Home and Garden show this weekend

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Chris Olson / The Sun The Jamestown Civic Center’s floor is ready for vendors in preparation for the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce’s Home and Garden Show.

Talk about it

Proponents of a proposed lettuce-growing operation for Jamestown will promote their project at the annual Home and Garden Show this weekend.

The show, organized by the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce, runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday in the Jamestown Civic Center, 212 Third Ave. SW. There is room for 86 vendors on the floor of the civic center and an area for seminars.

Lance Brower and Steve Froehlich from Endless Harvest will talk about their controlled environment agricultural lettuce project at 1 p.m. Saturday.

In December the organizers of Endless Harvest came before the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. Executive Board looking for a $2 million loan to build a greenhouse near Jamestown. Endless Harvest currently has a growing facility in Grasston, Minn.

Brower said Wednesday he and Froehlich will talk about the benefits of growing lettuce in a controlled environment.

“In the field it takes 45 days for a head of lettuce to go from seed to harvest,” Brower said. “In our facility we can cut it down to 20 days.”

Another benefit is the lettuce grown using less water than in a field planting — 150 gallons per head versus one gallon per head — and the final product isn’t exposed to outside bacteria.

“We are looking forward to talking to people at the show,” Brower said.

Chamber Executive Director Felicia Sargeant said almost all of the vendor area is leased out for the show this year.

“The Civic Center floor will be filled, let me put it that way,” she said.

This is Sargeant’s first time organizing the show. She said she had concerns about organizing the Home and Garden Show about a month after the chamber’s annual Awards Dinner. Sargeant said she has learned how well the chamber’s staff and volunteers work together to make these events happen.

“Because it’s a long-standing event and I learned the pieces fall together easier than I thought they would,” she said. “We took a look at how things come together and tried to make things run more efficient. Also, we have a great group of volunteers here at the chamber.”

Today is setup day and Sargeant and the chamber staff will be at the Civic Center preparing the show for opening day.

“We are expecting about 3,000 people over the weekend,” she said.

Sun reporter Chris Olson can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by email at colson@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, event