticulture: $45
Apple picking, sorting, grading, packing, $16.50 per 10-lb gift
box (you only
storing, and shipping: pay for what you use. Valley Farms buys
back your unused apples)
Average life of the trees: Approximately
another 20 years
Average yield: Enough apples to fill 10 - 18 gift boxes
Email
us for more information. Please let us know if you
have learned about us through the Organic Consumers Association.
About Desert Sweet Organics
Established over 18 years ago in Arizona and privately owned,
we are 100% Certified Organic by the USDA, Oregon Tilth, and
QAI. With 140,000 Certified Organic apple trees, we could simply
sit back and continue to sell apples through our distributors.
Instead, with the use this Organic Gift Program, we are striving
to consumers get closer to nature, become more aware of sustainable
ways to produce food, provide them with fun way to buy organics
and give memorable gifts.
History
A Solid Foundation Wanting to get closer to nature, the President
of Valley Farms, Anthony Imburgia, began growing apples in the
Chirichua Mountain Range in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona 18
years ago. Realizing the environmental benefits, he switched
to organic farming 9 years ago. Since the sunshine and nutrient-rich
soil of Arizona produces better quality apples than in other
places in the country, he decided to become the largest Certified
Organic Apple grower in America, thereby having a foundation
to provide people with Certified Organic and great tasting apples
at a low cost. The dedication and creativity of the leaders
at Valley Farms enables us to find solutions for every challenge.
With
the need to be self-sufficient in order to effectively provide
people throughout America with high quality organic apples,
we built our own:
1) state-of-the-art processing facility - where we efficiently
sort, pack, and ship millions of pounds of apples a year,
2) cold storage – where we have the capacity to store over 17,500
bins of apples at one time, and
3) underground water pumping system – which can move thousands
of gallons per minute of nearby pure mountain water into the
farm. When we realized that many species of bees – nature’s
pollinators – go unused while the honeybee population is being
overused by the farming community and depleted by urbanization,
we began to breed native-Arizona bees, which are now busy little
residents of Valley Farms - responsible for pollinating all
140,000 apple trees!
Why
Organic Apples?
Everyone loves apples, and they make a fine gift to send to friends
or business associates – much healthier than chocolates or meat
and cheese platters! But your Desert Sweet Organics tree isn’t
just good for you - it’s good for the environment. By getting
your apples from a certified organic farm, you can rest assure
that our environmentally safe farming methods are not hurting
the ecosystem. Desert Sweet Organics Apples are 25% sweeter than
apples grown elsewhere because of the amount of sunshine and unique
soil conditions produced by our location.
Apples
in the Desert?
As their name indicates, Desert Sweet Organics grow in a place
you might not expect. In Arizona, just outside of Tucson, there
is a kind of natural oasis in the desert – that’s Valley Farms.
This isn't a vast expanse of sand dunes, but a rocky farm found
nestled between mountains. This area was specifically chosen because
it offers the best conditions for producing the best fruit. At
4200 feet, the farm benefits from the high altitude and nutrient-rich
soil, which allows moisture to easily collect beneath the soil.
The rocks trap water, and since the water comes from the nearby
mountain runoff, it is water of the purest quality that reaches
our trees. The climate of Arizona is also part of what makes Valley
Farms special. The vast sunshine, long days, and warm temperature
allow for a longer harvest season and sweeter apples. Furthermore,
we have an enormous cold storage facility, which we can keep approximately
17,500 lbs of harvested apples fresh for up to six months.
This is what happens when you buy a Desert Sweet Organics tree
from Valley Farms… First, you make a one-time purchase of $200
- $250 for the tree. After that initial investment, you only
have to pay a yearly horticulture fee of $45, due in January
of each year, that is used for the care and upkeep of your tree
including: tree-analysis to make sure it is receiving the right
amount of nutrients, Certified Organic fertilization and pest
control, pruning, thinning, and forecasting. In the Spring,
we will begin informing you of the yield-forecasts and horticultural
activities of your tree up until harvest. Harvest begins anywhere
from late July through October depending on the type of apple
tree. We ask that by mid-July, you let us know how many gift
boxes you plan on using. We keep you informed of what's happening
to your tree throughout the year. As soon as your tree is harvested,
we will notify you of how many apples your tree produced. If
there is any overage, we buy it back from you. We will keep
your apples in cold storage from the time they are harvested
until mid-December and send them to you and you gift recipients
whenever you like during that period. It’s that simple!
Organic Apples that Help
End Child Hunger
Desert Sweet Organics, a provider of a fun and easy program
to send gifts, eat organically, and take care of the environment,
is now supporting The Great American Bake Sale™, a national
program dedicated to ending child hunger in America.
By adopting a Desert Sweet Organics apple tree, located in
the pristine mountains of Arizona, you can send your clients,
family, and friends personalized, memorable gift boxes of certified
organic apples picked from your own adopted tree for much less
money than other fruit-gift-box mail orders. We will take care
of your tree, pick your apples, store them in our on-site cold
storage facility, and send them to you and your gift recipients
each year for as long as your tree lives (approximately another
20 years!) .
This is a fun activity for families schools, church groups,
and youth organizations, as children will be inspired to eat
healthfully and be environmentally responsible. Tree owners
will able to log onto our website, see a picture of their adopted
tree, watch the horticulture process, and even visit their tree
in Arizona.
We will contribute 5% your purchase to The Great American
Bake Sale to end child hunger in America.
Spread the Word! Pass this information onto your friends. Our
goal is to contribute $10,000 - enough to provide 90,000 meals
and snacks to children in poverty.
Harvest begins in July - in time for you to send gift boxes
to your family and friends during the holidays.
Choose from Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Gala, Fuji, and
Granny Smith apple trees. On average, the trees produce 200-lbs
of apples a year. Desert Sweet Organics will buy back the apples
from your tree that you don't use. One-time tree cost: $200
- $250, depending on the type. Yearly horticulture (tree maintenance)
fee: $45. Cost to pick your apples and sort, grade, store, pack,
and ship them: $16.50 plus shipping per 10-lb gift box.
For more information go to www.desertsweetorganic.com
or e-mail us at inquiries@desertsweetorganic.com.
The Great American Bake Sale™, launched by PARADE Magazine
and Share Our Strength - one the nations' leading anti-hunger
organizations - is a groundbreaking program to end child hunger
in America. Individuals, congregations, youth groups, older
adults, civic organizations and businesses — are encouraged
to participate by hosting a Great American Bake Sale in their
communities. All funds raised are donated to Share Our Strength,
which will administer grants to support summer and after school
meal programs for children in the states where the funds were
raised and across the country. www.greatamericanbakesale.org.
Share Our Strength has grown from its basement beginnings in
1984 into a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that
has raised and distributed over $76 million to hundreds of anti-hunger
organizations here and overseas. Through benefits and other
projects that are as much fun as they are worthy, Share Our
Strength inspires people and companies alike to work toward
a common goal: stable communities where every child has enough
to eat. www.strength.org.
Desert
Sweet Organics- Valley Farms
http://www.desertsweetorganic.com
(815) 432-3719
