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information@bushelboy.com
(507) 451-5692

Bushel Boy Farms
215 32nd Avenue SW
Owatonna, MN 55060

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Greenhouse grown
for a garden-fresh
taste all year long.

Bushel Boy Farms was founded in Owatonna, Minnesota, in 1990 with a simple desire to grow, pick and enjoy summer-fresh, perfectly sweet and absolutely delicious tomatoes year-round. We knew it would never be the easiest way to grow tomatoes, but every time we pick a fresh tomato, ripe on the vine, in the middle of winter during one of our Minnesota blizzards, it’s definitely worth it.

Greenhouse Grown

We grow all our tomatoes in greenhouses, so we can ensure perfect growing conditions in any kind of weather. When it's hot, chalk coating on the roof of the greenhouses reflects the sun, misters inside apply a cooling mist to the plants and vertical fans redistribute hot air. On cloudy days, we use lamps to make up for lack of sunlight; during the winter, we use large boilers to heat water that we pipe into the greenhouses. And instead of releasing the CO2 produced by the boilers into the atmosphere, we pipe it back into the greenhouses for the tomato plants to breathe.

Summer Fresh, All Year Long

We pick tomatoes like these, perfectly ripe and red all the way through, every single day. Even in the middle of winter. In Minnesota. We use a pruning process that keeps our plants happy by ensuring the tomatoes grow within evenly spaced increments. We trim the oldest part of the vine (that no longer yields tomatoes) and then lower the plant to make sure that the next tomatoes to ripen are right there and ready to pick.

Pollinated by Bees

Bumble bees in our greenhouses do their work the way nature intended, flying around and pollinating the tomato plant flowers. They’re experts at their work, pollinating much more efficiently than we could ever do manually. And 50 to 90 days after they pollinate, the tomato plant’s flowers have transformed into ripe, juicy tomatoes.

Sustainably Grown

Almost 94% of a tomato's weight is water and it takes a lot to grow the ripe, juicy tomatoes you've come to expect. Unlike tomatoes grown in Mexico or California, we save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water annually by capturing excess water not absorbed during growing with special gutters. We filter it, using a sophisticated UV sterilization process and then pump it right back into the plants. But it’s not just the water that makes our tomatoes better. Instead of dirt, we use “spun rock” as the soil for our plants. It allows us to precisely monitor the exact amount nutrients that we feed each plant. So we get perfectly red and deliciously juicy tomatoes every single time.

Harvested by Hand

Each and every day, our staff is in the greenhouse picking beautifully red, juicy and still-on-the-vine tomatoes that are ripe and ready to enjoy. We can pick and package more than 60,000 pounds of tomatoes every single day. And after we’re done with the day’s harvest, we go back through and prune the leaves, check the consistency of the tomatoes, and make sure every plant is as healthy and productive as possible.

Delivered Locally

Keeping much of our fruit in the Midwest is extremely important to us. The days we save by delivering locally get passed on to you and your pantry. Because we want to make sure that anyone who buys Bushel Boy tomatoes experiences our brilliantly red, perfectly sweet and deliciously ripe tomatoes as if they had picked them themselves.

“Here at Bushel Boy Farms, we are committed to growing the best tasting fruits and vegetables all year long ... right here in the Midwest!”

Steve Irland, President of Bushel Boy Farms

Helping fight hunger in our community.

We donate literally tons of tomatoes a year to help local food shelves fight hunger, shipping our less than perfect tomatoes to Second Harvest Heartland in the Twin Cities and Channel One in Rochester. We are proud to provide these organizations with fresh, healthy produce to help families in need get good nutrition.

© Bushel Boy Farms

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