STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

School couldn’t wrap up soon enough for Walter Lafky.

The Community School junior had to get home to harvest a thousand tomato plants this weekend.

Lafky started his own business—John Day River Ranch Produce—three years ago. He hopes to sell between $35,000 and $40,000 worth of tomatoes to a grocery store and five upscale restaurants in his hometown of Bend, Ore., this summer.

“Would you be interested in purchasing my tomatoes?” he asked, going into an abbreviated sales pitch. “I’ve been going three years now and I’ve developed the best possible way to grow tomatoes for you. And, at $2 a pound, it’s under market price for a tomato that’s beyond organic.”

Lafky enrolled in the Sun Valley Ski Academy this year to pursue his love of ski racing. He’s come to love the opportunities that Sun Valley and teachers at Community School have afforded him. But his mind is never far from his greenhouses near his Bend, Ore., home.

Lafky started his enterprise after his family bought 140 acres along the John Day River 10 miles south of Biggs Junction, Ore. They put 40 acres into alfalfa, employing local folks to farm it for them, and they began harvesting the apple, peach and pear trees already on site.

Lafky got into the swing of farming, helping with the combine and moving irrigation wheels at 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. each day during summer. And, inspired by his father’s love of plants, he started growing zucchini, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes, making a handy $500 profit that first summer.

The second year he planted 200 tomatoes plants and 200 pepper plants, figuring he could make more money by focusing on those two.

This year he ditched the peppers to plant nearly a thousand of the more lucrative Park’s Whopper tomato seeds in his greenhouse. The bright red tomatoes are large juicy, tasty and meaty sandwich-sized tomatoes.

“I tried Russian Rose, an heirloom my parents grow in their garden. But they’re fragile so they’re difficult to transport.  I tried others, as well, but some don’t do well in the 100-degree temperatures we sometimes get. I determined the Park’s Whoppers were the best tomatoes for my area, and I’m the only one who grows them commercially.”

Lafky calculates he can sell between 800 and 1,000 pounds a week at $2 a pound. Given a 22-week growing season, he estimates he can make between $35,000 and $40,000, if everything goes well.

The high school entrepreneur recently completed a business plan for his company as part of an independent study project. The 40-hour online college course taught him about advertising and marketing, QuickBooks, how to track and forecast sales and how to open a business account with a bank.

“It was tough but it paid off,” he said. “I now know how much people are willing to invest in you if you have a business plan.”

Lafky wanted to be certified organic. But, when he realized how expensive it was, he patented his own name “Beyond Organic.”

He uses a polypropylene ground cover to prevent weeds, negating the need for chemical, synthetic or natural pesticides. He goes “beyond” he says by delivering ripe produce within 24 hours of picking.

“Some of the organic tomatoes people buy out there could be a week old by the time they get to market,” he said.

Lafky hopes to study agribusiness and engineering at Cal Poly where he’s attracted to the do-it-yourself nature of the school. The architecture students there, he notes, build actual houses.

Before he goes, he would like to grow his company to 10 employees and make $200,000 annually to pay for college.

“I’d need 6,000 tomato plants to do that,” he said. “I’d also like to try planting a vineyard. There’s a lot of money in wine grapes.”

Lafky plans to return to Community School for his senior year where he plans to assist Upper School Science Teacher Scott Runkel with the garden at Dumke Family Sagewillow Campus. His goal is to raise $30,000 growing produce there with initial costs of $500 to $1,000.

The idea: To show students can profitably and responsibly grow food to make money and benefit the school, environment and residents of the valley who are food-insecure.

The garden is off to a good start, Runkel noted, with students planting 6,000 onion bulbs this week.

Lafky would also like to build a greenhouse behind the school’s new residential dorm that could supply fresh produce for the dorm students.

“The closest place that grows food is 45 minutes away. So much food is shipped into Hailey and Ketchum,” he lamented.

Lafky’s presentation of his Independent business plan was so impressive that several teachers who heard it asked if they could have a job at his farm this summer, Runkel noted.

“Farming is Walter’s passion and his problem solving, ingenuity and expertise were all on display with this project,” said Runkel. “Literally, he designed and set up the greenhouse irrigation on his own. If there was a problem he couldn’t fix, he would come not to me but to our facility manager, knowing that was a quicker way to get to the solution. He’s not a student with a project but a partner—someone to be trusted and consulted with.”