Construction of the new greenhouse in Belvidere, NJ in full swing
Edible Garden is the result of a remarkable cooperation between a hydroponic technology supplier and a North American greenhouse Family business."We were thinking about either buying a farm or developing one and creating the product ourselves," said Derek Peterson from Terra Tech, an overall supplier hydroponics, lighting, drip systems, flood and drain systems etc. "We bumped into the VandeVrede family in New Jersey, one of the largest growers in the North East, and told them about the direction the we were taking, a public company. Incidentally enough, the VandeVrede family had also a desire to expand a brand across the United States. Eventually we merged our companies and run a public company now together that is producing the Edible Garden fresh produce brand in the North East."
Basil production in Florida
Edible Garden is a brand-concept where products are grown year round in state of the art greenhouses in Belvidere, New Jersey and Fort Meyers, Florida. All of the produce is marketed to local, major groceries stores. Because the demand for their products is increasing fast, Edible Garden is planning to spread their concept throughout more states. "There is a huge push right now for locally grown produce," said Peterson. "A lot of retailers are looking for local farmers, however a huge problem is that most of the local farmers do not have scale. There are local farmers, but these are just small producers, and do not have the ability to supply a major retailer on a consistent basis. With our concept we try to find other growers to partner with. We want them to grow our produce according to our processes, with our specifications, seeds, genetics, packaging etc. then we sell their product s to local grocery stores for them, like a partnership license ."
To fulfill the demand of the larger retailers, Edible Garden needs large scale operations. Peterson explains, "The first project we did, was in a section of a large scale greenhouses of the VandeVrede Family, who had a big 116 acre site with large greenhouses on it. However, they were only growing flowers and other ornamentals in their greenhouses, and we had to persuade them to start growing produce in a part of their operations. This worked well, and nowadays we are trying to persuade more ornamental growers to make the switch to grow fresh leafy greens on a commercial scale. Next to this, we are also expanding our operations with new greenhouse structures."
"To make sure that we can keep up with the demand, we broke ground and built another 5 acre in Belvidere, NJ," said Peterson. "The glass will be on it this week. This greenhouse is build by our partner Venlo Greenhouses. In addition to this we also built another acre in Forth Meyers, FL and that one is already producing. The first harvest is expected on Labour Day."
For more information about Terra Tech Corp visit: www.terratechcorp.com
For more information about edible garden: www.eatherbs.com
Visit Edible Garden on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/ediblefarms
Derek Peterson (e-mail)