In this photo my sister Sonja and I are standing between the tomato plants in our parents’ greenhouse. My name is Gaby and I’m from the Netherlands. Growing and eating tomatoes is my passion 😍  I've been working on it all my life.

Both my father and grandfather were tomato growers. You could say that growing tomatoes is in our genes. My grandfather, Grabel (I was named after him) was a farmer's son who bought a piece of land in Zoeterwoude (Netherlands) after he married. In 1950 he started his nursery there, beginning by cultivating various types of leaf and cabbage crops. Little by little he moved from growing things outdoors to cultivating tomatoes in greenhouses. My grandfather and grandmother had 6 children. Their eldest son Aad (my father) took over the company in 1984.

My father modernized the greenhouses, growing tomatoes and in the autumn chrysanthemums as well. From an early age I wanted to be a tomato grower and often I could be found in between the tomatoes. In 2000 my father built a new greenhouse and specialized in tomatoes, which brought an end to growing chrysanthemums in the autumn. That was also when I had finished my training in botany and management and began working in my parents’ company. For 10 years we cultivated various types of vine tomatoes.

Due to the increase in scale that has been going on in Dutch greenhouse horticulture for years and is still going on, the profit margins on tomatoes became very small. Only very large operations could earn a decent living. We were not big enough so we decided to sell the company.

I set off working as a crop protection specialist for a supplier in greenhouse horticulture. After some in-house training I advised growers on how best to combat diseases and pests.

Meanwhile, I had always been collecting old tomato varieties, but now that I had more time, I focused on breeding very small tomato varieties that were suitable for growing in pots.

Then I started thinking, wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could grow their own tomatoes at home? That idealed to the actual creation of the Farmzy® tomato family.

After 5 years I had developed a nice compact tomato plant, with a distinct strong leaf, and gave it the name Farmzy® Little Red Tree. I was itching to get back to growing tomato plants again, so I resigned from the job at the end of 2016, rented a greenhouse and planted the first 100,000 tomatoes in pots. Soon, new varieties followed: Farmzy® Sweet King, Farmzy® Red Love and Farmzy® Sweet Princess.

Nowadays it’s my pleasure to work with a great team on fulfilling our mission. We want everyone to grow their own tomatoes at home, because home-grown tomatoes taste the best.