Master gardeners nurture farm-to-school collab

ASHLEY APPLING

 Culpeper Extension Agent

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What happens when a demonstration garden, a food processing center and a group of hungry students come together?

A lot of tomatoes, and a recipe for local impact.

The Rapidan River Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden has long served as both an educational resource and a community outreach project. Located at the George Washington Carver Agricultural Research Center in Culpeper County, the garden showcases gardening techniques, plant varieties, and sustainable growing practices while connecting local residents with hands-on learning opportunities.

Maintained by master gardener volunteers led by Larry Baker and Greg Alexiou, the garden reflects a shared passion for teaching and growing. Baker brings a lifetime of home gardening experience, while Alexiou is a more recent convert. Both are retired educators who see the Demonstration Garden as an opportunity to combine their teaching skills with a love of gardening to help others grow successfully.

In addition to its educational mission, the Demonstration Garden has become an important source of fresh produce for organizations working to address food insecurity. In 2024 alone, the garden donated more than 1,000 pounds of tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, squash, herbs, and other vegetables to local food assistance programs, helping improve access to healthy foods throughout the community.

In 2025, the Demonstration Garden's vegetable production area was relocated to a new site. Preparing the new growing space required nearly a year of planning, soil preparation, and infrastructure development before planting could begin.

During that transition, Baker and Alexiou began exploring new opportunities to expand the garden's community impact through a partnership with the Carver Food Enterprise Center.

At the same time, the food enterprise center was building on the success of a Farm-to-School pilot program conducted in partnership with the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission and Rappahannock County Public Schools. During the pilot, students sampled a Bolognese sauce made with 100% locally grown tomatoes. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with 97% of participating students reporting that they liked the recipe.

Encouraged by those results, Carver Food Enterprise Center is working to standardize a nutritious, locally sourced tomato sauce that can be produced at scale and offered to schools at a price point that works within increasingly constrained school nutrition budgets.

To support that effort, Baker and Alexiou designed a trial project dedicating a portion of the Demonstration Garden to growing produce specifically for the community commercial kitchen's Farm to School initiatives.

The Demonstration Garden includes 48 plum tomato plants, all grown from seed by Alexiou. Varieties include San Marzano, Juliet, Golden Harvest, and Marino, selected for their flavor, productivity, and suitability for sauce production. The garden also includes culinary herbs and aromatic vegetables that will be harvested and supplied to the kitchen throughout the growing season.

The donated tomatoes will help refine and standardize recipes, test larger-scale production methods, and continue developing products that make local foods more accessible in school cafeterias. While the long-term goal is to create sustainable purchasing opportunities for regional farmers, donations from community partners like the Rapidan River Master Gardeners provide critical support during the program's development and expansion.

Rappahannock students enjoy Bolognese sauce made with fresh local produce

"We are excited about working with CFEC," said Alexiou. "It seems like a natural partnership since we share the same facilities and a desire to bring healthier eating and growing practices to the general public."

The impact of the partnership extends beyond local schools. Any tomato sauce produced beyond the school program needs will support Carver's Feeding 500 initiative, helping provide nutritious, locally sourced food to area food banks and families experiencing food insecurity.

Together, the Rapidan River Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden and the Carver Food Enterprise Center are demonstrating how local partnerships can strengthen food systems, expand educational opportunities, improve access to nutritious foods, and connect the fruits of community gardening with students and families throughout the region.

See rapidanrivermastergardeners.org.