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Now
five years old, Grand Lake Produce LLC
raises tomatoes. Lots of tomatoes. The operation, run
by Tasha and Matt Otte and Henry Otte, consists of a farm
in St. Henry and a produce store in Celina. Grand Lake
also sells its tomatoes at the National City Second Street
Public Market in Dayton. The company started when Matt
Otte built a hydroponics greenhouse in 2002; in the first
year of production the greenhouse produced about 1,800
pounds of tomatoes a week.
Grand Lake Produce has expanded as
the company has grown, adding outdoor cultivation as
well as more hydroponics greenhouses (hydroponics, essentially,
is growing crops in water instead of soil). The farm
also raises raspberries and blackberries during the
winter, and is constantly adding new varieties of heirloom
and organic tomatoes to its inventory. At the Festival,
the company will display and sell a variety of fresh
produce and showcase its tomatoes.
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