Firm to build huge hothouse in Madison

MADISON – A Massachusetts company plans to build New England’s largest greenhouse with the goal of supplying fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes and other produce to markets across the region, officials said Friday.

The $20 million greenhouse will ship fresh produce 52 weeks a year, said Paul Sellew, chief executive officer of U.S. Functional Foods of Carlisle, Mass.

Covering 23 acres, it will be the largest of its type in the region, he said.

The facility will employ 75 people when it goes into operation in October 2006, Sellew said Friday from his office in Massachusetts.

The greenhouse will incorporate lights for growing, thermal blanketing for production climate control and a water-recycling runoff system, he said. Because it’s indoors, there will be no need for chemical pesticides, he said.

“We’ll be competitive. Clearly we’ll have the highest quality because we’ll be able to pick and deliver vine-ripened tomatoes the same day,” he said.

U.S. Functional Foods will start with tomatoes before expanding into peppers, cucumbers, eggplants and herbs, Sellew said.

Sellew chose to put the facility in Maine because of his positive experience in starting an automated mulching operation in Medway. Madison was selected because it’s three hours from Boston and because electric rates from Madison Electric Works are competitive, he said.

The company has secured option agreements on approximately 330 acres and has begun the permitting process, he said.