GEORGE — Before you walk into her greenhouse to see her tomatoes, Margo Anderson, reminds you that it’s warm and humid inside. You probably won’t need your winter coat.

You see, while the rest of us are singing “Let it Snow!” Margo Anderson perspires as she tends young tomato plants in her warm, humid greenhouse.

Anderson, the co-owner of Low Gap Produce near George, starts tomato seeds in December, a time when growing tomatoes is far away from most people’s minds. For Anderson, though, the timing is perfect. The plants grow in the greenhouse through the winter and into spring. Tomatoes, which are green now in February, ripen in late March. By April, Anderson has enough tomatoes to sell commercially.

An accountant for 13 years, the 2005 move to tomato grower is one that Anderson said is relaxing and gets her “out of the chaos” of everyday life. Anderson said she and her sister, Cherylynn Knutson decided on growing tomatoes when Anderson made the move from Oregon to George to be closer to family after the death of their mother.

Anderson learned the trade after attending a CropKing seminar. CropKing sells greenhouses and greenhouse systems along with everything a grower needs to start and maintain a crop. Despite the cost of the system — Anderson and her family spent $250,000 to $300,000 to start the operation — she said the system is worth it. She said she still calls CropKing customer service when growing and greenhouse problems arise.

The two-dome greenhouse sits next to rows and rows of apple orchards, the other family business. With up to 1,440 plants, Anderson grows more than 43,000 pounds of tomatoes a year, tomatoes that are full of flavor in midspring, she said.

The premium tomatoes, mostly a variety of beefsteak called “Trust,” are grown hydroponically — without soil. And without soil, said Anderson, diseases and pests are less common. “I run this pesticide-free. ... I use beneficials — bugs that eat bad bugs,” she said, and added that she also uses certified organic chemicals. ... I think I can get the product people are interested in without paying for all the certification from the government.”

She starts the seeds in rock wool, which helps support the plants’ root systems. When they’re ready, Anderson transplants them into buckets filled with pearlite. Instead of soil and fertilizers, she feeds them with a mix of calcium, potassium, zinc and magnesium, “all the things you’d find in a vitamin,” she said. In the winter, Anderson turns on the greenhouse’s lights at 1 a.m., making sure the plants get 16-hour “days.” With in-floor heat, the greenhouse manages to keep the root temperature at 72 degrees. The inside temperature is kept between 72 and 76 degrees with about 85 percent humidity, even on the coldest days. It’s the hottest ones — in midsummer — that are harder to control. When temperatures reach 120 degrees outside, Anderson said the inside is 90 degrees, a bit too hot for perfect tomatoes.

Anderson’s tomatoes, picked when ripe, suffered last year. It wasn’t the weather, it was the economy. “The economy really hurt us last year,” she said. “It should have been pulling its weight, but because of the economy, it didn’t.

“I love the production of it,” Anderson said. “... It’s a product I don’t think is really good out there in grocery stores. They’re picked green. To me, when you have flavor, that’s when you have nutrients. If you don’t have flavor, you don’t have the nutrients; then you’re just eating cardboard.”

Anderson said her biggest competitors are cheap tomatoes grown in Florida or Mexico that are picked when green. “They’re just cardboard,” she said. “That’s what kills us: price.”

Last year, the first year Anderson expected to turn a profit, she couldn’t sell many of her tomatoes. Instead she ended up giving them away. Anderson said she put boxes of tomatoes out in front of her home and told neighbors and local agricultural workers to come by to pick up the free tomatoes. “At least it’s feeding somebody,” she said of giving the tomatoes away.

Additionally, Anderson had to lay off her one full-time employee. This year, she anticipates needing help from her husband with the harvest.

“I take pride in what I grow,” Anderson said. “I don’t gouge anybody. If I sell everything, I’ll make money. If I don’t, I won’t.”

This year, though, Anderson is hopeful that the economy will recover enough that what she hoped for last year comes to fruition. “I’m hoping that this year everybody will get back on board eating fruits and vegetables,” she said. “This isn’t a money-maker. It’s a love thing. It’s not get rich quick. It’s supposed to make a living off of it.”

Though she had to let her one employee go last year, Anderson hopes to expand the business and find more outlets in which to sell the tomatoes.

Currently, she sells tomatoes through produce distributor Charlie’s Produce; Top Food & Drug and Haggen stores throughout the state, including the Top Food in East Wenatchee; at the Moses Lake Farmers Market; White Trail Produce in Quincy; Colonial Market, RiverShark Pub and ScaleHouse Cafe in George; and to Visconti’s restaurants in Wenatchee and Leavenworth.

Anderson is also exploring expansion to arugula and romaine lettuce growing for Visconti’s. She’s testing the plants now in her greenhouse.

“This is an addictive business,” Anderson said. “You get frustrated, as with any job, but you can’t wait until the next season.”

Rochelle Feil Adamowsky: 664-7153

feil@wenatcheeworld.com