In 1969, Joe emigrated from Holland, with Horticultural degrees and with dreams of starting up his own greenhouse business. He started out on a borrowed piece of property with a small greenhouse and grew the first crop of tomatoes. (Actually, that greenhouse was destroyed in a hail storm the following year.)

In a few years, he met and married a local girl, Helen, and built a larger greenhouse on that same borrowed piece of property and grew the first crop of Long English cucumbers – one of the first Long English cucumber crops ever grown in Alberta greenhouses.

In 1976, the big move was made to their own acreage west of Lacombe and full-time “greenhousing” was begun. The first structure was wooden framed, and in 1980, was crushed under a heavy snow-load in the winter. Temporary repairs were made, and a crop was still grown in that make-shift structure. The following year, the decision was made to take down the wooden greenhouse and build a (then) state of the art steel framed greenhouse. Long English cucumbers and tomatoes were still grown and the market for them was local stores and local farmers’ markets.

By then, the family had grown with the addition of 5 children.

Additions were also made to the original greenhouse over the years and in 1997, a larger, more efficient style of greenhouse was added on the property, and with other additions being made in 2000 and 2001, for a total of 6 acres presently under plastic.

The main crops continue to be Long English cucumbers, mini cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers, with small amounts of eggplant and hot peppers as well.

Three of the children are actively involved in the day-to-day operation of the greenhouse.

Selling at Farmers’ Markets:

Back in 1973, with the second greenhouse just in production, we started selling directly at the RedDeer Farmers’ Market. Later, we started at the newly established Lacombe Farmers’ Market (with Joe being one of the founding board members there).

We have a love for direct marketing at local Farmers’ Markets. We love interacting with our customers and have developed a very loyal clientele over the years. Our children have grown up marketing with us, from about the time they learned to add, and some even earlier!

We believe that selling directly to our customers at Farmers’ Markets gives us an opportunity to talk directly to our customers, and our customers in turn have learned to trust us to bring to them the best locally grown, safely grown greenhouse vegetables.

We presently sell at the

Drayton Valley Farmers’ Market (Wednesdays, March – November);

Millwoods Farmers’ Market (Thursdays, June – October);

Lakedell Farmers’ Market (Pigeon Lake) (Fridays, May – September);

Old Strathcona Farmers Market (Saturdays, February – December);

Edmonton City Market (Saturdays, May – September);

St. Albert Farmers’ Market (Saturdays, July – September);