When we keep our plants protected inside glass structures, there are a variety of factors we can control: temperature, pests, and humidity.

Glass allows the greatest amount of light transmission from the sun, allowing our plants to be bathed in one of the world’s best natural resources — sunlight. Using hot water boilers, we are able to control the temperature through the seasons, whether it is warm or cold outside. This means we are able to grow produce for an extended season (February to November) unlike regular field crop grown outdoors. Unpredictable weather patterns can greatly injure plants, especially plants that are delicate like pepper plants. The surrounding glass acts as a barrier from the cold, wind, rain, and snow.

We try our very best to use little to no pesticides. We treat pests naturally, with other pests. For example, to keep out aphids, we introduce good insects to the environment.

Humidity is controlled by the plants. By efficiently irrigating the crop throughout the day, we are able to maintain a comfortable atmosphere.

We get our plants from a greenhouse that specializes in raising young plants, located in the Fraser Valley. After they are seeded and have grown for six weeks, they are shipped to us and we set them out in our greenhouses.

We sell our peppers through the company BC Hot House. Our peppers can be found in Costco and Safeway, as well as many other grocers. We do not sell any products directly from the greenhouse.

Contrary to popular belief, bell peppers do not change from green, to yellow, to orange, to red. All peppers start off as green peppers and as they ripen, they turn to the colour the plant is genetically. When you see a yellow bell pepper, it is as ripe as it will be. It will never turn orange or red. Although all peppers will begin as green, the green ones you see at the grocery store are unripe red peppers. We choose to pick the unripe red peppers because red is the sweetest. Therefore, an unripe red pepper will be sweeter than an unripe yellow or orange.