1.What makes AMCO different?

Produce at AMCO is intentionally grown with one or two selected varieties per commodity. AMCO also ensures a year-round uninterrupted access to freshly harvested produce. It is a family business, managed under one ownership and one can be assured that their produce is coming from one grower.

2. What does greenhouse grown mean?

A greenhouse is a building, or area primarily made of glass or plastic that allows farmers to maintain a desired temperature within a desired range. This facility can be used for cultivating tender plants or growing plants out of season. The greenhouse allows growers to use recycled water and nutrients, reducing or eliminating the use of pesticide.

AMCO defines greenhouses as a technologically advanced facility, designed to harvest healthy and safe produce in a sustainable and efficient manner.

3.What are the technologies involved?

Plants are watered by a computer controlled dripped irrigation system, that dispenses all nutrients each plant needs at every stage of development. The greenhouse cooling facility is equipped with an ethylene control system that is used to eliminate any accelerated ripening, which increases the shelf life of our products. Our HPS lighting system offers outstanding uniformity and superior light levels to make sure that plants are getting the required light.

4. How does a round year production work?

A greenhouse can expand the growing seasons for vegetables. The ability to control temperature, humidity, and light in a greenhouse ensures a success rate that swift changes in weather throughout the year would normally prevent.

5.  How are the plants fed?

Plants are fed by using different nutrients during the water irrigation. Leaf samples and irrigation water are then sent for testing at a laboratory. The test results allow growers to determine what kind of adjustments would be required, to make the plants stronger. This is usually done by regulating macro and micro nutrients.

6. How to preserve the produce to keep it fresh?

You should not be putting your tomatoes in the refrigerator. Ideally, they need to stay at room temperature.

Bell peppers should be stored in plastic bags and kept in the vegetable section of your refrigerator, cucumbers should be kept in the refrigerator as well. But do not need to be kept in a plastic bag as they come wrapped.

7. What is the daily traffic like in the greenhouses?

The picking frequency depends on how fast the produce is ripened and the product itself.

8. What are the nutrients found in vegetables that are beneficial?

Tomatoes are low in Sodium, Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol. They are also a good source of Vitamin E, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Copper.

Cucumbers are an excellent source of Vitamin K, molybdenum, pantothenic acid, copper, potassium, manganese, vitamin C, phosphorus and vitamin B1.

Bell Peppers are very high in vitamin C and one bell pepper may provide up to 169% of the RDA. Other vitamins and minerals include vitamin K1, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, folate and potassium.

9. How do I know If my produce came from AMCO’s Farm?

Look for AMCO’S logo on the packaging label or produce sticker.

10. How do you control pest?

We use an Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM is an ecosystem based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests and their damage through a combination of techniques.

11. How is it ensured that produce picked at the store are fresh?

Our objective is that our produce will be processed in  forty-eight hours or less from the time it leaves the greenhouse to the time it is picked by a customer at the grocery store.

12.  What does Non-GMO means?

Non-GMO means non-genetically modified organisms. GMOs are novel organisms created in laboratory using genetic modification techniques.

Scientists, consumer environment, and environmental groups have cited different health and environmental risks with foods containing GMOs.

13. How are the greenhouses heated?

Our greenhouses are heated with natural gas boiler and biomass heating. We make use of scrap wood such as scrap pallets, construction waste, and wood cut offs.

14. What is the difference between greenhouse grown and certified organic tomatoes?

Tomatoes are grown in a soil mixture which create an organic ecosystem. Our greenhouse-grown tomatoes are rooted in a base, that hold moisture to an extent and drains excess water that is then reused.

Greenhouse grown tomatoes are fed exclusively with mined minerals that have been extracted from the earth and synthesized to be water soluble. This allows the plants to uptake the nutrients effortlessly.