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Endless Summer Harvestby Ray Schneider Who: Dennis & Kathy Lentz Wally Reid & Mary Ellen Taylor What: Endless Summer Harvest Where: Purcellville, Virginia Last year, my wife Jessica and I climbed into our big old white Ford Expedition to begin another hydroponics adventure. We set out to drive a little less than two hours north and east from our home in the Shenandoah Valley, Harrisonburg, Va., to Loudoun County. Loudoun County is about 25 miles from Washington, D.C. and bordered by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Potomac River. It is home to Dulles Airport and America Online (AOL). The reason for our journey was an e-mail I'd received a couple of weeks before from Dennis Lentz of Endless Summer Harvest. "Ray, I've been following your website for a number of years in your search for the perfect tomato. I've started a commercial hydroponic farm in Purcellville, Va., Loudoun County. We'd love for you to come and visit our setup sometime this summer." The e-mail went on to describe a hydroponics hobbyist's dream, a 6,000-square-foot greenhouse using NFT, not to mention 200 tomato plants of 50, mostly heirloom, varieties. I certainly didn't need a second invitation. As we drove Jessica and I talked about some of the things Dennis had written in his e-mail. He said he and his partner Wally Reed were tomato fanatics. We would be in good company. Route 81 north to Winchester then east on Route 7, a left on Bell Road at the John Deere Garden Center, a second right onto Osburn Road and there they were a half-mile in: two large gutter-connected poly greenhouses from Growers Greenhouse Supplies (GGS). On the right side of the greenhouses was a fenced in field of plants and on the other side was a warehouse-like structure with a large Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign which a little research revealed stands for sun, rain and fertility to ensure abundant crops. A Family Affair Judging from the number of cars parked out in front of the warehouse, there was an abundant welcoming committee. Endless Summer Harvest is a family affair, and we were about to meet the family. Dennis Lentz, who in real life is an advertising director with AOL and his friend Wally Reed, a United States Botanic Gardens horticulturist, greeted us. In rapid succession we met Dennis's father Nevin, tomato gardener extraordinaire, Wally's father-in-law Chester Taylor, a retired Air Force JAG Brigadier General and gentleman cattle farmer from Luray, Va.. There were lots of others to meet: Ben Wiles, Ann Stewart, John Weeks, who was filling coconut coir flats, and Steve and Sheryl Gerkovich, just visiting. It was quite a crowd. Endless Summer Harvest salad mix packing label reads: "Fresh Loudoun lettuce salad mix with assorted spikers, microgreens and Swiss chard", but the capper, making that family connection is: "Harvested by the thrilling three: Bethany, Emily, and Joanna." Other selling points are "Locally grown in Loudoun County, VA" and "Greenhouse-Grown, Pesticide-Free." Since May 2004 Endless Summer has been shipping product to two local farmers' markets and Wegman's in Sterling, Va., an upscale grocery store out of New York. They really appreciated the help they received from Warren Howell, agricultural marketing manager, for Loudoun County's Department of Economic Development. In just those few months, May to August, already 35% of the business at the farmers' markets is return business and the average sale per customer has doubled. "We think we're beyond the test-marketing stage," said Wally. How did all of this get started? Dennis joked that it was a hobby that got out of control. Dennis had always been interested in growing things since working in his father's garden as a boy. Wally was a third-generation greenhouse man, his grandfather had raised gladiolas on Long Island and his father followed in the business and Wally grew up in greenhouses. At the Botanic Gardens Wally nurtures exotic tropical plants year-round for those five to seven days when they bloom in all their glory. Dennis is a technologist, at home with computers and the internet. Wally describes himself as a thorough plodder, someone who prefers books to computers. Both are infected with the potential of hydroponics and the excitement and adventure of a growing business. A Pipedream Come True Mary Ellen Taylor, Wally's wife, and Kathy Lentz, Dennis' wife, were friends since high school. This threw Wally and Dennis together on many an occasion, and they shared their love of gardening and growing. Sitting around a table at Mary Ellen and Kathy's fifteen-year high school reunion, slightly "toasted," they started spinning dreams of greenhouses and hydroponics. Wouldn't it be great to build a greenhouse and grow fresh tomatoes? That was the original idea. Wally knew Dennis was interested is something way beyond a hobby greenhouse, but as a greenhouse expert he also knew how expensive and challenging it would be. "How deep are your pockets? If you have the money, I have the expertise." He shared with Mary Ellen after the reunion that it was likely just a pipedream. But Dennis wasn't going to let go. Wally was at first a reluctant tiger, but he was won over to the idea. Wally hit the books and Dennis hit the catalogs. Things heated up when Dennis bought Wally and Nevin a whole bunch of equipment, ebb-and-flow tables, channels, all kinds of stuff which showed up on Wally's porch in 8-10 huge boxes. Four small systems were set up around his swimming pool for trial and error, and the die was cast. They all made a behind-the-scenes tour of EPCOT and attended a CropKing seminar in Orlando, Fla. It was inspirational. Chester said, "You guys need some organization" and they had their first business meeting around Chester's dining room table. Two corporations were formed, one to be the land owner and the other the operating company. It didn't all come together at once. Learning takes time and they had a lot of learning to do. They went with a 68-by-128-foot double-bay greenhouse from GGS, Ontario, Canada. To control the greenhouse they used Argus controllers and the Argus operating system. At first they tried too many things, and Wally says they had to stop and concentrate on their core values and core market. For example, the plan to do tomatoes was abandoned when it became obvious that the market demand and product turn around for fancy lettuce was better. For Wally and Dennis the greenhouse is a weekend escape from their real jobs. The task of tending to the system day in and day out falls to on-site grower Ben Wiles and Ann Stewart. Ben is a graduate of George Mason University with a philosophy degree. Ben fell in love with hydroponics and its potential for urban sustainable agriculture. After taking classes at UVI (University of the Virgin Islands) and North Carolina State including both theoretical and practical courses, Ben was without a job and posted his resume on a website. As fate would have it, Dennis saw his resume and that he was local. It was a perfect match. Ann Stewart came through the Endless Summer greenhouse on the Loudoun County farm tour and asked all the right questions. Dennis asked Wally if any of the people coming through might be interested in working there and Wally said his instincts said Ann was the one. Putting Technology to Work Ben showed me around the technical side of the Endless Summer greenhouses and the Argus controllers. Dennis called it sensor-round. Everything is instrumented and integrated into the computer that uses all the data to control everything. Ben showed off the inline sensors that measure EC, pH, temperature, and other variables. The greenhouse is equipped with a heating coil for warming the nutrient in the winter and a chiller to cool the nutrient in the summer so that it never gets too warm or too cold. On those short winter days the lighting can be augmented with 36 1000-watt grow lights installed, 18 in each bay. Combining artificial light to extend the day with the CO2 augmentation, they hope to achieve a lettuce turn not too different from the 30-40 days they get in the summer. Outside the greenhouses is a field of some 250 plants for test purposes. Fifty tomato varieties, mostly heirloom, and over 30 kinds of melons are being grown in the test field. All are growing in a run-to-waste drip system using various experimental mixes of coconut coir in 5-gallon plastic bags. Here they hope to discover how well different cultivars grow and what plants might be most appealing to Endless Summer customers. One little problem that slowed down the planting of the test field was the discovery that deer were going to be a problem. This delayed things while a large fence was built around the field. Ben showed off the proportional controllers that mix A and B solutions and control pH under computer control to deliver nutrient to the field's many bags. Nutrient delivery is managed by using a solar counter to determine how much sunlight the plants are receiving. This data is used by the computer to figure out how much drip nutrient the plants will need as well as the concentration. The computer controls it all. To Market, To Market with Fresh Greens As we were walking back from the field, Kathy Lentz rolled up in the truck. She was returning from a delivery to Wegman's of 150 bags of fancy salad mix. Her arrival returned the focus to the bread-and-butter products that Endless Summer is delivering to market. To create the product Dennis says they are currently planting about 15 lettuce cultivars per weekly seeding. Wally likes to assign specific responsibilities to people and Dennis is "dah Germinator." Wally showed off a few trays of Dennis' work and said "Look at this. One hundred percent germination. You don't see that too often." The varieties they've recently planted included: 'Deer Tongue', 'Blackjack', 'Tokyo Bekana', 'Freckles', 'Magenta', 'Red Cross', 'Tango', 'Simpson', 'Green Forest', 'Rex', 'Lollo Rossa', 'Oscard', and 'Dano'. They are still experimenting with lots of varieties to see which will turn out to be best for NFT production. Other greens they are growing in the NFT system are 'Bright Lights' chard, arugula, cress, mache, choi, radicchio, Chinese cabbage, tatsoi, mizuna, and 'Red Giant' mustard. They have also started experimenting with edible flowers. The Johnny-jump-ups are blooming faster then they can pick them. Dennis says that the customers love them. They add color and variety to the salad mixes, and they're also selling them in herb crispers. Constantly experimenting with the mixes, Endless Summer has been growing microgreens to add to the mixes and see what the customers at the farmers' market have to say. Crops they've tried so far are peas shoots, mizuna, tatsoi, mustard, red Russian kale, red amaranth, purple kohlrabi, daikon radish, sunflower shoots, basil, cilantro, and 'Bull's Blood' beet. Because Wally is an expert at growing in soilless mixes they've been experimenting with ultra-size lettuce mix in seedling flats, mixing seven cultivars together in fixed proportions and then spreading them on the flats filled with coconut coir. Kathy wanted to share the customer experience. She and Mary Ellen are called "the Lettuce Ladies" at the farmers' market in Cascades, Va. They've been building a loyal customer base. Each bag of salad mix has the names of the Lentz's 13-year-old identical twins, Emily and Bethany, as well as their friend Joanna. They not only help prepare the bags of lettuce for market but like to come to the market and do everything from cashier work to stocking the stand and bagging for customers. They draw ornamental works of art on the black top with colored chalk advertising the weekly lettuce specials. The colorful yellow Endless Summer Harvest sticker custom brands each bag of lettuce. Wally mentioned going to the hardware store with his shirt with the Endless Summer logo on it and being stopped by another customer to tell him how much they like the lettuce. That's customer awareness he said. The bags of salad mix stay cool and fresh inside their refrigerator truck they take to market. The lettuce is harvested, prepared and boxed for market each Saturday at the greenhouse and then early Sunday morning Dennis loads the truck and drives it to market. Kathy is a stickler for high standards. Each bag has only the best lettuce. She's particularly proud of the fact that she has an endcap at Wegman's, a place right at the end of the aisle just for her lettuce. When she delivers the lettuce and is setting up the display she says sometimes customers come over and ask about it. She points to the label and talks about how its locally grown and packaged by her twins that she's so proud of, and often people buy a couple of bags right then. She and Mary Ellen think the eye appealing character of the bags is a big plus. Each bag has one bright green, one ruffle, and one marbled or red lettuce as well as various tasty microgreens or edible flowers. They also sell the heirloom tomatoes and the beautiful gigantic basil which goes for $2 per root cube. Four Years and Still Learning What have these hydroponic growers learned during this roughly four-year adventure? Wally thought a while and ticked off a few for me. Construction costs are always more than you estimate. Try to develop working relationships with local contractors and your other contractors too, making sure they know your expectations up front. Greenhouses are special harsh environments, so you have to be careful of materials. Some materials that work fine in regular buildings will not hold up well in a greenhouse. Learn as much as you can from your contractors while they are on-site. You have to become a jack-of-all-trades. Asking a contractor to come back is expensive. Develop a good labor pool and keep working at it. Don't forget to play: Wally was thinking about getting everyone a lacrosse stick and going out into the field and learning to play lacrosse. Stay flexible and keep learning. You have to change direction at short notice sometimes, especially during the start-up process. Initially, they thought they'd be doing tomatoes in the high bays and basil. Instead, they are doing mostly lettuce and some basil. Most of all: Think outside the box and have fun! Don't get so bogged down in the day-to-day details that you forget the dream. Remember why you started and keep dreaming. Kathy suggested we might like to drive over to Wegman's and see the Endless Summer Harvest lettuce mixes in their retail habitat. So we did! There they were, just as she'd described them. I picked up a bag and thought, When people get together and live a dream, it's exciting. Ray Schneider is an assistant professor of mathematics and computer Science at Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Va. He has been growing hydroponically since his search for the perfect tomato began seven years ago. Visit his website: http://users.adelphia.net/~schneirj/hydro.htm For the complete version of this article, see The Growing Edge, Volume 17, Number 2, November/December 2005, page 23. |