From Farm to Pizza
Have mobile pizza oven, will travel.
Serving up America's Favorite Treat
Pizza is America’s favorite food! So, what better way to entice more people to eat local?
While a growing number of farms offer a weekly pizza night to attract visitors, relatively few have made it the center point for marketing their farm. Gilded Tomato® Company, which operates a sustainable- regenerative farm in Rehoboth, MA, turns farm-fresh local products into piping hot pizzas through their event catering business.
“We cater just about every kind of event,” says owner Julia Sweet, “from weddings, galas, and bat mitzvahs to birthday parties.”
Purple cauliflower adds color to this wood-fired veggie pizza.
Although wood-fired pizza is the company’s signature dish, Gilded Tomato provides a wide range of offerings. “The hosts request everything from vegan or gluten-free to a good steak,” Sweet says.
Creating Memorable Moments
The oven reaches temperatures of up to 950 degrees.
This farm catering company transports its custom, organic, wood-fired, mobile clay ovens to events on a trailer. These remarkable inventions use intense heat to cook pizzas while keeping their cool copper exteriors. The pizzas are ready in just 90 seconds. Talk about fast food!
The drama of seeing your dinner cooked over flames in these beautiful ovens creates a memorable experience for the guests, who enjoy watching the firemasters deftly prepare dinner. The hickory wood fire perfumes the air and flavors the food.
The Setting Sells the Service
A spectacular sunset on Gilded Tomato’s farm in Rehoboth, MA.
People typically hire the company after attending one of its catered events. They want to share the experience with family, friends, and colleagues. Customers can choose their own venue or bring their guests to the farm.
Gilded Tomato also hosts workshops and educational activities. “We love bringing people to our land for an agritourism experience,” Sweet says.
In addition to word-of-mouth, Gilded Tomato also attracts customers through its website and social media. It recently brought on a social media specialist to enable Sweet to focus on running the business.
Nurturing Nature
Gilded Tomato is all about sustainability, incorporating bio-diesel, composting, green tableware, and other eco-practices. “We’re not perfect in everything,” Sweet says, “but we fertilize our crops with alpaca poop from a nearby farm, use bar soap instead of dishwashing detergent, and wash, rinse, and hang dry our plastic bags.” Thanks to grants from USDA and the Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources, they recently installed solar roof panels and Tesla batteries on the farm.
“We grow most of what we need here,” says Sweet, “and source as much as possible from other local farmers and vendors.” Many of the recipes and staff come from the prestigious Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI; the food is not just delicious, but looks stunning.
Gilded Tomato has an open and inclusive hiring policy. Sweet hires people of all ages and cultures and welcomes people living with disabilities and other challenges. Their menu is available in Braille.
The company won the 2022 SBN Massachusetts “Sustainable Business of the Year – Farm to Table” award and the SBA 2018 Massachusetts Home-Based “Small Business of the Year” award. Gilded Tomato is also the only mobile food vendor certified by the Green Restaurant Association in New England.
All photos are courtesy Gilded Tomato Company.