Costco Connection - August 2012

inside costco Delicious tomatoes and more, year-round windsetfarms.com) in Santa Maria, California, to see how greenhouses work and why they’re so important in providing us with tomatoes and other top-quality vegetables year-round. Greenhouse glories

Consumer reporter Pat Volchok gives a behind-the-scenes look at Costco products and services. Send your questions about this article to:

buyingsmart@costco.com.

BuyingSmart

WHO WOULD HAVE thought that something as simple as the grape tomato could have such a fascinating, complex story behind it?

These are the delicious, bite-size tomatoes you can find in Costco’s produce section. They’re always beautiful—in ripeness, color, firmness and taste, ready to throw in a salad or a recipe or just as a healthy snack— throughout the year. Mother Nature really shows her handiwork here.

It turns out she gets a lot of help. Costco’s grape tomatoes are grown in greenhouses, where plants are nurtured in a rich environment, enjoying the best of nature (namely sunshine) while being protected from the worst (storms, bugs and more). The Connection visited one operated by Windset Farms ( www.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF WINDSET FARMS

The best of nature

Santa Maria is situated in California’s Central Coast region, where the cooling northern winds mingle with the state’s southern heat to create a climate that, on average, is neither very hot nor very cold. And that’s exactly why Windset chose the location for its newest greenhouse, explains Steve Newell, who operates the family-run business with his brother, John, and a brother-in-law, Jeff Madu.