Jennifer Lawson:
CLASS OF 1979
Severna Park High SchoolClass of 1979
Severna park, MD
Jennifer's Story
Jennifer is from Severna Park, Maryland. Jennifer's schools include Severna Park High School. Jennifer later attended Tufts University. Jennifer works(ed) at Hummingbird Farms, Inc..
Jennifer's interests include Science. Music Jennifer likes includes Dirty Names, Furthur.
One of Jennifer's favorite quotes is:"For more than 20 years, Jennifer Sturmer has dedicated herself to producing red, ripe, amazingly flavorful tomatoes in an environmentally friendly way. Her tomatoes are hand picked to ensure the highest quality, ripest fruit. Grown hydroponically and without the use of harsh chemicals, the integrity of the fruit is maintained from her plants to your table.
Jennifer demonstrates the remarkable efficiency of hydroponic gardeningâintensive crop production where soil is replaced by an inert growing medium, rockwool, and a nutrient solution for irrigation.
She grows about 17,000 plants on a mere 1.75 acres. She plants twice each year for two crops. The first harvested from October to January and the second from March to July, yielding up to 11 tons of tomatoes per week. She and her husband and business partner , Rick, have evolved a strategy that helps them stand up against the competition. They not only use hydroponics to make efficient use of valuable resources but also use predator insects and organic soaps and oils to control pests and disease.
Beefsteak tomatoes are her biggest seller. But they also have expanded into ...Expand for more
other varieties, like heirloom, cherry, and red, yellow, and orange clusters, to name a few. âWe diversified and that niche served us well,â says Jennifer. âAnd our typical customer looks for us because we are picking the tomatoes red, ripe with flavor. We have that edge.â".
More about Jennifer:"Jennifer Sturmer originally studied biology when she was a student at Tufts University. Farming hadnât even been a consideration when she was approached by a business partner with the opportunity to run a hydroponic tomato greenhouse. She says opportunities like these donât come by often, so she jumped at the chance. It worked out that her natural curiosity as a biologist would lend itself perfectly to what she calls, âA huge experiment that really matters.â
Sturmer and her husband produce two crops of tomatoes each year using hydroponics at Hummingbird Farms in Ridgely, Maryland. âEverything is done by hand,â she says, from picking the tomatoes to packing them. The tomatoes at Hummingbird, Sturmer says, are picked ripe the same day they are put on the trucks to be shipped to grocers across Maryland, at stores such as Giant, Whole Foods, Roots, Grauls, and Balducciâs.
Her customers seem to appreciate this level of detail and dedication. Sturmer says that she has received phone calls from happy Marylanders who want to express their thanks for such a superior product that also allows them to support the local economy.
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