US: Backyard Farms celebrates new crop with Maine Governor

Backyard Farms, the largest New England greenhouse grower of fresh tomatoes, celebrated its first crop of the 2014 season with a special New Crop Celebration at its greenhouses. Backyard Farms employees were joined by Maine Governor Paul R. LePage, state and local representatives as well as Backyard Farms customers to mark the occasion.

“We are excited to be in the market with our tomatoes for our customers to enjoy at the start of the New Year,” said Paul Mucci, president and COO, Backyard Farms. “Fresh-off-the-vine Backyard Farms tomatoes have that uncanny ability to bring a bit of summer into the Maine winter. We’re looking forward to harvesting our crop as we are experiencing the typical high demand for our product at this time of the year.”

The New Crop Celebration event included remarks by Governor Paul LePage and Mucci and was highlighted by tours of the tomato producer’s operations.

Head Grower Arie van der Giessen, COO Paul Mucci, Governor LePage and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Tim Cunniff.

Backyard Farms has 42-acres of growing space across two greenhouses that yield on average more than 25 million pounds of tomatoes each year. Committed to growing the highest quality tomatoes possible and creating a natural, healthy environment for its plants, Backyard Farms, among other things, uses bees in its greenhouses to assist with plant pollination, captures rain and snow off its roof to irrigate its crops to conserve groundwater and in the winter uses thermal blankets to reduce heat loss.

For more information: www.backyardfarms.com