Oberon Produce owner Horst Sjostedt said his first batch of lovingly-grown tomatoes should be ripe and ready for picking just after Easter but, like a beautiful lady, one never knows exactly when they will be ready.

The town watched the large greenhouse grow at the industrial estate, and it is now full of 5000 plants, which are expected to produce around 500kg of tomatoes in the first week of harvest, jumping to two to three tonnes per week after that, producing around 100 tonnes of tomatoes per year.

When first coming to Oberon to begin growing tomatoes, Horst had great hopes that Oberon would be an ideal place for the business, with excellent light, water, access to power, infrastructure and employment.

“It is always exciting, never knowing what you will find,” he said.

It turns out that Oberon has exceeded even Horst's expectations.

In particular, Horst is most impressed with Oberon's water.

“It is very pure. The dam water here is one of the best I have ever seen. It is almost rain water,” he said.

Horst said the natural light in Oberon is also perfect for growing tomatoes, translating to about 1100 watts of energy per square metre on sunny days.

With decades of tomato growing around the world up his sleeve, Horst has the meticulous care and nurturing of these tomatoes down to a fine art.

Every aspect of the tomatoes’ environment is monitored, including air temperature, soil temperature, moisture and humidity, and everything, including timing of roof vents being open, supply of minerals to and irrigation of the plants is computerised so they are in optimum conditions at all times.

“You have control of everything,” Horst said.

Horst is also dedicated to reducing his carbon footprint. One of his efforts involves using the exhausted carbon dioxide left over from using natural gas to heat the green house. The carbon dioxide, instead of just being released into the atmosphere, is released into the greenhouse to be used by the tomato plants and converted to oxygen.

and building more greenhouses out of town.

There will be a formal event held when the tomatoes are ripe in around two weeks, and local supermarket owners will be invited to come and pick the first tomatoes for their store.