A pair of growers at Orangeline Farms in Leamington have earned a national honour.
Greenhouse Canada recognized Steve Stasko and Saman Soltaninejad as two of the Top 10 Under 40 Greenhouse Growers.
Stasko tells AM800 News winning was a well-kept surprise.
"The only two of the ten that actually didn't know we were winning that day," he days. "They did a good job leaving us until the end and our team at Orangeline did a good job of surprising us and we're very grateful to be recognized with all the other winners."
Stasko says he worked his way into the grower roll.
"I was a quality assurance manager at a pack house facility before coming to Orangeline, more or less there for a couple of months and got a good background in the industry seeing what it takes to produce quality produce," says Stasko. "I want to be on the other end of actually growing it and actually producing the product that I was grading through every day."
An undated photo of peppers produced by Orangeline Farms in Leamington. (Photo courtesy of www.zinghealthyfoods.com)
Orangeline Farms and their brand Zing Healthy Foods is something he and his partner want to continue to take in new directions.
"We put an emphasis on being different than everyone else, we put a lot of hard work into research and development and we grow upwards of 60 different varieties of peppers as well as inside and outside strawberries," he says. "Not many people are doing what we're doing in the industry and we'll continue to push forward."
Orangeline Farms is located on Essex Rd. 14 near Hwy. 77 in Leamington.
—with files from AM800's Rob Hindi