The founders of a small produce operation in Waitsfield are working seven days a weeks to keep up with demand after the company doubled its shipments to Whole Foods in October.
Green Mountain Harvest Hydroponic started shipping watercress to the Whole Foods warehouse in Hartford, Connecticut, once a week about two months ago. At the end of October, they increased their shipments to twice a week, raising their revenue from that one customer from about $9,000 a week to $18,000 a week.
The company has doubled its greenhouse space over the past year and now has half an acre of basil, watercress and lettuce growing under plastic, and 12 full- and part-time employees.
“Lately, just to make it work, we’ve been working seven days a week, 10 hours a day,” said co-founder John Farr.
They expect to be producing $1.5 million worth of produce annually by the end of next year.