SUPERIOR — A variety of factors have left local grocers without Bay Produce tomatoes to sell.
The high cost to heat the larger, 1-acre greenhouse, cold and dark winter months that affected the tomato plants in the smaller half-acre greenhouse and the addition of spring flowers have all contributed to a reduction in the supply of tomatoes available to local grocery stores, according to Mark Kroll, Challenge Center director.
About 20% of the space available in the smaller greenhouse is now dedicated to growing spring flowers. The remainder of the smaller greenhouse is fully stocked with tomato plants and lettuce that will return to store shelves once they are ready.
Spring flowers will be sold at the greenhouse west of the Challenge Center, 39 N. 25th St. E., starting May 5. An array of starters, planters and hanging baskets will be available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and until 2 p.m. Saturdays, through approximately Father’s Day, Kroll said.
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“The Challenge Center operates to help provide work opportunities for folks with disabilities,” Kroll said. However, as a nonprofit organization and affiliate of Catholic Charities Bureau, it also has to make the best use of its resources, he said.
Shelley Nelson / Duluth Media Group
“It’s called a prevocational program,” Kroll said. “So, let’s say somebody has Down syndrome, and they have a desire to work in the community, but they don’t necessarily have some of the skills that it takes to hold down a job at Perkins or at an office to do clerical or cleaning or whatever.”
Bay Produce provides opportunities to learn the necessary skills, such as showing up for work every day, dressing appropriately and interacting with coworkers and bosses, Kroll said.
The Bay Produce greenhouses were built in the 1980s to provide those opportunities.
At the time the greenhouses were built, Kroll said, it wasn’t all that expensive to heat a 1-acre greenhouse, but once the pandemic hit, it became much more costly to run the larger of the two greenhouses.
He said the larger greenhouse could no longer produce enough revenue each month to break even.
“We tried running it just in the summer last year,” Kroll said. “But if you’re going to have tomatoes by the summer, you still have to start them at least late December, so you’re still heating that greenhouse in December, January, February, March, April and May. You can’t grow enough and sell enough locally to make up for what we sustained in the cold months.”
The half-acre greenhouse, which is more efficient to operate, is still up and running, Kroll said. However, he said the smaller greenhouse is more susceptible to the dark and cold of the winter months, which resulted in tomato plants not producing fruit because the flowers would drop off when there was insufficient sun or really cold days.
Shelley Nelson / Duluth Media Group
Kroll said he expects Bay Produce to begin supplying grocery stores in Superior soon with a new crop of tomatoes and then expanding out to other regional grocery stores if they have enough tomatoes.
“I’ve gotten so many calls saying ‘We love your products; where can I get them.’ But what we’re trying to do is sustain this program for the people we serve,” Kroll said. “That’s our main goal. And if it’s unsustainable financially, we just can’t do it.”
Shelley Nelson / Duluth Media Group
Shelley Nelson is a reporter with the Duluth Media Group since 1997, and has covered Superior and Douglas County communities and government for the Duluth News Tribune from 1999 to 2006, and the Superior Telegram since 2006. Contact her at 715-395-5022 or [email protected].
